Understanding Author-it's Architecture

In Author-it's single-user Desktop Edition, all program components are stored on your desktop computer. This includes the separate Author-it Administrator program that you use for maintenance tasks, such as repairing and compacting your Library.

Author-it's Workgroup Edition and Enterprise Edition allow sharing of work across a network to multiple client computers, but they do not have a server application component. We've found it's simpler to store only the shared library and template files on a server, avoiding the local Windows registration and shared component issues that crop up when you're running an application from the server. The Author-it application is installed separately on each client workstation. Record locking in the database is done on the basis of each user's login details and the time recorded on their client computer's system clock.

Author-it's Workgroup Edition and Enterprise Edition use a distributed client architecture:

• Only Shared data files including Library databases and various templates are stored on a server.
• Each client computer has its own copy of the program files.
• The separate Author-it Administrator program that you use for maintenance tasks and to manage Author-it's user security and other settings, is installed on the Administrator's computer.

Collaborative Authoring Delivers Results Faster

Collaborative authoring is one of Author-it's real strengths - our customers tell us that sharing the work across the whole development team gets their product to market quicker and cheaper, with no hold ups while they wait for the documentation to be completed.