Likelihood to Recommend There are not a lot of competitors to compare this product with, but ActiveDocs holds its own as a very useful software for the need. I recommend doing a demo to see how the process works, but it's rather streamlined and easy to create a template and produce a document from it.
Read full review Great for Technical Users. It's great for people a bit more on the technical side. It allows developers to quickly create and modify reporting templates without having to modify source code or make updates to a repository. Potentially Difficult for Non-Technical Users. Making substantial changes to the data portions of reporting can be a bit difficult for non-technical users. While Windward's tools for this are great, it still requires an understanding of the database schema which not all users will have.
Read full review Pros The User Interface was pleasant to use. it is a very intuitive software the available templates help and facilitate the day-to-day work Read full review Native Office output -- not nested tables and/or horrible RTF like other tools generate. Ease of use -- once the data sources are set up, creating tables is as simple as drag and drop (okay, maybe not exactly that simple, but you can certainly create a table of data using drag and drop, then format it and manipulate it as needed). Responsive developers and support -- when I've had questions, they've been addressed VERY quickly and professionally. Read full review Cons Template could be better by adding features that make it easier for users. Some features are missing like image editing, and SEO management. Read full review It is hard to pick out the tags if they are mixed in with a block of text. Using report variables in select statements causes the selection list of available fields to not show anything. The color themes do not match the office selection and it feels very disconnected. Read full review Usability Very good usability overall. Any user can pick this up and run with it.
HotDocs , the closest competitor, has similar end-user usability, but from a designer of templates perspective, ActiveDocs definitely has the edge in this regard. I would recommend this for any company that mass produces documents from templates as deliverables.
Read full review For the most part, the Windward report designer is intuitive for our users; but there are a few areas where it is less intuitive. In these cases, our users need to search Windwards support wiki site, or even contact their support technicians. This can also be due to the short time we've had Windward and our lack of knowledge.
Read full review Performance The software overall is very excellent. It responds quickly and produces documents well. The integration with systems makes data input easy. Questions can be designed to allow further expansion of template creation/customization. The rules section is very useful for complicated If/Than/Else style templates. Although experience and training help, the software is very user-friendly out of the box.
Read full review Support Rating ActiveDocs can be a considerably complex product because your use cases can be potentially endless. In our experience, when we have come across a problem or issue with the product ActiveDoc's support has always responded to our queries within 24 hours. Support is only provided via email in 95% of cases. Each year your support and maintenance includes support hours. These are used when you contact support and your issue is not found to be a bug or problem with the product (completely fair and understandable). When we've identified or discovered bugs (mainly with the latest version of Word) it is patched by the next release. They typically release about 4-5 updates per year.
Read full review Support is something they take pride in. Once an issue is raised, they are quick to respond and provide details on a fix. No complaints on support here.
Read full review Alternatives Considered In relation to other software that have a functionality similar to ActiveDocs, they don't even compare in relation to the interface, I didn't use all the software available on the market, but the ones I used and I can compare, ActiveDocs is without a doubt the best among them. We really likes the interface.
Read full review We evaluated several other products to integrate with our new software, but Windward Studios was an obvious standout above the majority. Other applications required some level of software development knowledge and experience to create templates and a much steeper learning curve. After consideration of ease of use, as well as a cost-comparison between different products, Windward Studios was the most suitable product to meet our needs.
Read full review Return on Investment ActiveDocs allows us to create, edit and validate any type of content quickly and with no coding skills. Easy and quick editing. Really flexible and simple to set up Helped us achieve a much higher level of efficiency in our daily operations. Read full review As a fully integrated solution, the ROI is impacted when a client gets stickier with our solution because they see the benefit of Windward. Support has been fantastic for our development team so that as we integrate the solutions we have a clear and clean design. Read full review ScreenShots Windward Core Screenshots