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Windward Core

Windward Core

Overview

What is Windward Core?

Windward’s low-code document generation solution embeds into any application, enabling users to populate data-smart documents within the familiar landscape of Microsoft Office. It's a solution from PDFTron since the April 2021 acquisition.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Users have found AutoTag Designer to be a valuable tool for building reports both for internal use and for customers, particularly when …
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Windward Opinion

9 out of 10
February 15, 2019
Incentivized
It's used across several departments. It allows us to design reports, including a big variety of data: Text, tables, images. It has a …
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Pricing

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Windward Hub Standard

$19.00

Cloud
Per User, Per Month (10 user minimum)*

Windward Hub Premium

$49.00

Cloud
Per User, Per Month (10 user minimum)*

Windward Core Pro

$547.00

On Premise
per month*

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.windwardstudios.com/price/h…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $190 per month
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Product Details

What is Windward Core?

Embed Windward in an application to deliver a document automation component.

The vendor promises the following capabilities and differentiators:

Visually Outstanding Designs

Users can create designs and attractive layouts.

Smart Document Logic

With a conditional logic feature, users can personalize the content of their document to suit a wide range of audience.

Easy Template Creation

The vendor says their platform is fast and user friendly: in under an hour, any ordinary business professional can have their templates completed.

Do it Faster for Less

Users do not have to spend a lot on developing templates and documents even if they are trying to get them done fast. The vendor says their software can simplify the process of creating tailor-made templates and documents which will let you significantly save time and money.


Windward Core Features

  • Supported: Visually Stunning Designs
  • Supported: Smart Document Logic
  • Supported: Massive Time Savings
  • Supported: Incredibly Intuitive Interface
  • Supported: Streamlined Cost Savings

Windward Core Screenshots

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Windward Core Video

Document Automation Software for high-volume output in a familiar user-friendly design environment (MS Office). Windward Studios offers world-class document automation tool using familiar tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint. You don't have to know code or be a developer to de...
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Windward Core Competitors

Windward Core Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac, Anything that has Java
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Windward’s low-code document generation solution embeds into any application, enabling users to populate data-smart documents within the familiar landscape of Microsoft Office. It's a solution from PDFTron since the April 2021 acquisition.

Windward Core starts at $190.

Docmosis and TIBCO Jaspersoft are common alternatives for Windward Core.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.1.

The most common users of Windward Core are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

Windward Core Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)20%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)40%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)40%
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(31)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Users have found AutoTag Designer to be a valuable tool for building reports both for internal use and for customers, particularly when they require native Microsoft Office output. By using AutoTag, users have experienced a significant improvement in the efficiency and ease of report creation, as it eliminates the need for manual data collection and editing. The Windward Document Generation Software is highly regarded for its ability to aggregate and display data from various sources, with the added benefit of being able to extend functionality through code. This has led to its integration into cloud-based solutions for financial institutions, allowing clients to create custom documents that meet their specific needs. One of the standout features of Windward Reporting solutions is their user-friendly nature, making it easy for non-technical individuals to edit and maintain reports. It has also been selected as a replacement for Oracle Reports due to its flexibility in changing text and graphics content on correspondence. The Windward Reporting engine is widely used for generating sales proposals, presentations, orders, and reports with reliable recreation of documents at runtime. For those with special requirements in report elaboration, the Windward Java Reporting Engine has been highly valued for its rapid performance across all types of reports. The AutoTag Template Designer has proven useful across multiple departments as it aids in building and fixing templates while providing basic troubleshooting and enhancements. It offers an ideal solution for users looking to create and modify custom report templates based on their specific requirements with minimal time and effort. Windward Studios stands out as a critical component of Loan Automation Solutions, facilitating document and report generation with minimal coding required. It has also made a significant impact on the Baker Hill NextGen solution by enabling the communication of critical information for banks and credit unions. Moreover, its usage extends to formatting critical text reports for airplane cockpits, ensuring accurate and reliable information delivery. With Windward Studios, SaaS administrators and clients gain the ability to create and modify custom report templates tailored precisely to their needs, thus reducing time and effort. A government agency even uses Windward to generate customized flight plans for pilots worldwide and design templates for outgoing communication with their government clients. The software has enabled users to create templates without any technical knowledge, resulting in saved development time. In the finance and insurance industry, a company leverages Windward to generate various documents such as insurance declarations and certificates. To accomplish this, business analysts at the company utilize Windward's report design with Microsoft Office products to create templates for their source systems. They also integrate Windward's RESTful API with multiple source systems and third-party software. Another notable use case of Windward's software is its adoption by a software development team for downloading data from tables with different formatting. The team finds Windward to be efficient and reliable in this task. Additionally, a document generation solutions provider partners with Windward to deliver tailored solutions to their clients, including loan documents, insurance letters, and proposal generation. This partnership highlights the versatility of Windward in catering to various industries and document types. Apart from its broad application, Windward is widely used across several departments within companies, enabling them to design reports with text, tables, and images. This flexibility in design allows users to export reports to Word and PDF formats seamlessly. Notably, Windward plays a crucial role in the origination and servicing phase of loans for generating letters by capturing and processing data received from USD. Its integration into the company's process ensures the creation of accurate and finalized products by efficiently incorporating data into the documents.

Overall, users have found AutoTag Designer and Windward's Document Generation Software to be valuable tools in building reports, generating custom documents, automating processes, and facilitating communication across industries such as finance, government agencies, aviation, software development, and more. The user-friendly interface and flexibility provided by Windward's solutions have resulted in increased efficiency, reduced manual effort, and enhanced customization options for non-technical individuals.

Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface: Users have consistently praised the intuitive and user-friendly interface of Windward Reports, mentioning that they find it easy to navigate and manipulate tables using drag and drop functionality. Many users appreciate the simplicity of the interface, which allows them to quickly create and complete tasks efficiently.

Responsive Support Team: Users highly appreciate the responsiveness of Windward's support team. They mention that their questions and concerns are addressed promptly and professionally, leading to a positive experience. The support team provides quick assistance whenever needed.

Seamless Integration with Microsoft Office: Users highlight the major advantage of Windward Reports being seamlessly integrated within the Microsoft Office suite. They appreciate being able to leverage familiar features from Office products, such as Word, to easily create visually appealing reports. This integration enables users to work efficiently without requiring extensive technical knowledge or additional software.

Limited Customizability: Some users have found the software to be limited in terms of customizability compared to other report tools they use, feeling restricted in their ability to tailor reports according to their specific needs.

Difficulties with Drag and Drop Feature: Several users have mentioned that the drag and drop feature is not intuitive as they are unable to drag and drop individual fields, causing inconvenience and frustration during report creation.

Issues with PDF Output Accuracy: Some users have experienced issues with the accuracy of the PDF output, noting that minor tweaks are often required for it to match the original report exactly.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 25)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Handles data from disparate sources.
  • Uses well-adopted Microsoft Word as the template designer interface.
  • Ability to integrate with existing applications.
  • Ability to extend functionality.
  • Reusable component creation.
  • User friendly error messages.
  • PDF output sometimes not exact and requires some minor tweaks.
  • Perhaps more out of the box chart options.
Michael Horrocks | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
  • Leveraging the data sets within Baker Hill NextGen to maximize communication of the data for external and internal purposes.
  • With the latest releases to the ability to sort and control the flow of data, clients will have a better representation of the information needed to make business decisions.
  • I really have not found a big set of gaps with Windward. They are accessible all the time for any suggestions.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Windward report designer makes it very easy for our business analyst to create the report and/or document template needed for our business needs.
  • Windward RESTful report engine makes it easy for us to integrate with other systems.
  • Windward has excellent support, either with their wiki site or their support technicians.
  • When we first purchased Windward, their support for JSON data sources seemed to be lacking.
September 26, 2019

Report automation made easy

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • User-friendly, amazing UI integrated into Microsoft products, no steep learning curve.
  • Generates large and complex reports at great speeds.
  • Windward has a great and very responsive support team. Every request or question will be answered in a timely manner.
  • Support for multiple data sources.
  • Lack of documentation regarding the Windward Java Reporting Engine (Linux implementation).
  • Error messages could be more elaborate/precise.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The ease of using Microsoft Word to create templates is second to none. Most other template engines require a good degree of technical knowledge.
  • The feature where you can generate code previews through Microsoft Word is very convenient.
  • Windward support is very quick and helpful
  • Windward's PODs (partial templates) are very useful for multiple reports that contain common sections.
  • Maybe could improve the documentation, although Windward Studios support is always there. A lot of the links on Google to the documentation are obsolete.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It is very easy to get up and running to see it work.
  • There are numerous options for data sources.
  • Technical support is very responsive and helpful.
  • It would be very helpful if it was possible for tag logic to handle an array of data. Without it, the syntax can become very verbose when there are multiple logical conditions to check.
  • Most tags are only built to handle a single piece of data so it can be a little confusing when a query only appears to return 1 record.
Bharati Sadhwani-Tully | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • A document can be created in many different formats, like Word or Excel, and be output into many different formats, like PDF, Word, Excel.
  • The document is generated based on the data and the document template you provide. The template can have conditions to format what is shown based on the data, and still retain the powerful formatting of the platform like Microsoft Word.
  • Windward Support is very responsive when we reach out with questions or problems.
  • The documentation for the Wiki could use more examples of how to use the functions.
  • We tend not to upgrade very often. When we do upgrade there can be significant feature changes that necessitate template rework.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Windward handles multiple reporting template formats using tools people are already familiar with. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are particularly useful for us.
  • Windward has great technical support. Questions and issues are always answered in a timely manner.
  • Windward has multiple pricing options which were helpful for us in getting started.
  • I would like to see more organized and up to date documentation and videos for setup and training.
  • It depends on your particular setup and requirements, but our particular setup required a separate Windows server to run the Restful Engine. A cloud-based web-service that Windward maintains would be preferred.
  • While Windward's Microsoft based tools are great, they can be a bit intimidating to non-programmers at first glance.
Greg Snyder | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Allow business users to modify and update report content without the need for engaging a software developer.
  • Create user-friendly, content-rich reports that help to support the dynamic data we wanted to present to the client.
  • We initially purchased Windward to help build reports related to disclosures to our clients. Windward was the perfect solution for solving this issue.
  • Some functions in Word related to graphics do not always translate when producing the Windward report. We have overcome these by tweaking the design of the report at times. This issue is more common on reports that have many graphics and complex layouts.
  • Some reports rendering to PDF to not render like the original report.
  • We have found it is important to stay current with upgrades. Sometimes a report would have to be reworked when moving up 3 o 4 version of the software.
February 15, 2019

Windward Opinion

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Managing well the tinyMce fields content
  • user friendly in the design
  • allow the export to word and PDF and is plugged to word
  • Supporting HTML 5 format.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Windward's Report Designer provides instant ease-of-use and a sense of familiarity by being integrated into Microsoft Word.
  • The overall application is fairly user-friendly and intuitive by itself, but Windward Studios also offers a full array of user guides, training sessions, videos, step-by-step tutorials, and other resources that allow users to truly learn and understand the program in order to utilize its full capabilities.
  • Windward Studios has truly unparalleled support. Every question or support request I've had has been responded to in a timely manner, and immediately addressed. Regardless of the complexity of the problem, they've been able to find a solution to generate the document output that I needed.
  • It would be greatly helpful if I were able to run two (or more) ForEach tags simultaneously.
  • The POD feature is great for applying identical template sections across multiple documents, but there should be a simpler/easier way to update it globally across every template.
  • The error messages could be more descriptive -- I sometimes get an error when generating the output and don't know exactly what's causing the problem.
February 07, 2019

Windward Studios Rocks

Randy McLachlan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easily integrates MS Word templates with database tables or views.
  • Generates high-quality output at great speeds.
  • Produces output in several formats for a variety of uses.
  • We had difficulty loading the jar file for the Java engine in our Oracle database. Calling reports using the command line worked fine.
Constantinos Tsiartas,  CIMP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
  • Design documents and reports with MS Office (WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT). This can be done by the business and not only be the IT. Template maintenance, which is usually mostly on content, can be done solely by business users.
  • Insert tags and business logic within documents to show/hide paragraphs depending on data or user input.
  • Integrates easily with 3rd party applications and it can also be used as the document and report generation engine of your software solution.
  • It can pull data from multiple sources (SQL, XML, OData, etc).
  • Better and more updated documentation. There is a wealth of functionality and the knowledge base does not reveal this much. You must be very specific in what you are looking for.
  • Web service consumption besides OData to pull data from other systems directly into the template would have taken Windward to another level.
  • User support in European timezones. :-)
Larry Grady | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • If you have an existing Word or Excel document that you need to populate with data, then Windward is the right product for this functionality. It will reliably recreate this document in the same format (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) or in PDF (there are other formats as well but this is what we use primarily).
  • The use of office documents as report templates allow us to have non-technical people submit reports to us and then we have a report writer who can tag the document for use in Windward. All of this is done without any specific programming knowledge other than AutoTag which is pretty easy to use. This allows us to free up valuable programming resources for other tasks.
  • The flexibility of Windward Reports allows us to generate data sources that are formatted around our business logic knowing that we don't have to worry about some rigid data specifications or requirements from our reporting tool. However, our data is structured so we're able to pull it into AutoTag and get exactly what we need for our reporting requirements.
  • I know we have wanted some more robust features in the powerpoint presentations, but to be honest we haven't looked at the update in the last two versions. So, a criticism of this wouldn't be fair because I'm not up to date on their more current PPT offerings.
  • One of the issues we've had in the past is getting the licensing correct. The licensing structure is a bit strict and can be a little unwieldy at times. Once it's set up we don't ever have issues, but when upgrading or migrating servers we've had issues in the past, and if you have licensing issue it can shut down reporting on your server until it is resolved. I will say that their support team is responsive and has always helped us to work through our issues. If I were recommending Windward to someone I would mention our problems with licensing so they would pay specific when setting up their configuration, but it wouldn't keep me from recommending their services.
Miguel Angel Merino Vega | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Fast and direct report engine, using friendly templates through an add-in for Microsoft Word.
  • Adequate support and documentation to ensure a quick integration
  • Your template designers dont need to learn Java at all. They can work through Microsoft Office
  • The learning curve can be a nuisance, considering that currently Jaspers is the antonomic engine for Java
  • There is a price (not so expensive) so yeah thats always a cons.
  • Many customers currently use Jaspers, so migration can become a point to consider
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Flexibility. The ability to modify the reporting engine to what you are exactly looking for and what you expect back.
  • Speed. Extremely quick page generation.
  • Overall it leave a very small footprint and does not burden too much on our system.
  • I found the API documentation to be rather lacking and descriptive.
  • Initial setup can be a little more complication due to the above confusing documentation.
Brent Rossow | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
  • Limited in terms of customizability -- this is a double-edged sword. Other report tools we use support anything from limited to incredibly complex JavaScript, for example, and we often use a combination of JavaScript and complex queries to pass and manipulate data. AutoTag can do some of this, but it wouldn't be our go-to solution for complex reporting.
  • Limited drag and drop -- while you can easily create tables with drag and drop, you can't drag and drop individual fields, which really isn't intuitive
September 23, 2015

This is the one!

Gregory Bosko | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Lets you easily pull in data points
  • Allows you to validate a query before saving it to make sure that it works correctly
  • Easy export to most common formats so you can test out your template with real-world data
  • When dealing with large queries, the system tends to slow down.
  • Nested for each queries have issues validating
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Allows for customization of existing templates
  • Connections to several types of data sources
  • Very intuitive in conjunction with the tutorials
  • Allow users to modify the Excel file while in the AutoTag editor. I find myself taking screen shots and referring to them.
Jenelle Cooper | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The set up of the product is fairly easy as long as you have the right version and license key. It's also fairly easy to transfer licenses between users.
  • Once you have the main queries down, the tagging of the template is fairly easy and you can reuse templates instead of starting from scratch each time.
  • If you are having issues with a template or a tag type- the help documentation provided is helpful to provide examples. The webinars are also a good stepping stone to get knowledge quickly.
  • Sometimes the formatting within the Microsoft Word documents can be tricky. That's where most of the time comes from is making sure the tags don't mess up the formatting of the actual template itself.
  • Error messages can be vague. For example if something is wrong with the query or a tag, it can be difficult to find the issue within the query or identify the offending tag easily. This means the whole template won't work because of one minor issue.
September 17, 2015

WindWard in my sails

Anthony Vengrofski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • AutoTag can easily be connected to virtually any data source. The wizard walks you through all the needed steps. This is very helpful in getting reports from multiple sources or departments.
  • WindWard has put together a Wiki based user guide and has the best tech support I have ever worked with. For the rare occasions that we get stuck trying to convert a report the help is plentiful.
  • AutoTag is built within the Office suite and is therefore able to leverage all the familiar features. This is very useful when you need to make reports useful and appealing.
  • 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.
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