What Is Adobe's Project Helix?

For many people in the Adobe industry, Helix is the hot, new buzzword. And, much like the after-credit scenes in Marvel movies, a lot of people are talking about it, but no one really knows what it means. Fortunately, Hoodoo Digital partners with Adobe as a beta tester for their new products, and we’ve had the opportunity to work directly with early versions of Helix, explore some of its capabilities, and learn how this new product from Adobe takes a different approach to content authoring.  

Helix is a new take on content management systems that allows users to create content quickly and launch fast sites rapidly. At its most basic, it is a templated content management system (CMS) that pulls website content directly from Word and Google Docs. The author will use tables and tags in Word/Google Docs to tell Helix what the content is and where it should go. Helix will use that information to populate the appropriate pages. 

For many companies that use Word or Google Docs as part of their content development and review process, this will allow them to skip a step during content authoring on their website. They can write and review the content in their Word/Google Docs, and then sync with Helix. This entirely removes the need to copy and paste the content from Word/Google Docs into a CMS.  

One of the primary benefits we see in Helix is that it allows authors to produce content in programs they are already familiar with. They don’t need detailed training on a new CMS – they can simply use a system that they already know and understand. Ultimately, Helix could be an interesting solution for simpler websites that have a lot of static content – though it is not a static content generator. Helix renders content immediately, meaning that your site’s content and functionality will update immediately upon syncing, allowing you to avoid a lengthy rebuilding process.  

If Helix seems simple, that’s because it is, and with this simplicity, we have a new technology that makes content authoring easier than ever before. Anyone on your team who knows standard technologies, like Word and Google Docs (so...everybody), can begin authoring your site content with minimal training. Additionally, they can skip the copy-paste-monotony by drafting, reviewing, and populating website content from a single document. Helix is an exciting, new technology, and we’re eager to see the variety of use cases that will arise from this innovative approach to content authoring. 

We will continue to share  information with you as Helix makes its debut onto the main stage of Adobe products. In the mean time, if you have additional questions then you can check out the list of FAQs that Adobe has released for more information.