FS Pro 2020

It’s already a bit of cliché for marketing people to quote the title of an essay Bill Gates wrote in 1996, where he proclaimed that “content is king”. Still, it’s a pretty cool motto, so it’s understandable why it became a cliché. But in order to get to the point of this review, we need to take a closer look at that headline.

It would be almost impossible for content to be king if a lot of attention wasn’t given to the way content was presented. Many of you wouldn’t be reading this article if it was displayed as a block of text, with never-ending paragraphs and no subheadings. What I’m trying to say is that the form is just as important as the substance for the online reader. And when shaping content, FS Pro 2020 can be a useful tool.

Basically, FS Pro 2020 is an extension for Microsoft Word that allows you to implement information mapping in longer articles. If you’re not familiar with the concept, information mapping is a method of writing long, informative and well-researched articles in a way that is very accessible and clear to the reader.

Every point of interest of the article is neatly condensed under a subheading which the reader can easily find, and the figures of speech are kept to a minimum. It’s obvious that you don’t need to apply this technique when writing a personal blog post or a short review, but what if you need to write an informative article about beekeeping or a manual for a complex synthesizer?

Once you install it, FS Pro 2020 will manifest as a new ribbon in Microsoft Word’s interface. With the new buttons you’ll be able to add maps and blocks to the document, which you can view as the small chapters of your complex article. It will be a lot easier to write about one topic at a time then letting yourself get constantly distracted by the big picture.

You can add images and tables according to your needs and easily navigate through the complex structure. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it “vital” for any content writer, but FS Pro 2020 can be helpful, and the unobtrusive way it becomes part of MS Word is also a plus.