Purchasing User Seats and Storage Space

When you run out of user seats or storage space in Central, you can purchase more. You do not need to contact MadCap Software to do this; instead, you can purchase user seats and storage space directly from the Central interface.

If you are working in trial mode, this process will let you buy a Central subscription. Once the purchase is made, you will no longer be in trial mode, but rather full mode.

Permission Required?

For this activity, you must have the following permission setting:

For more information about permissions, see Setting User Permissions or Setting Team Permissions.

User Types

  • Author An author is an individual who works in projects, creating and editing content. This person can also be the "owner" of a review when they send topics and snippets that need to be reviewed by others (see Reviews). Owners can assign other reviewers with the author seat type and permission to manage reviews. Authors can monitor reviews, access grids for information and progress, and create review packages directly in Central. Along with the reviewers, the author can open and edit files in the Review Editor. Authors with the appropriate permissions can send a project out for translation. They can also create and edit content in Central via the project Files page (see Step 2: Authoring).
  • Subject Matter Expert A subject matter expert (SME) is an individual whose main purpose in Central is to review topics and/or snippets sent by an author. Therefore, a SME only sees the parts of the Central user interface that are necessary for reviews.
  • Viewer A viewer is an individual whose only role is to view live private output. These users do not even need to belong to your company. However, they must set up a Central password; not to access Central itself, but to see live private outputs with which they are associated. Viewers can also see live output that is not set as private, just as anyone in the general public can. So if you do not need private output, you do not need to invite viewers to the license.

How to Purchase User Seats or Storage Space

  1. At the top of Central, click your user name, then License Settings.
  2. On the left side of the dialog, click Billing, and complete the fields to add a credit card. Then click Save, and in the confirmation dialog click Proceed.
  3. On the left, select Purchasing.

  4. Depending on whether you want to add Storage, Authors, and/or Subject Matter Experts, click in the appropriate Add field and enter a number (viewer seats are free and unlimited). Storage space is sold in increments of 10 GB, with the first 10 being free. As you enter numbers, Central calculates the total cost and displays at the bottom of the dialog (scroll down in the dialog to see it).

    Note If you are working in trial mode, you are granted an unlimited amount of storage space for that period. When you purchase the license, the amount of space entered must be at least as much as the amount you’re already using in trial mode. If you do not want to purchase that much space, you must first clean up your existing space (e.g., delete builds, projects, or other data taking up unnecessary space) before continuing with the purchase. See Deleting Builds and Deleting Projects.

    Note If you are working in trial mode, you are granted an unlimited number of seats for that period. When you purchase the license, your number of seats you enter must be at least as high as the number you already added to the license in trial mode. If you do not want to purchase that many seats, you must first delete some users from the license before continuing with the purchase. See Deleting Users.

  5. Click Continue.
  6. Click Purchase and OK.

Note If you need to cancel your subscription, you can simply remove your credit card information from the system.