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RE: advice for single-sourcing ( Framemaker + Webworks)
Subject:RE: advice for single-sourcing ( Framemaker + Webworks) From:"Steve Arrants" <steve_arrants -at- sonic -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 12 Jun 2001 11:02:27 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-63935 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-63935 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Swallow,
William
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 10:50 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: VGilliotte -at- MEGA -dot- com
Subject: RE: advice for single-sourcing ( Framemaker + Webworks)
:: I haven't seen much single-sourced documentation
:: that I thought was successful.
>How would you tell if what you are looking at was a successful
>single-sourced project or a successful stand-alone project? You can't.
>Therefore you may have seen both, but you have only been able to recognize
>the bad.
By successful, I guess I mean successful for the user. Is it usable? Is it
valuable?
I can tell whether it is single-sourced or stand-alone when someone I'm
interviewing shows me samples and talks about the valiant, two-year struggle
to get single-sourcing in place, and what I'm looking at is a mess.
BZZZZ--that candidate IS the weakest link. Goodbye.
The time and effort I've seen many organizations put towards a single-source
solution could have been used more efficiently to produce good, usable
documentation in print and online. I'm not saying that single-sourcing is
impossible. But it involves a lot more than a tool or a set of macros or
styles--which is what a lot of writers I've talked to think is more
important that looking at the big picture, costs, and the like.
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