Re: Building a web site for documentation

["Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

I am sure there are many issues you did not mention, but why not use PDF? It
already does all the stuff you identified and you get to single source from
Frame, so that when the workbook changes - and it will believe me, despite
what management may say - you just make the change and then PDF. You are
done. At a cost of about $300, if you don't have Acrobat full version. If
you have Frame and Acrobat full version now, then there is only the cost of
having someone convert to PDF - about an hour to do, about 2 hours to QA.
Even for my company, that is less than $150.

I have been part of WAY too many projects where there were multiple sources
and the entire project became a maintenance nightmare. Very easy to forget
to make changes in both places. And despite what your management is saying,
at some point they will have a contract that requires hard copy of the
workbook and you do NOT want to go from DreamWeaver to hard copy.

sharon

Sharon Burton-Hardin
Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Vice-president, Programs of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kane, Beth" <Beth -dot- Kane -at- ncslearn -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, 24 September, 2001 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: Building a web site for documentation


| We are in a similar situation! We were handed a 400-page FrameMaker-based
| workbook, which is used in classes. We are to write a proposal to convert
it
| to a Web site. The main reason: they say the workbook costs us $750K a
year
| to print and distribute (yes, we have a LOT of customers). Our experienced
| Web producer figures the Web version will cost $15,000 maximum to create.
|
| When the cost differential is that high, it overrides any other options
that
| customers might think they'd prefer. It's a no-brainer -- we really need
to
| do this, while being careful to make it highly usable. We think the
| customers will get used to it, and enjoy using the Web site. (Note: rather
| than calling it a Web site, as someone pointed out, perhaps it is
| technically an intranet, as it will have password access.)
|
| But this plan does NOT involve converting Frame to HTML. Here's the plan:
|
| We copy the text and paste it into DreamWeaver, then reformat it for
| usability in a browser. All graphics (and there are many) will be reduced
in
| size, with an option to expand each one. ("Click to expand," or somesuch.)
| Shrinking the graphics saves loading time for users.
|
| The Web site will have clickable (is that a word?  ;-f  )  navigational
| matter in the left frame: Headers (formerly chapters), which you can roll
| over or click to expand, to show all the subsection titles. This replaces
| the table of contents. Also, an overall Search function will be included
so
| users can quickly find any part of the "workbook" they want. There will be
| no other type of index.
|



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

  +++  Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation.  See us at  +++
  +++  Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion  +++
  +++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.com  http://www.miramo.com +++

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.