TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
"looking into buying a document/content management application for our
documentation department. my main requirements are:
- being able to check doc files in and out, so everyone always uses the
most current version
- automatic backups of files in case of file corruption
- easy to use
is anyone out there using a tool that fits my description?"
Assuming that other content management features would also be useful I
recommend a look at TeraText, the new name for RMIT University's Structured
Information Manager - SIM (http://www.simdb.com), now being aggressively
marketed in North America and Europe by Science Applications International
Corp (SAIC - http://www.saic.com). I have mentioned SIM on Techwrl several
times in the past. However, SAIC, the second largest computer systems
supplier to the US Government, thinks enough of the product that they formed
a separate division of the company to market the product
(http://www.teratext.com). The intelligence community is a major user of the
product, but some idea of what can be done with the system in the content
management area is provide by my Technical Communication paper: http://www.tenix.com/PDFLibrary/91.pdf, which describes the solution
implemented for managing ship-specific equipment maintenance procedures for
the ANZAC Frigates we are building for the Australian and New Zealand
navies. The simdb and teratext websites provide ample detail about
TeraText's wide range of uses.
TeraText won't be a cheap, but if you are controlling complex, structured
(XML/SGML), 'single source' or highly redundant documentation produced by a
team of (say) 4-5 authors or more you should definitely see if TeraText
provides a cost-effective solution. Even in the tail end of our
documentation cycle for the ships (i.e., authoring virtually complete), we
repaid our investment in a few months through risk minimisation and have
retained management of the support documentation as a continuing business we
were otherwise slated to lose to the Navy itself or other contractors
(hopefully for the full 30 year lives of the ships).
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Strategy and Development Group
Tenix Defence
Nelson House, Nelson Place
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Australia
Tel: +61 3 9244 4820
+61 3 9244 4000 (Switch)
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Mailto:bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com
----------------------------
Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not truth
Truth is not beauty
Beauty is not love
Love is not music
Music is THE BEST
----------------------------
(Frank Zappa, Packard Goose)
----------------------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you using Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp? Switch to RoboHelp for Word for $249
or to RoboHelp Office for only $499. Get the PC Magazine five-star rated
Help authoring tool for less! Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by April 30. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.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.
