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.
Subject:Re: REquest for advice on Workflow & Tools From:Goober <techcommgoober -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 9 May 2002 12:08:11 -0700 (PDT)
> My question is simple: can a mixed world of
> Word-to-Frame not only work,
> but make sense? I do appreciate the helpful
> comments.
I think if there is no other alternative, it makes
sense. After thinking about it a bit more, it might be
a good idea to start out with your proposed workflow,
and then illustrate what had to take place in order to
get from Word to good-looking, functional,
comprehensive deliverables. Share the good points and
bad points about the process, and open it up to
discussion on what could be done to further
streamline. They may be receptive at that point to
changing the workflow, whether it be developers
working in FM< a database-driven solution, or any
number of other possibilities.
> In regards to Visio, I need to be able to allow
> writers to incorporate
> Visio drawings into their documents.
I suggest not importing VSDs directly into the
documents. This can add serious file size bloat and
cause some OLE weirdness that I'm sure you'll want to
avoid (especially when dealing with a conversion to
FM). Instead, have them save the VSD as a WMF or EPS
and import it into the document. Have them supply all
images imported in this manner in case you cannot get
a good conversion (as sometimes it is hard getting
images out of Word and into Frame).
Another thought is to allow them to work as they see
fit for now, and after moving DOC to FM, save the DOC
as HTML and grab the PNG output of graphics (not the
JPGs, as they'll most-likely be hideous). Word stored
images in a native PNG format, and exports them as
such - they are as clean as the original objects they depict!
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Mother's Day is May 12th! http://shopping.yahoo.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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
Buy RoboHelp Office in May and you'll save $100 with our mail-in rebate.
Or switch from Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp to RoboHelp Office for only $499.
Get the help authoring tool PC magazine recently awarded a perfect score!
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
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.
