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.
Dreamweaver
DevaTools
FrameMaker
FrontPage
PageMaker
Word
PaintShop Pro
Where you could produce all the same material with:
FrameMaker
WebWorks Publisher Professional
PaintShop Pro
You wouldn't need Dreamweaver and Devatools to do the Help - that's
covered by WWP.
You'd use FrameMaker for content development (not writing manuals, per
se).
You wouldn't need FrontPage - you can do your spell-checking in
Framemaker.
You wouldn't need PageMaker - you can apply a new template in
FrameMaker.
You wouldn't need Word - content resides in Framemaker.
You would continue to use PaintShop Pro for screen captures.
You wouldn't have to worry about instructions not being the same from
deliverable to deliverable, as you'd only have one version in Framemaker
that you'd be using in your various outputs.
As for maintainability, you have one content set. As long as you or
someone else only edits the content set, your maintenance only happens
once.
You don't necessarily have to worry about databases, content management,
and other scary-sounding things with FM+WWP. At a bare bones level, you
just have to worry about conditional text, variables, and templates.
As for the pitch to management, don't make the pitch until you know what
you want to do. If you have a solid view going into it, you have less of
a chance of blowing it and looking bad. If you can access the site,
check out my article at http://www.stcsig.org/ss/index.htm entitled
"When to Use Single-Sourcing". If you can follow the advice in the
article before preparing your pitch, you'll be better off.
As for how WWP works...
Well, the index is pulled from your FrameMaker index in the book file
you're converting. Popups are handled via styles and style mapping. What
makes it go? Well, that can get complex, but I can tell you that you
have a lot of control over how it works if you need it, and you can run
it pretty much out of the box with minimal modification to get good
output. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wwp-users if you have more
specific questions, or browse the archives for a general idea of what
people are doing with the product.
I have to note that single-sourcing isn't an easy cure-all for your
needs. There's a lot of planning and setup you'll need to do, but once
it's all set, it'll shave many hours off your project compared to your
current workflow.
Hope this helps...
B I L L S W A L L O W
Information Design & Development Professional
tel/fax: 518.371.1867 wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com
List Owner: HATT, WWP-Users, InFrame
Co-Moderator: SingleSourcing-Mgmt
WebWorks Wizard Editor of InFrame Magazine
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Buy RoboHelp Deluxe starting at only $798: you'll get RoboDemo, the hot new
software demonstration tool that's taking the Help authoring world by storm,
together with RoboHelp Office. Learn more at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.
---
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.
