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> In other words, they want to be able to
> have someone who isn't a writer launch a tool, change some
> text, save the change and instantly have their printed docs,
> online help, website and online PDFs instanly self-update.
> Not only is there not an affordable solution they can deploy
> that will give them that, I don't think there's even anyone
> working on developing one yet.
Sure there is. Doing this on top of a DTP tool is a hard slog. But doing it
with XML tools, even just the freely available ones, is relatively simple.
Yes, someone has to do some scripting to get it set up, but it really isn't
that challenging. Certainly, allowing people to edit an XML document, using
no more than a half dozen tags that they would have to worry about, and then
pushing a button to run the update process, is dead simple. Far simpler than
any DTP based solution could be.
The whole point of a markup based solution is that it makes it possible to
tailor a system that does just what the client needs, neither more not less,
and to make that system as simple as possible to use. Generic tools are
always much harder to deal with because they have so much bumpf that does
not apply to your individual situation.
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Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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