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Subject:Re: Single-sourcing DIDN'T work for me just now From:Goober Writer <gooberwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Sep 2003 05:27:06 -0700 (PDT)
> Here's an anecdote for all you folks who don't like
> single-sourcing. I'm currently writing a manual to
> document some software for which I wrote online help
> awhile back. So, I got the idea to recycle the text
> from the online help for part of the manual. After
> copying all the little chucks of text, which
> involved different secondary windows for different
> situations, and various other sort of
> multi-directional hypertext branching, then trying
> to organize this into a narrative passage suitable
> for a manual, I finally decided it was going to take
> me forever and give me a royal headache, so that I
> should just write the text from scratch, as it
> should be written for a manual.
OK... so what part of what you were doing was
single-sourcing? I saw vague references to repurposing
but no evidence that you were single-sourcing,
nevermind failing at it.
Copying text from one medium to another is not
single-sourcing. It's cutting and pasting.
In order for single-sourcing to work, you need to plan
for it in advance and consider all deliverable and
audience requirements beforehand. It's not something
you can just jump into.
=====
Goober Writer
(because life is too short to be inept)
"As soon as you hear the phrase "studies show",
immediately put a hand on your wallet and cover your groin."
-- Geoff Hart
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