Re: Word, Frame, xml authoring and work flow. Opinions? (long)

["David O'Brien" <OBrien_David_P -at- cat -dot- com>]

 El Miércoles 26 Noviembre 2003 22:53, escribió:
>
> If people are willing to go XML - look into it now. Docbook
> (<http://www.docbook.org/>,
> <http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=docbook>,
> <http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/>) is the most commonly used
> schema/dtd for documentation.
>
>  I'd stick with an out-of-the-box solution (like Docbook) that everyone can 
> read about and refer to.

This has also been recommended elsewhere. I'm looking into it now.

> For now, go with Word.
> Insist on the latest version for everyone and heavily test its ability
> to save in the desired format for XML.
I'm not sure how we'd go in this area, hence the big question mark. We'd need 
a corporate purchase of Word 2003, and I'm not sure that that's on the 
books...
>
> To turn your docs into PDF you use Adobe Acrobat's Distiller - right?
> That will still work fine from Word.
Yes, and it still works ok. No problem in that area.
>
> Normally I'd say fight for FrameMaker. But everyone has to pick their
> battles. I am a strong supporter of XML documentation because it
> completely removes the source from its display, making changing the
> style of something far easier; and it sounds like that's the way you
> want to go.

We did contemplate this, but that would put too much formatting and layout on 
authors desktops (I'm unfamiliar with structured Framemaker so this may make 
little sense...) and would require many people to learn Frame and the 
purchase of many licenses. Our parent company already owns Epic, so COO is 
zero.
>
> Good luck and do keep the list updated about your progress.
thanks. Will do  :-)

-- 
David O'Brien
Sr. Technical Writer
Caterpillar MineStar Solutions

617 3329 8122
davido -at- cat -dot- com
--
A good Technical Writer is one who can talk to BAs and Engineers for more than 
5 minutes without  hitting them.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP FOR FRAMEMAKER TRIAL NOW AVAILABLE!

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
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.