Evaluating Editor/Doc Control/Review Tools

["Paul Moloney" <paul_moloney -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Up 'til now, our small company has done documentation using
Microsoft Word to produce small-medium size documents from
which produce PDFs. Documents were simply stored in on a network
share, with nightly backups taken. (Recently we moved to using Subversion
for version control). On the most recent major version
of each document was kept. This had benefits of being simple for
a single writer and few reviewers, all local, who all had access to
Microsoft Access.

However, now with multiple writers, multiple reviewers in multiple
locations,
many with access to only open-source tools, we're looking to move on for the
following reasons:

* We actively need to move to a modular system where we
can build documents from shared multiple components. Similar to code,
in some project we will have a main "branch" of documentation development,

* Word is simply is taking up too much time with corruption, crashes, etc.

* I've like more direct developer input into documentation - for
example, keep database information up to date - without needing
Word licenses for them all.

* I'd like to use a non-binary format for documentation so that
source control can be used and different versions easily differentiated and
merged.

* I need a tool that allows remote collaboration and reviewing.

At this stage, the amount and variety of tools makes my eyes glaze over. I
was wondering how others in my situations have coped in this situation.
Currently I've split the task into the following:

* Finding an XML editor
* Find a source control platform
* Find a collaboration/reviewing tool

At the moment it seems that Subversion and WebDAV might fulfil my last
last two problems; does anyone have any experience with them?

As far as looking for an XML editor goes, what should be my priorities?

Thanks,

P.



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

ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -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.