Re: Looking for totally subjective opinions on HATs

[technical -at- theverbalist -dot- com]

Bill Swallow said:
> <subjective>
> WWP for Word is the only way to go. If you're not single-sourcing,
> you're better off flipping burgers and counting your nose hairs during
> your breaks.
> </subjective>
> 
> OK, that outta the way, what kind of workflow are you looking for? Do
> you want to single source? Do you want to maintain content in Word or
> do you not care about migrating content into another tool and
> exporting to Word for print? How much documentation are we talking
> about?  A few hundred "pages" worth or tens of thousands or more? ...

Yes, the goal (the grail) is single-sourcing the content into: an online
library that contains the content from our 23-document set; end
user-oriented help files for our GUI products; PDFs of the documents so
Sales and Marketing  can prove that we have Thwack value; content in Word
for Training and the Professional Services Group to use.

I'm fine with moving all the content into another authoring environment
like RH or AIT. Currently, we've prolly got about 2,000 pages and there
are about 100 more added every release. We get all of our information in
Word, but since the workflow now is to move it from the developers'
unclean Word docs to our pristine Word docs, moving new content from Word
to another environment isn't an issue.

T.W.Smith said:
> I'd consider RH if you are going to move your content entirely within RH.
> I'd consider AIT if you are going to move your content entirely within AIT.
> I'd consider WWP if you are going to keep your content entirely within MS
> Word. 

Our main deliverable will be on-line help , so I was thinking that working
in a tool that keeps us focused on the online structure, rather than that
print structure, would be a psychological advantage. So we've been leaning
towards RH or AIT for that reason, perhaps a bit more towards RH, because
we've both worked with it before, and it seems fairly straightforward.
AIT, on the other hand, adds a whole 'nother conceptual layer around
"databasing" your content...which might be useful, given the list of
potential deliverables for different audiences that we have, but it is
something else to plan a strategy for...
 
And Stuart Burnfield

> I've done one project in AIT and I like it. It takes a little getting used
> to but it's mostly a pleasure to use.

Ah, a fuzzy-slipper review. Excellent. We've done a small conversion using
the RH trial version; I think next we'll try the same content in AIT and
see what it spits out...maybe it'll be like the new shoes that are
remarkably comfortable the first time you wear them...

Thanks for all your subjective opinions and advice,
Mandy 

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