TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I also have been doing a comparison of HATs and am in
the middle of doing an evaluation.
It seems to me that Author-it offers the most robust
single-sourcing features available among standard HAT
tools (not including solutions such as DITA) . Most
standard tools have single-sourcing features, but they
can be rather limited.
For example, storing a small amount of non-formatted
text for reuse is quite different than being able to
store a fully formatted topic in Author-it and reuse
it in other structures. This could be useful for using
topics in both online help as well as training
materials, for example.
Further, in Author-it, you can place topics or other
chunks of text that need to be reused on a shared
directory that other authors can access for reuse in
their work. Some other tools do not support sharing
like this; reuse can be limited to the ?silo? of a
single author?s set of files.
To customize topics for different audiences, you can
save the text common to 2 or more audiences as a
?chunk? and then reuse it as needed in each audience?s
topics.
These are my observations so far. I?m still in the
middle of evaluating Author-it and some other tools,
and so would be interested in hearing more about your
observations.
Regards,
Marie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
