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.
Re: Request for comments on my Structured Writing series
Subject:Re: Request for comments on my Structured Writing series From:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 May 2016 11:35:36 -0700
It feels very dated, like it was written in the 90s, when structured
writing and single-sourcing were new concepts rather than standard
practices embodied in off-the-shelf tools that have been evolving for
20 years.
Thus the presentation seems backward to me. We're not starting from
zero. People single-source using off-the-shelf tools, in some cases
enhanced with custom code that has been in place for a while. Most of
us write in a WYSIWYG editor in Flare / FrameMaker/ Oxygen /
Confluence / whatever, then generate web help, PDF, static web site
pages, etc. from templates. It's interesting to know what's going on
under the hood (and essential if you're developing templates or custom
code), but starting the piece with such a low-level explanation
exaggerates its importance over more crucial considerations, such as
total cost of ownership.
On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 10:56 AM, <mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com> wrote:
> TechWhirl magazine has just published the latest in my series on structured
> writing (http://techwhirl.com/single-sourcing-algorithm/), which is
> scheduled to become a book from XML Press. A big reason for serializing the
> book on TechWhirl first is to get feedback that will help me improve the
> book. I'd be really grateful if anyone who is interested would be willing to
> read the latest article or any others in the series and give me some
> feedback, either on the site or to me personally (mbaker at analecta dot
> com).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
