Electronic Document

[Irene Plokar <plokar -at- TOULOUSE -dot- VIRTUALPROTOTYPES -dot- CA>]

 I'll soon be venturing into the world of electronic documentation and online
documentation.  From previous e-mails sent on the internet, my journey should
take me to two separate planets.

Since I'll be entering unknown territory, I need to hear from all of you online
and electronic experts out there.  What adventures have you encountered with
going online?  First I would like to clear up my confusion on the distinction
between electronic documentation and online documentation.  Electronic
documentation is usually on CD-ROM and contains a soft image of the formatted
documentation that can be searched and printed by the reader.  Online
documentation usually refers to all other incarnations of the written word when
distributed on computer.  This includes help systems, hypertext systems, and
any other interactive method of passing product support information to the user.
(These definitions come from Chuck Banks.)  Where I'm confused is at what point
does an electronic document become an online document?  What are the specific
differences between the two?  Can I simply dump our paper documents onto CD-ROM
without any online or hypertext capability?  How does a user navigate through
the document?

Since my journey has just started, I know next to nothing on these topics.  I
 ned to hear about your experiences with producing an electronic document on
CD-ROM?  What tools did you use?  What problems did you encounter?  How did you
go about producing an electronic document?  What was the time frame involved
in creating such a document?  Are there any specific tools that the user needs
to read an electronic document on CD-ROM?

To provide you with some background knowledge of what we're trying to do, we've
just recently purchased FrameMaker.  Our current documentation--some 2,000 pages
--must be put on a CD-ROM which can be accessed by a PC and a UNIX workstation.
We'll be using FrameMaker's hypertext tool to produce the electronic document
 and
FrameViewer and FrameReader so that customers can read the documentation.
Since I'm creating an electronic document, and not an online document, do I
still need to FrameMaker's hypertext tool?

I'm signing off for now.  Full warp speed ahead!

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        Irene Plokar, Senior Technical Writer
        Virtual Prototypes Inc.,
        Suite 318, 5252 De Maisonneuve O.
        Montreal, Quebec, CANADA  H4A 3S5
        (514) 483-4712, fax (514) 483-1184
        plokar -at- VirtualPrototypes -dot- CA
        ...!VirtualPrototypes.CA!plokar
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