We need a specialized doc set- advice?

[jblair -at- CREO -dot- BC -dot- CA]

     Hi everyone,

     I need suggestions on how my documentation group can adapt our
     documentation to our company's new way of marketing our products. I
     think this dilemma must be increasingly common, with the new focus on
     open platforms, etc. It goes something like this:

     We sell Products A,B,C,D,E,F, and G, H, and I. We used to sell
     products A-D as a bundled package, and E often went with it. F-I have
     always been sold separately and used with other products, many of
     which are not ours. Right now we have manuals which group information
     on the products the way they are usually sold. Each manual explains
     how the various products interact with one another.

     Now, the company is starting to go modular; i.e., everything will be
     sold separately as well as in bundles. We need to come up with
     formatting, organizing, and binding options for the manuals based on
     the future 'modularity' of our products.

     Unfortunately, this is not as simple as writing smaller manuals for
     each product and issuing and bundling them at the time of sale.
     Because of the interdependence of the products, there needs to be
     information on how the products will be used with other products. For
     example, B could be sold with A-E, but it could also be sold by
     itself, and the user might want to use it with *any* of our other
     products, or with other companies' products.

     We've been thinking about PDF as a way of quickly customizing docs,
     but this hasn't developed beyond the speculative stage.

     I appeal to the collective expertise of the TECHWR-L people. Please
     fire some good ideas at me.

     Thanks a lot!

     Jennifer.

jblair -at- creo -dot- bc -dot- ca
Jennifer Blair, Technical Writer
Documentation Group
Creo Products, Inc.
(604) 451-2700

I speak for myself, not for my employer.