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.
Subject:CDs and related (?) stuff From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Mon, 6 Jul 1998 14:56:57 +0100
It has been decided, after much discussion, that we are going to supply our
software and documentation on CD (aiming for complete switch by the new
year). Hard copy supplied will comprise an installation guide and a basic
user guide. Everything else will be supplied on the CD with the hardware.
If the customer wants hard copy then it can be printed or supplied by us
(at a price). Now to my questions:
My initial thoughts are to go down the PDF route - simple to do and
reader free to distribute. Development suggested looking at HTML as a
possibility. Any thoughts suggestions? Would the HTML route require
much (any?) reworking of the documents etc?
As we manufacture as well as design the idea is to burn the CDs
ourselves and we've looked at one piece of kit that will "print" up to
50 in 20 minutes. Anyone (especially in UK) has had experience of
printing large volume CDs?
The aim is (as we've the space on the CD) to provide ALL the software
varieties (US, French, Spanish etc) with a pretty front end that allows
the user to choose required variety of software and lit. Any ideas as
to what would create a good front end? Somebody here has suggested it
can be done using DemoShield (we already have it and plan puttting a
tutorial on the CD as well) but I'm not sure.
Finally (UK only) - does anyone know of a training course for
DemoShield? I've had a brief play and it seems fairly straightforward
but if we're expected to be doing all sorts of fancy stuff with it I'd
rather know exactly what it can and can't do and how to do it!
No doubt there's things I've not thought of in this first plunge so all
commments are welcome.
