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This is a topic that I'm particularly interested in. I am very new to the
TechWriting field, however, I have a strong background in training, CBT,
instructional design, and general documentation, The company I'm working for
wants to eventually place all documents onto an intranet for viewing and
printing by all our field sites. However, there are some sites that will still
need to receive the paper copies...in Word. I am a lone TechWriter on this job
and it's up to me to decide the best way to get the information moved to our
web. We have a webmaster, but he's not much help. He wants the documents
formatted and ready to go when he gets them.
Our documents are generally only a few pages and consist of Technical Notes,
System Procedures, Newsletters, etc. There are tables, screen captures, and
graphics added to the documents. I have Word versions of all the documents, and
will continue to produce the documents in Word, so they are still printable for
certain sites.
Question: What's the most efficient way to move our documents to the web? I
have experimented with the Save As HTML function in Word; however, the documents
still require much modification.
This is all very new to me. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about online
documentation in a short time, but I have a long way to go. I'm sure someone
out there has already jumped this hurdle. I appreciate any suggestions you can
provide.
Are you currently providing your clients electronic documentation (HTML
Help, PDFs, .chm, etc.) that can be downloaded, used and/or printed from
your web site? What kinds of challenges have you faced? What would you do
differently? Are you serving a domestic client base or international? How
easy is it to update your doc, and how do you let clients/installers/tech
support know of the latest and greatest? Do you have to maintain different
versions of the e-doc? And finally, what tools are you using?
