Re: Single Sourcing

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

Thanks for the post. I'm glad RoboHelp and Word are working for you to
produce what you need.

However, I am still unconvinced that single-sourcing is achievable. Perhaps
it is my definition of single-sourcing that is at fault.

The idea of single-sourcing, to me, is write once and (without edit or
reformat) distribute in many formats, including in print (via a service
bureau) and as online help.

You state you like your solution because you do not have to use two software
products . . . but, you are using Word and RoboHelp both. Also, it is not
clear, but I gather, from what you write, that you had to wrench on the
files and change them for the online help. Thus, from what you write, I
suspect that if you update your Word docs you cannot cleanly, and without
edit and rework, create the online help.

In my utopian techwriter-ruled world, books written for print would be a
separate project from online help documents. Why? Because I perceive the
information, chunking, presentation, et al., needed for printed manuals to
be inherently different from the needs of online help. However, I work in
the same world you do. I have the same 12-month backlog of work. I have the
same small staff (1 full time (me) and one part time). In my reality, like
yours, I create documentation for print and, as an afterthought, bang-out
online help from the for-print book. It is not what I want to do but it is
the only way to meet the deadlines, budget, and requirements (of sales).

Now, you further say that "the final result (in Word) pleases . . . much
better than the one produced by FrameMaker." That may be true, for you.
However, FrameMaker only produces what you make it produce. You can
certainly use FrameMaker to make something that looks inferior. That is your
choice.

I find that FrameMaker is much more flexible than word for layout design. I
find that FrameMaker can duplicate a Word style, if that is what I want to
do. However, FrameMaker is infinitely more robust than word, especially for
long documents, documents with lots of graphics, documents with lots of
cross-references, and for such features as numbering. And, if I use
FrameMaker with WebWorks Publisher (like you use Word with RoboHelp) I can
make online help without breaking numbering and without any of the problems
you encountered with graphics, indices, and cross-references.

As I said, thanks for posting. The issue of single-sourcing is an
interesting one for our profession. I am glad your solution works to your
satisfaction.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com


>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Xiang Li [mailto:xli -at- FEDERALAPD -dot- COM]
>>>Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 9:17 AM
>>>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>>Subject: Single Sourcing
>>>
>>>
>>>Hi, Fellow Technical Writers:
>>>
>>>I have brought this topic to this list twice before. I would like to
>>>continue to talk about it because I recently have gone
>>>through the process
>>>of single sourcing. I produced a software manual from the
>>>online help for
>>>the same software using Robohelp. This process is not quick
>>>and Robohelp
>>>did not generate some of the graphics from the source file.
>>>I also had to
>>>set up the manual in the way a manual should look like.
>>>However, the final
>>>result pleases me and people in the company because it looks
>>>much better
>>>than the one produced by FrameMaker. I found this method is
>>>durable because
>>>I do not have to use two different software progams to work
>>>on help and
>>>manual. The problems I ran across are indexing, graphics
>>>will not convert,
>>>formatting, and numbering. I fixed the previous three,
>>>however, numbering
>>>is a consistent problem, I have to be very careful when I
>>>print. I also
>>>sent email for the solution to this problem, nobody could fix it.
>>>
>>>Xiang Li

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