RE: Baiting for the single source rant - Bill's last words this t ime around

["Michele Marques" <marquesm -at- autros -dot- com>]

Andrew wrote:

> I am not trying to reduce redundant text authoring. Many of
> my clients could care less about this issue. We are way more concerned
> with the technical accuracy of the text. God (aka B. Gates) invented
> copy/paste to handle redundant text. We surely don't need to spend 2 years
> and $900,000 to solve a problem I can solve with [CTRL][c] / [CTRL][V].
>

I'm sorry that it takes you 2 years and $900,000 to solve a problem that
took me 2 weeks with a tool that I already had (FrameMaker).  Copy and Paste
is a big issue for me. I have one basic manual with 4 variants for different
audiences (1 complete reference, and 3 separate references for different
groups of people who typically use different, but over-lapping, sub-sets of
the product). This is one 500-page manual, one 400-page manual, and two
250-page manuals. We may have more than one release in a year. And I am the
lone tech writer, also responsible for documenting other products.

With all this information and tight deadlines, I don't want to forget to
copy and paste a change to one of the appropriate variants of the manuals. I
update once, and this change is in place in up to 4 different versions of
the manual.

When I started, these variants had been maintained by copy/paste. It may
have worked at first, but eventually information got out of synch; this was
especially compounded whenever the tech writer changed and the new tech
writer did not immediately know all the places where the same information
might be duplicated.

I agree that single-sourcing, or any "hot" area can be a big time sink and
waste of time for some people... For example, I was in one tech writer/other
titles job where my written output was limited to a few training guides and
brochures - but my manager had me spend time investigating SGML solutions!
But if it weren't single-sourcing then those same people would be
re-organizing their files and spending countless hours reading e-mail
lists... oh, wait ;-)

 - Michele

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michele Marques, Technical Writer
AUTROS Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
marquesm -at- autros -dot- com <mailto:marquesm -at- autros -dot- com>

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