RE: Myth vs. reality

Subject: RE: Myth vs. reality
From: jgarison -at- ide -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 07:54:01 -0400


I'm kinda with Lisa on this one ...

I don't think that WWP and Frame can replace Deva tools - unless they've
added a search capability I'm not aware of.

In my situation, we develop a web-based application. We provide all our
documentation as context-sensitive help with a search engine as the primary
means of locating information. We do not have a TOC - trying to find
anything amid 1800+ twisty books and pages is impossible. We do provide some
"print" capability. Of course, you can print out any help topic you want
from your browser, but we've also generated some PDFs of basic pages that
most people, when learning our application, want to read. So we made it easy
to print out several 50-page batches of related topics that people can
easily read separate from the application. Oh, and we also provide a CD with
just the Help system on it so that people can load it on their laptops and
use it to read and learn offline from the application itself.

I really don't see that Frame and WWP is going to do anything to make my
life easier, or generate anything that is as good for my users. But I am
willing to listen.

John

PS - Lisa is exactly the audience I am getting at WRT the STC presentation
I'd love to see: knowledgeable, astute, but no idea of where or how to
proceed with single-sourcing.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Swallow [mailto:wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 2:20 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Myth vs. reality



My thought:

That's a nice toolset, but in reality you have:

Dreamweaver
DevaTools
FrameMaker
FrontPage
PageMaker
Word
PaintShop Pro

Where you could produce all the same material with:

FrameMaker
WebWorks Publisher Professional
PaintShop Pro

You wouldn't need Dreamweaver and Devatools to do the Help - that's
covered by WWP.
You'd use FrameMaker for content development (not writing manuals, per
se).
You wouldn't need FrontPage - you can do your spell-checking in
Framemaker.
You wouldn't need PageMaker - you can apply a new template in
FrameMaker.
You wouldn't need Word - content resides in Framemaker.
You would continue to use PaintShop Pro for screen captures.

You wouldn't have to worry about instructions not being the same from
deliverable to deliverable, as you'd only have one version in Framemaker
that you'd be using in your various outputs.

As for maintainability, you have one content set. As long as you or
someone else only edits the content set, your maintenance only happens
once.

You don't necessarily have to worry about databases, content management,
and other scary-sounding things with FM+WWP. At a bare bones level, you
just have to worry about conditional text, variables, and templates.

As for the pitch to management, don't make the pitch until you know what
you want to do. If you have a solid view going into it, you have less of
a chance of blowing it and looking bad. If you can access the site,
check out my article at http://www.stcsig.org/ss/index.htm entitled
"When to Use Single-Sourcing". If you can follow the advice in the
article before preparing your pitch, you'll be better off.

As for how WWP works...

Well, the index is pulled from your FrameMaker index in the book file
you're converting. Popups are handled via styles and style mapping. What
makes it go? Well, that can get complex, but I can tell you that you
have a lot of control over how it works if you need it, and you can run
it pretty much out of the box with minimal modification to get good
output. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wwp-users if you have more
specific questions, or browse the archives for a general idea of what
people are doing with the product.

I have to note that single-sourcing isn't an easy cure-all for your
needs. There's a lot of planning and setup you'll need to do, but once
it's all set, it'll shave many hours off your project compared to your
current workflow.

Hope this helps...

B I L L S W A L L O W
Information Design & Development Professional
tel/fax: 518.371.1867 wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com
List Owner: HATT, WWP-Users, InFrame
Co-Moderator: SingleSourcing-Mgmt
WebWorks Wizard Editor of InFrame Magazine




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