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RE: Single-sourcing Tool

Subject: RE: Single-sourcing Tool
From: John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 12:24:41 -0500



Peter,

I haven't used RoboHelp in years, so consider that as you read my reply.

I had a similar option a few years ago, and chose to go with Dreamweaver. We linked each application page with a matching HTML page via the name of the calling application page (it calls its corrollary in HTML; we use the same name, different extensions, but YMMV). The result is very easy to maintain HTML that works just about everywhere. We added Deva Search in lieu of a TOC, and users seem very happy with it. We maintain a 1000+ page help system and do quarterly releases with no problems.

Some of the reasons I opted for DW were that it is designed to create HTML, it's not a conversion result. To me, that's a biggie. Also, it allows you to do just about anything you want to the HTML, so you can make it look as fancy or as plain as your market demands.

My 2 cents,

John G

At 09:52 AM 2/12/2003 -0700, Peter Swisher wrote:

I am not the original poster, but I may need to recommend our company
move to single sourcing. Here's the task. I hope you can offer some
advice on what tools I will need.

Basic Task:
Replace the existing help (very ugly HTML files created by a non-tech
writer in Adobe Go Live) with professional looking help.

<snip>

This is the tool I currently have. I just found out we have 1 customer
on UNIX, so I will now need to create a pure HTML-based help, not solely
the Microsoft version.

So, I've got a smallish help system and doc set to build, but the
company is striving for quarterly releases of its product. Tech Writer
will be just one of my responsibilities, and I don't want to have to
continually work with docs.

Is single sourcing for me? If so, what tools should I use? I'm not
experienced in FrameMaker, but am very familiar with Illustrator and
Photoshop and QXP.

Anyhow, any advice?

Thanks,
Pete


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References:
RE: Single-sourcing Tool: From: Peter Swisher

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