Re: scaling down a document?

Subject: Re: scaling down a document?
From: David Neeley <dbneeley -at- oddpost -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 09:28:20 -0700 (PDT)


Sorry,

My reading of the initial note was that he was tasked to produce *both* a larger format of an updated manual *and* a smaller one. For that purpose, XML/XSLT might make sense...especially for any alterations the instructor might require later.

In addition, it would be nearly certain to increase a grade substantially in the context of a college class on tech writing. In fact, the student could propose to the instructor an extra credit bit, consisting of examples of reformatting the text using XSLT techniques. Short of that, being able to do so by applying a different stylesheet might also be conducive to extra grade consideration.

My advice was based upon the somewhat artificial context of a student project rather than a real-world task of a "one-off" assignment.

David

-----Original Message from David Blyth <dblyth -at- qualcomm -dot- com>-----

Hi all;

>>My first assignment is to update and then produce a smaller version of
>>a user guide that is mostly text and some screen caps.

>Otherwise, yes, you *should* reformat it if the reduction is very severe.
>Personally, I'd be tempted to do the project in XML and use one of the
>XSLT methods to produce both versions.

You can make a much smaller UG by just editing the doc and cleaning up
the screen shots. _Then_ think about reuse.

For as much as I love XML and write both Perl & XSLT, a poorly written
XML doc is.... poorly written. Reusing a trashy XML UG will just
create 2 or more trashy UGs. Hmmm.


David S. Blyth
Staff Technical Writer
QCT Division
QUALCOMM

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5 - ALL NEW VERSION!!

Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!

Download a free trial today: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



References:
Re: scaling down a document?: From: David Blyth

Previous by Author: Re: scaling down a document?
Next by Author: Re: Need some ideas?
Previous by Thread: Re: scaling down a document?
Next by Thread: Protecting SW strings


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads