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Subject:RE: What are the latest tools From:"Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com> To:"Ronald Schwarz" <RSchwarz -at- cosmocom -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:53:23 -0600
Ronald Schwarz wrote:
> My company has dumped all its documentation, including
> engineering documents, into a wiki (Confluence provided by
> Atlassian). I did the same for user documentation. It was my
> understanding when I started here that I no longer need to
> produce online help.
>
> Lo and behold the customers want online help. They, and even
> the salesmen here, need printable documents, such as PDFs.
> The PDFs produced by Confluence can be described in 4 letter
> words. Exporting information to HTML so I can create online
> help is another bag of worms.
I can _maybe_ see putting engineering docs in a wiki -- they're used
internally, often informal, and sometimes change fast. But why in the
_world_ would you "dump" your _user_ documentation into that same wiki?
How did you envision users using it? Point them to a URL and tell them
to poke around?
> I've been reading in a few places that FrameMaker is "showing
> its age."
> I was even notified by a vendor that Webworks Publisher is no
> longer supported. They are supporting a newer product in its place.
Some people have been saying that about FM for years. So what? Is there
something FM doesn't do that you need done, or does it just embarrass
you to use something that's not chock-full of the latest buzzwords. Hey,
here's one: XML. FM does XML. See? You can be cutting-edge with FM.
Quadralay has replaced Webworks Publisher with ePublisher Pro. So what?
If you were using WWP and it did the job, it still will. If you need
ongoing support or the new features in ePublisher Pro, upgrade.
> Independent of all the above what is the currently favored
> software to produce documentation?
A better question would have been, "What best serves the needs of our
customers?" Best asked before ticking them off by pursuing some wacky
wiki idea.
OK, I'll calm down now. Can you tell I don't think much of this "give
'em a wiki full of engineers' docs" concept? ;-)
Richard
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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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