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RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation?
Subject:RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation? From:"Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com> To:<quills -at- airmail -dot- net>, "Paul Weir" <Pweir -at- bju -dot- edu>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:30:02 -0700
Wow. Really? Are you serious? Have you actually ever used any of these
tools? Perhaps you are working on your own private language?
Of H&M, EC Software says, "Help & Manual 5 is a single-source help
authoring and content management system for both single and multi-author
editing."
Of Flare, Madcap states, "Flare - The New Industry Benchmark in
Multi-Channel, Single-Source Publishing."
Among Adobe's list of "Top Features" for RoboHelp "Single sourcing" is
listed sixth.
Of Author-it, Author-it states, "Over 3500 clients in 50 countries are
content in the knowledge that they have chosen the most reliable and
proven system for authoring, content management, language translation
management and single-source publishing to multiple outputs."
Wikipedia (of all things) defines "single-sourcing" as follows: "Single
source publishing, also known as single sourcing, allows the same
content to be used in different documents or in various formats"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-sourcing)
But perhaps you mean something different from the rest of the world when
you say "single-sourcing".
And what the heck is a "multiple plath transforming tool"? Did you mean
multiple PATH transforming tool? If so, no worries about the typo. I
often make them myself. But nevertheless, what the heck is a "multiple
path transforming tool." Please, please tell me that you aren't writing
for end users.
Leonard
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of quills -at- airmail -dot- net
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:05 PM
To: Paul Weir; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: What Program Do You Use for Software Documentation?
I do take exception to including Flare, RoboHelp, etc. as single
source tools. They normally require some other tool to produce the
text, and often the formatting before transforming it. As such they
are transformers and are only marginally single source tools. They
are more accurately a multiple plath transforming tool.
Scott
At 3:42 PM -0700 10/22/08, Leonard C. Porrello wrote:
>A hammer is a fine tool for smashing your thumb, but it stinks for
>authoring documents that call for sophisticated single sourcing and
>reuse. Similarly, Word is a great tool for some ends. So is FrameMaker.
>However, neither Word nor FrameMaker facilitate sophisticated single
>sourcing or reuse ("snippets"). If you don't need those things,
>fantastic. Word or FrameMaker may be just the ticket; if you do, you'll
>want to avoid both Word and FrameMaker and look to H&M, Flare, RoboHelp
>or AuthorIt.
>
>Leonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and
publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
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Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- soleratec -dot- com -dot-
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
