Re: Rehabilitation of Old Documents

["John P. Brinegar" <johnbri -dot- primenet -dot- com -at- BUBBA -dot- UCC -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

When I retired from Honeywell at the end of 1994, we were just wrapping up
a similar project. However, our project had the following additional
goals:

1. The original information was to have much of the Information
Mapping(TM) process applied to make it more useful to both users of the
online version and the paper version.

2. The online version was to be presented in a format and with typography
that made it easy to read and comprehend, online (documents designed for
paper just don't work online).

We converted approximately 15,000 pages from Word to FrameMaker and we
deliver the resulting documentation on CD ROMs. Each CD ROM includes a
copy of FrameViwer Pro; which includes a powerul, multidocument search
engine; bookmarks; and user notemaking. The online version includes
hyperlinked TOCs, indexes, and cross references.

The online product has been well received by our customers.

The project was at least three times as difficult, lengthy, and costly as
anyone imagined when we started out. The new skills we attained are
invaluable.

Good luck!--John

--
John P. Brinegar, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.; http://www.netzone.com/~jbrinega/
Consulting and development
-Performance Support Systems
-Technical Communication
Phoenix Chapter, Society for Technical Communication