TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Thanks to all of you who responded to my previous post about sending
hard copy doc along with PDF files. We gathered enough fantastic ideas
to get us going! And now another online doc-related question:
For a good majority of our manuals, we are planning on providing them on
a single compact disk, in PDF, with access rights to customers for certain
documents. I'm thinking we will provide a custom interface (possibly in
HTML??) that allows the user to navigate and choose the appropriate
document on the CD (which will then be in PDF). Since there will be a lot
of docs on the CD, I'm wanting to create something *very* usable
(possibly with dialog boxes and robust search capabilities), and I'm not
sure if our current "off the shelf" tools will allow us to do that??
Do most of you create that interface yourselves? Or, do you call on your
IT staff to assist in developing that piece (since it may take some more
in-depth coding)? What tool do you use (if you do it yourself)?
TIA!
Colleen Adams
External Documentation Manager
First DataBank, Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
colleen_adams -at- medispan -dot- com