some different needs for single sourcing

[Chuck Martin <cwmartin -at- US -dot- ORACLE -dot- COM>]

I'm baaaaaaack!    :)

I was looking through some recent posts on single sourcing and I have a
question/issue that I did not see addressed, and I could use some input
from others in the technical communication community.

I am investigating tools for single sourcing. Here's the situation I am
in:

The group that I am in here produces documentation for application
development tools. Several tools exists and are related, and perhaps
could even be considered a suite. In the most recent release, a decision
was made to go essentially online. The primary platform is Windows, with
some sold on Unix. WinHelp 4.0 was used, with the projects running from
more than 500 to several thousand topics. In addition, a number of
common components were included in each product's Help system. The main
Help authoring system was Word 95/RoboHelp 5.x. After the winHelp
systems wer done, conversion using various types of scripts (Perl, I
think) and brute force produced output for Unix.

For the next release the goal is to move to HTML Help. But we also will
need to produce printed copy (customers are demanding it), but for only
a portion of the material: the reference stuff, not procedureal or
context-sensitive. We will also need to produce HTML for web-based
documentation and Acrobat, although I'm not sure if the Acrobat will be
only what is actually published in print or the entire Help system.

A number of people in my group are pushing for HTML authoring systems,
such as HomeSite. There is a desire to perhaps work in RoboHTML. But I
and my manager are very cognizant of the need to also produce printed
output, and I'm concerned that once we convert all the Word/RoboHELP
documents to HTML, that producing print documents will be an arduous
task. Blue Sky's tools have not produced very good print output, and
cannot output just a portion of a Help system to a print file.

I have investigated a number of options so far to varying degrees. I
looked at FrameMaker/WebWorks Publisher. This doesn't input Help
systems, so the groudwork to rearchitect for this environment would be
prohibitive. In addition, a lot of the same people who are pushing for
native HTML athoring tools are pushing just as hard to not use
print-based tools, such as Frame or Word.

I tried looking at the latest Doc To Help 4, which is one of the few
tools that supports JavaHelp. But that test bed system, working on Word
97, has so far failed because the embedded Word 95 macros that are part
of RoboHELP and get converted to VBA don't all work. The bug prevents me
from importing even one source file into the Word/Doc To help
environment.

Through recent posts on this list I found and downloaded AutoDoc and
HTML2Frame. I have not yet had the opportunity to test these (today's
tasks).

A comment Eric made on the earlier single-source thread jarred me,
saying something to the effect that going to HTML is a one-way process.
that is the tack I have already been taking; going from raw HTML to any
sort of other format seems problematic. I also want to work within a
system that doens't need a lot of hacks. i see too many already, and
it's just too many potential problems.

For good or for bad, the top priority has to be HTML and HTML Help; they
have to look the best.

I also have to look toward the future. Word 2000 is supposed to provide
seamless transitions between Word and HTML; what will that do for Help
authoring? We will have to support JavaHelp. and we have to look at the
potentials of XML and a potential universal, cross-platform Help
specification that could be developed by the W3C in years to come.

I saw some people mention proprietary, database-based tools. That may be
an option, but what's the learning curve? From first impression, it kind
of looks like that's what AutoDoc is, and they told me in email that
support for HTNL Help is coming in a few months.

Id appreciate feedback on the situation I'm in (remembering that we're
starting from winHelp-coded RTF files) and some suggestions for a
complete solution. I'd also appreciate feedback on some of the above
tools, if anyone has any experience--good or bad--with them.

Many, many, many thanks.