Re: Single Sourcing and Thinking Bigger

[Gwen Thomas <gthomas -at- PAYSYS -dot- COM>]

<snip_Graham_Tillotson> In MacGuyver style, I am using Access on the back end to store user procedures and glossary terms. This information is inserted into my Word files via the {DATABASE} field, and I reformat the field content with macros. </snip_Graham_Tillotson>
........
MacGuyver as DBA/communicator... suddenly Cubeville seems SO much more interesting!

Graham makes a great point when he describes using the database to do just part of the job of building deliverables.  Single-sourcing is an approach.  It does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach.

Over the past 3-4 years, I've built VERY large documentation databases (for the largest I converted three 1000-page volumes of legacy doc) where the content was repetitive, standardized chunks of reference information.  This info was then used in many, many deliverables.

However, I've also adopted single-sourcing in documents that for the most part were 1-ups.  But they included pieces that could most efficiently be produced using this approach.

Another consideration is the quality issue.  Single-sourcing for critical information can be used to assure consistency of content.  For example, this is a 1-up e-mail.  There's no substitute for "hand-crafting" the body of this message.  But, if I were mailing it to my entire company, I'd sure want to build the To: section using the e-mail address list (single-source) that our MIS department maintains.  Imagine the mess if everyone in the company tried to maintain their own lists!

This example might not seem to be directly applicable to writing doc.  After all, aren't e-mail addresses just data?  The trick is to start thinking about doc as data.

Gwen Thomas
Knowledge Management Consultant
CIBER Information Services

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