Reasons to Structure

[Zoe Lawson]

I think it depends on what you're doing and with how many people.

If you're all by yourself, and you only need PDF and one type of help output...I don't really think there is a reason to go to structured authoring. It's perfectly possible for you to handle all of it yourself. (I've been doing it for 4.5 years)

If you're working with a group of writers, it's harder to enforce that X is always bold and Y is always phrased like so. Text insets become painful to manage. I think with structured authoring, it's easier to enforce a similar style across multiple authors. (i.e. If you don't manage your content as defined, you can't produce anything.)

I also think if you're going to have multiple, similar outputs, structured authoring where you re-use bits becomes more important. Yes, you might be able to handle it with conditional text and text insets...but it can get crazy really fast. Cross-references do not play happily with conditional text and text insets in FrameMaker.

I just left my position as a sole writer where I had everything under control with text insets and some conditional stuff and some framescripts. I really wanted to learn about XML and structured authoring...and I felt there was zero reason for me to attempt to switch in my situation. I had a method that worked. To move to structured authoring, I would have had to a) thrown out everything I had accomplished and b) taught myself without any hope of training a new, complex method. It wasn't worth my time or energy.

I just started at a new position in a company that's moving from Unstructured Frame to an XML/Structured Authoring solution. Here, it makes sense that they're making the switch. Documents need to be standardized, XML is cheaper to translate than Frame Files (I think? That's the rumor I heard. I could be wrong. :-) Here, I'll have a bunch of other writers to work with as we make the switch, and, we're actually going to get training! (yay!)

YMMV,

Zoë





 
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