Reasons to Structure

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Matt,

I do both structured and unstructured. The need for that depends IMHO
on the contents and "structure" (or lack of) in the document(s).
However, where I have been using structure (and then I ususally set
all the formatting from within the EDD and avoid using paragraph
format tags), all updating is much easier, and my revisors are much
quicker to make their updates.

This was the short version. Don't have the time for the long version. ;-)

Bodvar

On 2/12/07, MATT TODD <mtodd at arielcorp.com> wrote:
> All right...tell me good, solid reasons why a company would want to
> structure their documents. With my limited knowledge, I know structure
> effectively controls styles, fonts, etc...but I could manage that myself
> without structure. By extension, I know style control also controls
> content location because particular types of writing usually use a
> particular style...but I can also manage that myself. I know structure
> is designed to encourage single-sourcing, but I'm already headed in that
> direction without structure. I'm convinced with time and continuing
> documentation analysis, I can parse our documentation so duplicate
> verbiage in all our documents imports from one source. I can do that
> without structure. I can use conditional text to further cut down
> duplicate verbiage; it requires no structure. I can buy scripts or
> third-party software to automate documentation procedures without
> resorting to structure.
>
> So tell me...why structure documentation? I don't know enough to answer
> that question, and neither do my bosses. What's so great about it? What
> capabilities does it offer that demand its use? Right now, I'm just
> doing what I'm told, but it's always nice to found actions on solid
> reason.
>
> Matt
>
> > I'm working with legacy documentation created in Word and FM 7.0
> > unstructured. The goal is FM 7.0 structured.
>
> Whose goal is this, and why? I've seen the gee whiz demonstrations from
> Adobe reps and been utterly convinced that I Need Structured Docs Now!
> only to return to my pdf-output-only client projects that have no real
> need for structured Frame. Before committing, make sure there's a
> business case for structuring.
>
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