anticipating a move to Structrued Frame

[Marcus Carr]

Milan Davidovic wrote:

> I'm looking for resources or advice on how to start
> working in unstructured Frame in anticipation of a
> move to Structured Frame.
> 
> Let's imagine you're working in unstructured Frame,
> and that present circumstances prevent you from making
> the switch to Structured Frame. However, those
> circumstances could be quickly lifted; if so, you'd
> have a brief window to move to Structured Frame and
> get it working.

Why do you want to go to structured data? Is it because you believe that 
you can document more efficiently, or because your organisation has 
requirements to use the data in ways not currently possible? If it's the 
former and you're judicious about using styles and maintaining 
consistency, you shouldn't have too many problems. All the same, check 
with any other potential users of the data within your organisation to 
ensure that you'll be able to satisfy their structural requirements, or 
at least make sure that you're not doing anything against their possible 
requirements.

If it's the latter, then start hassling the IT department for their DTD 
or schema, for without it, you can't do anything. You might take a punt 
on what the structure will look like, but you'll almost certainly end up 
reworking your data later after heated debate about the merits of both 
approaches, driven mainly by neither side wishing to modify their own work.

It is often overlooked on this list for obvious reasons, but the primary 
purposes of structured data usually has precious little to do with the 
creation of printed pages. Basing a strategy for structured data on an 
existing FrameMaker application is often a case of the tail wagging the dog.


-- 
Regards,

Marcus Carr                      email:  mcarr at allette.com.au
___________________________________________________________________
Allette Systems (Australia)      www:    http://www.allette.com.au
___________________________________________________________________
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
        - Einstein