Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's New Corporate Strategies)

Fri Apr 30 14:10:30 PDT 2010

Albeit, we did it with a two-person team and in small chunks, but we didn't have an expert for almost any of the process (except taking an introduction course with Bernard so we could hit the ground speed walking). 

We use FM9, which has its own DTD and EDD for DITA. We've learned on our own how to tweak the EDD according to our own needs. 

We converted unstructured to structured manually without automated conversion.

We use FM9 to output our PDFs, and WebWorks ePublisher to create our HTML output. ePub's DITA FM to HTML works wonderfully well.

We updated/reorganized/rewrote our content ourselves to fit the DITA model.

We had a coop student learn to use DITA within a few weeks while he was also learning to use FM.

All this while we were also creating new content.

I admit, I put in a lot of hours in last year, and we've made mistakes along the way, but we've learned from them. All in all, it was well worth it for us. The proof of the pudding (to management) was when we were able to take a two-volume documentation set and turn it into a seven-volume set within a couple of days.

It's not for everyone, I agree. But--I don't know...call it sheer bloody mindedness--I wanted it badly enough to do it anyway.

Nadine

--- On Fri, 4/30/10, Ed <hamonwry12 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Ed <hamonwry12 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's New Corporate Strategies)
> To: "'Matt Sullivan'" <matt at grafixtraining.com>, "'Bernard Aschwanden (Publishing Smarter)'" <bernard at publishingsmarter.com>, "'Alison Craig'" <Alison.Craig at ultrasonix.com>, "'FrameMaker Forum'" <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> Date: Friday, April 30, 2010, 4:48 PM
> Matt-
> 
> People are asking why it's so hard to convert. My point is
> that for many
> solo writers, it's hard to propose a conversion to
> management, and get
> buy-in, especially when there's doc to write that's
> currently being
> delivered just fine in their eyes.
> 
> To successfully convert unstructured content to a
> structure, you need:
> 
> An expert to create an EDD and/or DTD.
> An expert in XSL to create output.
> An expert to map your current styles to elements.
> An expert to help you update your content to shoe-horn into
> the new XML
> 'buckets'.
> An expert to train those who are going to be using the new
> tools. 
> 
> Now, that could be one person, or a team. However, it's
> still someone else
> that needs to be paid. 
> 
> It doesn't take a team to upgrade from Word to Frame.
> Converting to CHM has
> been mostly a one-button operation for years. If you want
> WebHelp, all you
> need is some HTML and CSS knowledge and a copy of a HAT.
> Once Pagemaker came
> around, it made publishing easier. Once Dreamweaver and
> FrontPage came
> around, it made creating web pages easier. Converting to
> structure may never
> get that easy, but it's gotta get easier than it is now.
> -=Ed.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matt Sullivan [mailto:matt at grafixtraining.com]
> > Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 3:42 PM
> > To: 'Ed'; 'Bernard Aschwanden (Publishing Smarter)';
> 'Alison Craig';
> > 'FrameMaker Forum'
> > Subject: RE: Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's
> New Corporate
> Strategies)
> > 
> > The question isn't/wasn't whether or not to
> structure...that decision is
> > based on (among other things):
> > -number of authors
> > -level of reuse
> > -need to enforce content model
> > -need to pass content between one organizational group
> and another
> > 
> > If the powers that be decide there is an ROI to
> structure, then that's
> what
> > you'll do.
> > 
> > Once that decision is made, as with any software or
> format conversion,
> there
> > will be a conversion of legacy docs to the new
> format.
> > 
> > As noted by myself, Bernard, and others, the ease of
> conversion to XML or
> > DITA is mostly dependent on the quality of the legacy
> docs and their
> > consistency in applying a stylesheet.
> > 
> > If I were asked to convert docs to a format I'm not
> expert in, I'd expect
> a
> > major headache. So should someone without XML, DITA,
> or DTD experience if
> > they want to do this by themselves.
> > 
> >  However, relatively speaking, the pain of XML
> and DITA conversion is not
> > appreciably greater than any other conversion, if you
> are going to retain
> > full use of references, toc's, linking, graphics,
> etc.
> > 
> > As you can see, from various posts, there are folks
> that can help. It's
> not
> > our place to tell you (without analysis)whether or not
> to structure but we
> > can effeciently and economically help with that
> transition.
> > 
> > 
> > -Matt
> > 
> > ________________________________
> > 
> > Matt Sullivan
> > GRAFIX Training
> > 
> > 714 960-6840
> > 714 585-2335 cell /txt/sms
> > skype: mattrsullivan
> > 
> > http://www.grafixtraining.com
> > http://blogs.roundpeg.com
> > http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattrsullivan
> > http://twitter.com/mattrsullivan
> > http://twitter.com/roundpeginc
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to framers as generic668 at yahoo.ca.
> 
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
> 
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
> or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/generic668%40yahoo.ca
> 
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com.
> Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and
> info.
> 
> 