setting up technical documentation workflow from scratch

[Wim Hooghwinkel - idtp]

Hi,

You're lucky to be able to set this up from scratch! Don't make the mistake
to choose a tool before you have defined your goals and requirements. Also
be careful for vendor lock in. Go for open standards and flexible solutions.
If you go for XML remember that there are many XML editing tools.

You should definitely take a look at the Adobe Technical Communication Suite
- this doesn't comprise a database but it has all the tools you need to
create, review and manage technical docs. 

If you want a database you probably end up with a structured approach based
on DITA. FrameMaker and the Adobe TCS are fully capable of handling DITA
topics from a database. 

Further check out: Alfresco with Componize, Ixiasoft DITA CMS, DocZone (with
integrated translation support), Author-IT, the MadCap Flare suite,
Help&Manual, the Danish based DITA Exchange solution on Sharepoint or in
case you're not tight on budget SDL Trisoft. (just google for the URLs)

Some of these work with FrameMaker, some don't (out of the box) and these
are not all DITA but in all cases DITA compliant if needed.

Want more help? Contact me off list!

HTH


Kind regards, vriendelijke groet,
Wim Hooghwinkel
iDTP - Technical Communication Consultant
Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in FrameMaker
tel. +31652036811
Skype wimhooghwinkel
Twitter @idtp @NLDITA
info at idtp.eu 
www.idtp.eu
www.nldita.nl
FrameMaker support: framemaker at idtp.eu

From: Studio Smalbro <studio at smalbro.dk>
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: setting up technical documentation workflow from scratch
Message-ID: <4CB16A8D.4050405 at smalbro.dk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

  I am about to author a small report on setting up a technical 
documentation workflow from scratch.
I need to devise a setup where a group of author can write tech docs, 
another group maintain and translate the docs and publish them as pdf. 
It is vital that the process can be thought within a technogy which 
allows for later integration with publishing to web as well.

I have taken a look at Woodwings serverbased solution which uses 
InDesign as publishing frontend, but I would like to see whether I can 
accomplish the same using FrameMaker. I suppose I must look for a kind 
of database drive solution where the authors write into a database.

I have taken a look on a couple of database publishing solutions: 
Patternstream, Sabern, FrameMaker Server but some of these solutions 
looks strangely dated when one merely looks at their websites. Sabern 
uses product images from FrameMaker 5.5. Patternstream recommends in 
FrameMaker 8 in a news release dated 2007. Adobes documentation for 
FrameMaker Server seems to be non existent - even a tutorial links to 
some very quaint and useless course on a server not even belonging to 
Adobe.

My question is: Am I looking in the wrong places? Can somebody 
reccommend products which will help me streamline the process?

regards
Jakobsen