Unstructured to structured FM?

[Writer]

On top of Art's comments, make sure that you understand what outputs you 
need to create and how to create them from structured sources. In terms 
of DITA, authoring is easy once you get the hang of it; however, you 
need to figure out which tools allow you to create PDFs, online help, 
mobile help, etc from DITA. Your boss should be aware that you might 
need to invest in a different tool set, training, and outside expertise 
to achieve his expectations.

Nadine

On 25/03/2012 8:41 AM, Art Campbell wrote:
> Bottom line is that he's correct, but the implementation is pretty 
> labor intensive especially if you're a small shop, and the payback 
> he's thinking about may not materialize. Basically, you're adding a 
> set of rules to your documents that control the formatting and 
> possible uses of different chunks of (often nested) text.
>
> I'd start by reading up on Docbook and DITA, which are two of the most 
> popular standards.
> I would avoid any proprietary or non-standard implementation like the 
> plague...  Even if they're in use in other parts of your company.
>
> And the other obvious question is whether the sharing/reuse is one way 
> or two, so that you need to implement or share an existing set up.
>
>
> Art Campbell art.campbell at gmail.com <mailto:art.campbell at gmail.com>
>   "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 
> Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
>                                                       No disclaimers 
> apply.
>                                                                DoD 358
>
> I support www.TheGrotonLine.com <http://www.TheGrotonLine.com>, 
> hyperlocal news for Groton MA.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Laura Fergusson 
> <l.fergusson at codestuff.net <mailto:l.fergusson at codestuff.net>> wrote:
>
>     Hi all
>
>     My boss has mentioned the possibility of transferring our
>     unstructured Frame docs to structured XML format. I have NO
>     experience of structured FM and to be honest I'm a bit intimidated
>     by it! (Boss is technical but knows little about tech writing
>     tools btw)
>
>     He thinks that it will make it easier to share our doc set with
>     other parts of the company which has just acquired us -- but he's
>     not totally sure -- so I'm looking into it. I'm not even sure this
>     is correct.
>
>     I am the sole author here and make heavy use of conditional text
>     as we have several different clients and many product variants. I
>     currently use Frame 8 on Windows.
>
>     Could you kind guys please tell me the pros and cons of
>     transferring from unstructured to structured? Any caveats or
>     things to watch out for would be appreciated .As I say, I know
>     nothing about structured FM or XML at all, but have many years of
>     experience in unstructured.
>
>     Many many thanks
>
>     Laura Fergusson
>
>     Technical Author
>
>
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