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. <div>
<br></div><div>I'd start by reading up on Docbook and DITA, which are two of the most popular standards. </div><div>I would avoid any proprietary or non-standard implementation like the plague... Even if they're in use in other parts of your company.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.<br><div><br></div><div><br clear="all">Art Campbell <a href="mailto:art.campbell@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.campbell@gmail.com</a><br>
"... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson<br> No disclaimers apply.<br> DoD 358<br>
<br>I support <a href="http://www.TheGrotonLine.com" target="_blank">www.TheGrotonLine.com</a>, hyperlocal news for Groton MA.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Laura Fergusson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:l.fergusson@codestuff.net">l.fergusson@codestuff.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div lang="EN-GB" link="blue" vlink="purple">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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)<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many many thanks<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">Laura
Fergusson<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">Technical
Author<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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