Re: Single-sourcing = myth? (and other topics) LONG

[anandastevens@xxxxxxxxx]

> ::: The main point she's making is that print and online are
> ::: such completely
> ::: different mediums, how can one source document serve both?

> Once everything's set up
> and ready to go, I just pick a FM template, assemble a book, toggle the
> conditions and variables as needed,

There's a shortcut to this. You create additional files that have the 
settings appropriate for your online help and your print format. These 
settings can include which conditional text to show or hide, variable 
definitions, formats, etc. Then you use File>Import>Formats on your book 
to change the settings in one fell swoop. If you have a more complex 
situation, you use multiple settings files to import the settings a 
batch at a time. If you have even more complexity, you can use different 
book files that include different chapters. This is what we did when we 
had five product family variants that all needed individualized print 
and help.

> ::: Printed docs read best with serif fonts; online help
> ::: reads best with san serif.
>
> ::: Printed docs are mostly B&W; online help uses
> ::: color as part of its structure.

This is solved by creating variant formats in one (or more) of your 
setting files. For colored vs. non-colored text, you can do things like 
setting the font format to be color text for online, or italic bold for 
print.

> My greatest achievement with single-sourcing:
>
> * 11 writers, 1 editor, 2 managers, 1 director
> * Roughly 17,000 pages of printed documentation
> * x-platform/x-browser Help (WebWorks Help)
> * offset, spiral bound, monochrome (7"x9" and 8.5"x11")
> * PDF (print and online optimization) - 8.5"x11" color with color
> hypertext
> * Training and trainer guides

Here's another example:
* 2 writers
* switched from one all-encompassing book of about 600 pages to ten 
books, with a total of over 5000 pages of printed docs... which were 
produced as
* offset, comb-bound or spiral-bound monochrome (7"x9")
* PDF for print, 8.5"x11" (the files the printer used to produce the 
books, but without the crop marks)
* six sets of product variant-customized online help
We did this with an in-house single-sourcing system.

> It works. It's nothing like what Ms. Hemmi describes.
Ours worked so well that our sales guys used the documentation to help 
sell the product. :-)


--Ananda


** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **