RE: .fm vs .e## vs .xml

["Combs, Richard" <richard.combs@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Webmaster wrote:
 
> BACKGROUND: Actually, we're a really small company, I'm the 
> webdeveloper, and she is a technical writer. She's been asked 
> to take one of her FM files, and make it into a "website". 
> Well, she doesn't know how to do that, and I don't like 
> multiple sources, so I suggested DocBook. (because of all the 
> other outputs she has to do as well) And in addition, this 
> request is going to become more frequent. The whole idea 
> being we end up with one source:
> XML.

With apologies to the XML and structure enthusiasts in the audience, a
_really small_ company with a modest amount of documentation probably
shouldn't be traveling this path. Look again at the responses from those
who know and do this stuff. Notice all the acronyms they toss out, and
the phrases like "application development," "follow-on processing,"
"customizing the application," and "a little bit of C programming." 

If you have half a dozen writers and thousands, or tens of thousands, of
pages of documentation, then you can probably justify the considerable
trouble and expense -- and you should probably hire someone like Lynne
Price to analyze your needs, set up the appropriate system, tools, and
process, and train your staff. The investment will pay for itself in the
long run. 

But if you have one or two writers and all you want is to maintain a
single set of source files to produce a modest amount of print, PDF, and
HTML output, and perhaps some flavor of online help, then I suspect you
can't really justify such an investment. All you really need is: 

-- FrameMaker (unstructured) for the source files and for print and PDF
output. 
-- WebWorks Publisher Pro or Mif2Go for HTML and one or more help
formats. 

IMHO, that is. YMMV. ;-)

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
-- Einstein

Richard 

------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant, a division of Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT qwestDOTnet
303-777-0436
------




 


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