Be A Hero – ELIMINATE “END GAME”

RoundUp 2007,

Austin TX

November 6th, 2007

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Agenda

Introduction

What Did We Learn From You ?

What is “END GAME” ?

How to Get Rid of “END GAME”

Choosing a Strategy.

Create a Starting Point.

Becoming a Hero !

Q&A

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Introduction

20 + Years in Technical Publications

10 Years in Production Shops

10 Years in Publishing Software

Graphics

Content Management

Editing Tools

Publishing Engines

Document Conversion

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

What Did We Learn From You ?

The Boss

“I don’t understand what’s so difficult – anyone can write. All you have to do is create the content and then just publish it.”

The Reality

Standards

Software Products

Focus has been on creating the content and formats but not the publishing process.

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

What Did We Learn From You ?

“JUST PUBLISH IT”

Covers a lot of stuff..

Tight schedules

Increasing requirements

Limited budgets

Changing user needs

Lack of management understanding

Writers are tenacious.

“THE END GAME”

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

What is “END GAME” ?

“END GAME”

Phrase Came From A Customer

Steps needed to create output formats (HTML, PDF, Online Help etc.)

Not about Content or Styling.

Repeatable for every release

Potential bottleneck (c.f. webmaster)

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

What is “END GAME” ?

“END GAME” Can Be Your Worst Nightmare

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

How to Get Rid of “END GAME”.

Examine requirements

Legacy content?

Printed manuals?

Images?

Online format types?

Other languages/locales?

Lifetime of content?

Update interval?

Software budget?

Strive for automation

No post-conversion edits

Automate post-conversion steps

Avoid visual Q/A requirements at end

All errors identified by system

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

How to Get Rid of “END GAME”.

Avoid over-reliance on best practices.

Flaws must be identifiable

Enforce conformance up-front

Avoid HTML lists unless enforced with structured editor

Track updates

Keep previous version for “diff” analysis

Compare conversion engine changes

Compare content changes

Simplifies final review

Prevents future migration difficulties

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

Topic or document based?

Authoring environment?

Publishing system?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

Topics require up front effort

Documents are harder to reuse

Smaller means more work

DTD, Schema, or unstructured?

Choose wisely...

Topic or document based?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

Adobe FrameMaker

» Large documents

» Powerful cross-reference and book operations

» Best of both worlds (XML and WYSIWYG)

Authoring environment?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

Microsoft Word

• Available across enterprise

• Reduced training cost

• MS Office integration

Authoring environment?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

DITA-XML

• Standards Based

• Variety of Authoring Tools

• Business Systems integration

• Separates Content from Formats

Authoring environment?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Choosing a Strategy

Standardized/productized

Open architecture

Content Management System Integration

Ability to maintain

Total cost of ownership

Support for new formats (i.e. Vista)

Automation/workflow flexibility

Publishing system?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Create a Starting Point.

Create simple style template

• Headings

• Lists

• Bullets

• Note/alert styles

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Create a Starting Point.

Create sample use cases

Images

Tables

Print vs. online

Popup, glossary, etc.

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Becoming A Hero !

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Becoming a Hero !

Free the writer

• Focused on content not tool used

• Provide ability for individual publishing

Peace of mind for management

• Means for tracking content

• Regular scheduled build runs

• Means for adapting to future requirements

Ultimate goal

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

The Three Components

Map Document Style to Output Style

Source + Map = On Demand Publishing

Output

Lights Out / Hands Off for Automation

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Work Flow – Developing The Rules

Styles Template

Document Style = Output Style

Document Designer

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Work Flow – On Demand Publishing

Source Documents

Writers / Production

Output

Source + Map

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Work Flow – Automation

Source Documents

CMS

Output

Output

Lights Out / Hands Off

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Work Flow – Overview

Source Documents

Output

Document Style = Output Style

Source + MapLights Out / Hands Off

Styles Template

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Questions ?

© 2007 – Quadralay Corporation

Contact Info

Alan J. PorterVP-OPERATIONS

WebWorks.comQuadralay Corporation

9101 Burnet Road, Suite #105

Austin, Texas. 78758

Tel: 512-719-3399 x232

Cell: 512-968-7362

aporter@webworks.com