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Subject:RE: To single source or not? From:"Michele Marques" <marquesm -at- autros -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 2 Oct 2000 14:39:06 -0400
teknicol -at- inter -dot- net -dot- il asks:
> 1. Was I wrong to suggest single sourcing? Is it generally not an
> acceptable solution?
Single sourcing can save you time in producing multiple documents and also
help you make sure that multiple documents based on the same information get
updated at the same time.
> 2. What does one do about different types of documents needing different
> styles of writing?
It depends on how different the styles are and the tools you are using. If
you are using FrameMaker, you might be making heavy use of conditional text.
For example, you might set conditions so that on-line help would not include
most screen captures or overview/introductory information (that is included
in print and PDF versions). You might have different book files for
different target audiences, which pull together different chapters from the
complete guide.
But if you are setting up many document outputs, you have to be careful with
conditions - if a paragraph is set to both conditions "administrator" and
"printonly", it will be visible whenever "administrator" is visible (even if
"printonly" is hidden) and will also be visible whenever "printonly" is
visible (even if "administrator" is hidden).
> 3. Do professionally designed help files contain screencaptures?
It depends :-)
When I am explaining all the parts of a screen, I find it useful to include
a screenshot of the screen and then let the user click on parts of the
screenshot to get pop-ups explaining that part of the screen.
But if I am describing a step-by-step procedure, I won't include screenshots
of each step.
And if I am documenting a small portion of the screen, I may include a
screenshot of just that small portion - where in the printed manual I might
include a screenshot of the entire screen, with a call-out pointing to the
small portion.
