TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Oh so many wikis From:"Janet M. Swisher" <swisher -at- enthought -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:43:29 -0500
"Brian Shaw" wrote:
> I'm looking for some advice, and knowing the depth of knowledge and
> understanding on this list I thought this would be a good place to
> start. I've been researching the use of a wiki for obtaining feedback
> for our documentation, but it would seem from what I can determine that
> most seem to require users to create the content in the wiki.
> Presently, we create all of our content in FrameMaker 7.1 We then create
> PDF to allow users to print, and use WebWorks Publisher to create HTML
> Help. We would prefer to continue with these tools for our formal
> documentation. Our need then, when using a wiki, is to be able to import
> already prepared documentation, without losing all of the cross
> references within the documentation set. Ideally, we would like to
> import the already prepared HTML Help, and make this editable in the
> wiki. There are many, many wikis from which to choose, but in looking at
> the feature sets of those that I have examined, I don't see any
> references to this kind of import.
> For budgetary reasons we are shy of looking at some of the proprietary
> solutions, so we would prefer to seek out something in the open source
> realm. Can I ask if there is anybody out there who has faced, and
> solved, a similar problem? Which of the wikis did you use, and did you
> find there were any configuration challenges?
Do you really want users to edit the documentation, or do you want them
to comment on it? The latter is what "obtain feedback" implies to me. If
it's the latter, something more akin to blogging software might be the
way to go.
The following is not really a solution to your problem, but may spark
some ideas:
Pydoh is a Python script that can "chunk" a monolithic HTML file (such
as is produced by MS Word), and can optionally enable user-comments per
paragraph, using PHP. It was written by David Morrill, one of the
developers I work with, on his own time. The user guide for the script
is here:
http://www.themorrillfamily.com/david/projects/pydoh/pydoh_2.php
An example of Pydoh's output that uses the "YakBack" feature is here: http://www.enthought.com/code/traits/doc/UM/Traits2_UM_1.php
(You may see a PHP warning the first time you access this page, but it
doesn't affect anything.) The source for this manual is in
OpenOffice.org Writer.
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
