Re: Suggestions for free/cheap/Open Source documentation for Web Site & PDF?

[Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>]

OpenOffice is an interesting suggestion. DocBook XML is among its
"save as" choices. The source code includes a help authoring
environment, so the help should serve as a sample project.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Technical Writing
Plus<doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net> wrote:
> Jen, Perhaps you should look at OpenOffice.org. I do not know the specifics,
> but it might cover most of your requirements. It does produce pdf and it
> does have a scripting language, and it does give you the option of producing
> html and xml docs.
>
> It is much more user-friendly than Latex.
>
> Jim Jones       chineseadjuster.webs.com        stc-chicago-jim.blogspot.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> ...I've been out of the documentation loop for a few years and thought I'd
> query the group for more modern insight. I'm helping out a project where
> we'll be producing documentation that we'll need to output in both PDF and
> as nice-looking Web pages. I've batted around a few ideas - LaTeX (nice and
> build-system-happy, but LaTex2HTML is so ugly...plus we'll eventually want
> many people to update it and not everyone loves LaTeX), Apache Forrest (but
> it doesn't seem to be heavily maintained and doesn't work with JDK 1.6. This
> is, I guess, not a big deal, but resetting JAVA_HOME all the time is a
> pain).
>
> Requirements are really the following:
>
> - Text-based source for easy integration with source control.
> - Free, or close to it.
> - Single-sourceability: Should be able to code text for multiple output
> streams/audiences.
> - Multiple output formats supported, PDF and HTML at a minimum.
> - Can be built without user interaction (i.e., scriptable to run with
> automated builds).
> - Somewhat easily editable - Eclipse plugin support would be fantastic.
> - Pain threshold for initial configuration is medium (<2 hrs to set up, fine
> if it takes a little longer to make "pretty"). Pain threshold for
> maintenance/modification of styles/build system/internals post-initial setup
> is high, however.
>
> Any advice or suggestions? What's working for you in the land of free
> software? Is anyone successfully using Maven to produce user documentation?
> (Anyone using Forrest?) Any other out-of-the-box DocBook implementations
> that are easy to get up and running quickly? Or other suggestions and
> advice?..
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
> Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
> http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
> authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
> once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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