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.
Probably the only impediment I've ever encountered to using Maker in a shop is
that engineers can't see or comment on the SOURCE... They have to wait for me
to deliver a PDF. As a result, I end up maintaining Word or WIKI content as
well as Maker content. Ultimately, without a viable response, Maker will loose
out to WIKI.
I think the business case is this -- Pubs department uses Maker to publish
content, and the reviewers need a decent work flow. To support Agile shops, the
reviewers need the ability to add content as well. But it doesn't have to be --
no, it *cannot* be -- final, publish-ready content. The pubs department has to
own the final publishing decisions.
Importing comments from PDF is a step kind of in the right direction, but not
really. First, it means I have to save as PDF, and second, I don't want to
import the comments into my content, I want to use the comments in my content.
Very different. Maybe I misunderstand this feature... It scares me
sufficiently that I've never really tried it out. Adobe is doing to PDF what
Microsoft did to Word (remember when Word was excellent? I do... Back before
Windows.) Personally, I'm using PDF less and less.
I'd like to see a Maker Light that is along the lines of Google Wave... Anybody
can open the file, and can add in content that is bracketed as a comment. This
would provide two work flows -- Commenting and adding to an existing document,
and starting a discussion that evolves into a new document. But the nature of
the Maker Lite content makes it clear that this is not final content. It should
identify the comment author and time stamp -- and it should give some sort of
comment/reply nesting that indicates the evolution of a thread. Only a full
license can remove and/or integrate comments. So I would want:
* Start/reply comment thread
* All formatting capabilities *within* the given template (no template creation)
* Structure where appropriate
* Config that turns off specific formatting capabilities (requires full license
to edit config)
* Custom set of templates (requires full license to add templates. In fact,
Maker Lite
has ZERO default templates, so you need a full license to even deploy it.)
Throw in decent WebDAV support (or something of the kind) with browsing to the
files, checkout, checkin, etc. and I think you have something. (May the Gods of
ADOBE grant us tree widgets in FDK dialogs!) BTW, this kind of Web support and
browsing should be in the full license as well. It must be EASY to store and
organize Maker files on an intranet Web server, so you have zero problems with
mounting disks and the like.
To make this a simple marketing equation, DO NOT provide any capability to
produce a print (or HTML or PDF) - ready document. This is about an in-house
work flow that makes it easier to sell Maker to the whole team... easier to
integrate Maker. Personally, I would sell it for free (oxymoron, I know). Back
to reality, charge $99.00 a seat -- with a volume discount. And include it free
in any site license.
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-