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: Client access to edit Help From:Erika Yanovich <ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com> To:Suzette Leeming <suzette -dot- leeming -at- gmail -dot- com>, TechWriter <TECHWR-L -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 24 Mar 2016 06:53:07 +0000
I can see 3 options here:
1. What you suggested (and charge the client for the source files)
2. Offering the client this service at a fast turnaround (selling professional services)
3. Migrating to another tool that allows this (is there any?)
The way I would handle this is offering options 1 and 2 to the client and let the client choose.
HTH,
Erika
-----Original Message-----
Background:
We deliver browser based help files for our enterprise software but it`s installed on our clients' servers for security reasons (let`s not debate that).
Our clients want the ability to "modify" the help files so that it can include their own internal process information and links to their internal documents as well.
This has been fairly straight forward in the past and all they required was an html editor because we deliver the help in an uncompressed format.
We now have much more complex help files and it`s not straight forward anymore and some clients may have an issue with this, and it`s become a bit of an internal thorn in my side. Indeed, many of the RFPs we respond to specifically ask "can the help files be modified?"
My question to the group is this; is anyone else in the same situation and if so, how do you handle it?
Suzette Leeming
PS - My most recent suggestion was to give clients our source files and suggest they buy a license to the help authoring tool we use. That suggestion did not go over very well.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
