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Yes, but if you write a module of conceptual info,
a module of reference info, and a module of procedural
info, you can rearrange them as needed for docs
and help -- no rewriting necessary. And, since less
info goes into the help, you can just hide the extraneous
info in each module as needed. There are quite a few
different ways to do this. (Our audiences are sys
admins, net admins, and programmers, so we have a
healthy mix of procedures and reference info.)
Anybody else have any solutions to suggest?
A.
--
Alexia Prendergast
Senior Technical Writer
Seagate Software
alexiap -at- sems -dot- com
>----------
>From: Janice Gelb[SMTP:janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM]
>Sent: Thursday, July 17, 1997 12:02 PM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Re: Technical writer dream
>
>Alexia Prendergast writes:
>>
>> I couldn't agree more re: manuals and help not being one
>> and the same. However, with judicious use of conditional
>> text and modular development, you can easily reuse information
>> from the same file -- cutting your development and maintenance
>> time.
>>
>
>I have found this to be true for task-oriented material, but even then
>it may need to be rewritten to some extent. In book form, having the
>concept, task, and reference information for one area (for example, a
>mail tool) makes the most sense. For online help, however, the task
>information is going to be entirely separate from the conceptual or
>reference information, meaning you may have to add context to the task
>that in the book was present in the preceding or following material.
>Also, most online help doesn't provide much conceptual information, so
>you may need to add some concepts to a task screen to orient the user.
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