For years I have been anxious to implement true single sourcing. As an employee in small tech companies there had never been enough money to do much more than have a style guide. As a contractor for small companies it has been difficult to get them to want more than the status quo using MS Word. I even went as far as learning XML coding eight years ago so that I could be ready for the wave I knew was coming.

I can do some pretty fancy things with MS Word and even fancier with FrameMaker but until recently I have not been able to find a reason that pays me to work in XML. At the end of 2007 I got a contract to convert a user manual from MS Word into XML using DITA standards. It was a learning experiment for both the company and for myself and we both made concessions to have the opportunity to work together.

The first thing I needed was an XML editor. This had been an easy choice since I had been given a free license to XMetaL at a conference I had attended. I then needed some guidance into the use of DITA. I contracted a peer, Rahel Bailey of Strategy A Consulting Group for a few hours of overview and spent a few more practicing. XMetaL was quite intuitive for the formation of DITA content. The uptake was less than a day of which I did not bill my client.

The next step was to convert the MS Word manual into XML. This required a software conversion that I had a third party do. The outcome of this conversion was 20 XML files that where not DITA compatible so I next had to restructure the content to meet the DITA standards. There was a lot of copy and pasting. I built the DITA map while I converted content. When complete there were 283 XML files, one ditamap and 42 conrefs (conditional XML reference files).

Finally the content had to be published into four PDF manuals. We had been using XDocs to manage the content. We applied the manual's publishing conditions and had XDocs publish the four manuals as PDF files.

The weeks following I had several chances to create content from scratch using XML. It was liberating. I loved being able to create everything at once and yet nothing at all. The organization of the content for final publication comes from the DITA map so it is possible to create content that could be placed anywhere.

I know there is a lot more I can do with XML and DITA but I also know I am going to enjoy the journey and the learning experience.

For a quick overview of the Pros and Cons of converting to XML refer to my blog.