Structure gives you the benefit of separating content from presentation. Sounds trivial, and you may think you've accomplished this without structure, but that is the primary reason to structure content: so your XML abstraction is as agnostic as possible to the form of rendition that you will publish in.
Typically, most unstructured forms of content management blur the distinction between the XML abstraction and the XML (or other) rendition. Structuring content using XML standards also enables interoperability with the ever-evolving publishing tools at our disposal. We don't really know what cool publishing application will come up next, but we can bet it will import and export XML, thus it will be interoperable with systems based on structured content. Not that structured content is always the right path... The sorts of question to ask are: * How many output formats do you have? (if it is just one, perhaps unstructured is best!) * Is translation required? (XML content management can definitely reduce cost of translation) * How much content reuse is required/implemented? (the more reuse, the more benefit structure provides) I would encourage you to explore the Adobe FrameMaker 7.2 Application Pack for DITA, in particular its Open Toolkit integration. I think when you generate different forms of help using the OT, combined with PDF using the Framemaker rendition engine, you will understand the benefits of structured content. http://www.adobe.com/go/dita/ Thanks, Max -- Max Dunn Silicon Publishing -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] om] On Behalf Of Rene Stephenson Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 6:46 AM To: MATT TODD; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Reasons to Structure Matt, I'll start the ball rolling, but I'm sure you'll get tons of responses from folks more savvy about structure than myself. ;-) * Dynamic formatting: you can use structured FM to create formats that behave differently depending on various surrounding factors, like indent to a certain level if it follows X paragraph but to a different level if it follows Y paragraph. * Ability to produce cleaner XML for flexible web output. Rene MATT TODD <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: All right...tell me good, solid reasons why a company would want to structure their documents. With my limited knowledge, I know structure effectively controls styles, fonts, etc...but I could manage that myself without structure. By extension, I know style control also controls content location because particular types of writing usually use a particular style...but I can also manage that myself. I know structure is designed to encourage single-sourcing, but I'm already headed in that direction without structure. I'm convinced with time and continuing documentation analysis, I can parse our documentation so duplicate verbiage in all our documents imports from one source. I can do that without structure. I can use conditional text to further cut down duplicate verbiage; it requires no structure. I can buy scripts or third-party software to automate documentation procedures without resorting to structure. So tell me...why structure documentation? I don't know enough to answer that question, and neither do my bosses. What's so great about it? What capabilities does it offer that demand its use? Right now, I'm just doing what I'm told, but it's always nice to found actions on solid reason. Matt > I'm working with legacy documentation created in Word and FM 7.0 > unstructured. The goal is FM 7.0 structured. Whose goal is this, and why? I've seen the gee whiz demonstrations from Adobe reps and been utterly convinced that I Need Structured Docs Now! only to return to my pdf-output-only client projects that have no real need for structured Frame. Before committing, make sure there's a business case for structuring. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/rinnie1%40yahoo.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. Rene L. Stephenson eNovative Solutions, Inc. Business Phone: 678-513-0051 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/maxdunn%40siliconpub lishing.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. 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