Joseph: We don't "only" distribute by Internet, *but* we do distribute most manuals that way simply because timing is always an issue.
A software image may be created for manufacturing before my English manuals are ready, although the English manuals are also loaded manually at the last second as part of the mfg process (due to regulatory issues). I've given up trying to worry about timing now that we just distribute digital copies (hard copy only on request). The translated versions are always added on an "as available" basis, which, of course, is never at release and almost always via the Internet (occasionally we mail a DVD if the client is in the middle of nowhere in Africa or Siberia and doesn't have access to a decent - or any - Internet connection). My caveat is that my company may not be a good example for you as we are a smaller player in the medical device industry, in no way comparable to Microsoft or Adobe (or even the medical device arms of GE and Siemens). Alison Craig, Technical Writer Ultrasonix Medical Corporation Tel: (604) 279-8550, ext 127 E-mail: alison.craig at ultrasonix.com PS: I love your comment re: "the engineering team's agile development life cycle". Although "agile and *fluid*" might be a better description of my R&D team! -----Original Message----- From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joseph Lorenzini Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 11:01 AM To: FrameMaker Forum Subject: Fwd: PDF Distribution: Packaging with Product versus Internet Access Hi all, I publish hundreds of pages of documentation using FrameMaker. I also use Robohelp to generate help systems. Does anyone know of IT companies that ONLY distribute documents about their products via the internet and are NO longer distributing documentation by installing it with the product? Off the top of my head, I believe Microsoft and Adobe do this with some of their products. For a variety of reasons, I am considering moving away from bundling documents with the software's installation package and instead only distributing the docs via a internet portal. If I did this, I would no longer be at the mercy of the engineering team's agile development life cycle. This means I would 1) have significantly more time to document features 2) the code is frozen so features will always be completed by the time I start documenting them and out of date screenshots would be a thing of the past and 3) SMEs would have more time to review my documents. However, to make this sell to project management, I need some evidence that other IT companies are ONLY distributing documents via the internet and are NO longer distributing documentation by installing it with the product. Sincerely, Joseph Lorenzini _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as alison.craig at ultrasonix.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/alison.craig%40ultrasonix.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
