This was part of a discussion on the DITA forum.
Ron
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Hi Ann:
As an information architect that has converted numerous products and
acquisitions to XML, I can tell you that you are on the right track in
considering structured documentation and DITA from the get-go. I cannot
tell you how many "small" products and acquisitions I have subsequently
converted that started out on the premise that they would not be large
and would not be translated. They were all subsequently wrong.
They became increasingly large and complex with eventual translation
requirements as they attempted to penetrate international markets with a
huge cost burden that undermined any initial "savings" going with
apparently cheaper, easier solutions. I'm not sure why so many companies
start with the premise that they will not be successful!
The subsequent conversion tasks are extremely expensive, though a
one-time cost. The savings moving to structured documentation and
XML/DITA at a later date more than make up for the investment, many
times over, especially when translations enter the picture. But it's
best not to incur the conversion cost in the first place.
In my opinion, it's better to start off with the premise of scalability
from the get-go and bypass the later conversion tasks altogether. Most
large companies that I know of these days are already using DITA with
some editor and CMS solution or another.
At a previous company, what we did was take a sample set of content into
XML and then tried the various editor solutions available at the time,
generating outputs along the way. You can download trials from all the
major DITA vendors.
I will cut to the chase. My own bias these days is toward oXygen for
technical reasons. The editor is mature, bundles DITA OT, and provides a
version of WebHelp that you can generate out of the editor. The editor
provides a profiling method for creating custom outputs per your
requirements. As a software developer, you should have no issue creating
custom plug--ins based on DITA OT.
DITA OT is important because it is, as the name indicates, an Open
Toolkit that you can modify for your own requirements without vendor
lock-in. Need a new help output? Create another plug-in meeting the
specific requirements of the day and keep rolling. If you want to
jettison oXygen for some reason at a later date, keep your plug-ins and
use a different editor on top of OT. As I see it, editors come and go,
but your content and data will persist through time. That's been my
industry experience to date and I don't expect it to change.
I personally use PTC Arbortext as an editor a lot, but you will need to
integrate your own DITA OT modifications into the editor workflow and
probably purchase a licence for the WebHelp. I find this to be a real
pain when wanting to use open source for the build chain, as much as I
like Arbortext with the PTC DITA Application. You could buy a license of
WebHelp from the oXygen group and use it as an external plug-in, but
there are other WebHelp solutions worth considering. I like the plug-in
route myself because it follows the existing, modular OT model and does
not require lock-in to an editor.
If you're really adventurous, you can now build build your own WebHelp
type solution using HTML 5 and dita4publishers plug-ins with OT, but you
will need to invest development time into this route. Personally, I
think it would be cheaper and faster to simply buy a license for
oXygen's external WebHelp plug-in and modify that for company look and
feel requirements.
The other route is to use a proprietary replacement for OT, still using
DITA, with possible workflow enhancements and value-add in the CMS,
which can be very real factors, especially in larger organizations.
Personally, I want my content formats and build chain to be open source
so I can switch editors and CMS as needed. I don't mind using
proprietary components in the workflow, but the fundamentals of the
source and final build outputs must remain open in my view to
future-proof my information architecture investment.
Troy Klukewich
InfoDev Manager
Oracle Corporation
On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 4:48 AM, [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> [dita-users] <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hello,
My company (software provider with ~100 employees) is finally
accepting the challenge to put a dedicated documentation project in
place with the aim of having up to date product documentation
created, maintained and available to internal users and customers.
This is something we don't currently have and it is hurting us.
I am a software developer with an interest in training and
documentation and I have been asked to instigate this project. I am
finding it very difficult to identify which tool/solution we should
go with i.e. DITA or non-DITA. I absolutely want us to have
structured content where the documentation admin can create
templates which SMEs fill in. I want something like tri-pane
webhelp that has good search functionality ideally using meta data
added by the SME. Since we don't have a Tech Writer team or that
expertise I feel that going the DITA route might mean we will have
nothing to show for a very long time. However, if we go with a
non-DITA solution provider I am afraid we will have unstructured
documentation that will prove difficult to maintain and the project
will fail.
With this basic information, can anyone experienced out there advise
on what path I should consider in relation to the environment in
which we will fill in our product documentation content?
Any advice appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Ann Jensen
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Posted by: Troy Klukewich <[email protected]>
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