Standards and procedures
Single sourcing of Wise Solutions documentation
View sample topics. (JPG file, 893 KB) -- This sample shows a heavily-conditioned source page and two of the resulting variations.
Purpose: As Wise Solutions expanded their product line, they repurposed several products for different markets. When this repurposing affected just two products and resulted in two versions of each product, we maintained separate source books. When additional products and versions were added, I developed a strategy for single sourcing.
(Wise Solutions had already been generating the printed deliverable, PDF, and help for each product from the same FrameMaker source.)
Audience: The system administrators who deploy and manage the software applications on the client computers in their organizations' networks.
Description: The strategy for producing multiple deliverables from a single source is as follows:
- Maintain one set of FrameMaker source files for each product that was sold in different configurations.
- Use color-coded, conditional text to indicate version-specific content.
- Use variables for product names and other version-specific information.
- Use a single deliverable book for versions that contain the same chapters; otherwise, use separate deliverable books.
- Maintain a "condition template" for each book version and apply it to the source book when creating PDF files.
- Maintain a separate WebWorks template for each help version and use it to create the help.
My role: Researcher, strategy developer, FrameMaker template and conditional text designer, help template developer.
Tools used: Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe Acrobat Standard, WebWorks Publisher.
Distribution: The single-sourced content is distributed in PDF format with the software. The same information is delivered in HTML Help format, which is accessible from within the software.
At one time, we maintained six source books that were output into 19 different PDF deliverables and 19 different help systems.
Publication date: The single sourcing strategy was implemented in late 2003 and was still in use for the Wise product documentation as of 2010.
Additional information: This strategy was highly successful and we could not have kept pace with the product growth without it. However, any further increase in the product complexity would have overtaxed our system. A move to a content management system would have been the next logical step.
The acquisition by Symantec brought us a content management solution. However, because the Wise products were not expanded further, a migration of the Wise documentation to that system was not a priority.