Creating Training manuals using FM with multiple SME's authoring

Having been on both sides of the fence of your authoring situation I would produce a shareable PDF Review in which the SMEs could make comments and suggestions to the FM author.  Asking the SMEs to become familiar enough with FM to make intelligent markups is probably not an effiecient way to spend SME time. SMEs need to spend their time doing what they do best and authoring in FM is not time well spent in the situations I've been involved in.  The way I would do it is to save the FM document as a PDF, then with Acrobat Pro create a shareable PDF review and include the SMEs in the review process.  Everyone involved in the review can view each other's comments and comment on their comment.  It's also nice cause you can also set a suspense.  Only one liscense needed for Acrobat Pro (I would recommend getting Technical Communications Suite if you don't already have it)  Everyone else just needs Acrobat 8 or higher.  Provides a really great review - feedback tool.  My two cents.

Eric G

katinnorway wrote: Greetings from Norway! I am currently considering switching from an InDesign/InCopy workflow over to TC2. Our manuals are heavily dependent on SME input and participation, in fact they write a good deal along with the tech writers. Is is possible to have SME contribution using Frame if only the techwriters actually have Frame on their workstations? I have read alot and see that if you use WebDAV you can save the Frame file as a .xml file. Can the SME's write content in an xml format and then have the tech writers import it into the long document in Frame?  If my SME's want to write a new chapter outline for me to follow, is this possible with WebDAV? To get 2 licenses in Norway is going to cost us $4,500, so I want to make sure that I can still have the SME input without any problems. We have been using InCopy for this purpose, but are having too many little problems and I would like to move towards Frame. ANY input on working with Frame with multiple authors, some of which are not using Frame on their workstations, would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, kathryn

Hi, Kathryn:

If you're currently outputting your manuals from InDesign - whether to paper or PDF - there's probably no immediate or compelling need to convert to FrameMaker.

You'll have the same problems with SMEs maintaining strict style usage, whether in InCopy or Word for import into InDesign or FrameMaker, and you'll have the same problems with SMEs working in FrameMaker directly, even if your company should win a FrameMaker site license in a lottery.

Even in departments whose members are experienced technical writers, maintaining rigorous style requirements isn't automatic or easy.

One key reason to consider the Technical Communications Suite is its ability to create help systems. A related reason is its ability to create single-source material for reuse and/or multiple outputs; FrameMaker can work with content management systems, XML, and DITA. All of these are not trivial to implement.

RoboHelp can work with Word files, if help systems ability is important to you. FrameMaker wouldn't be necessary.

Though InDesign can work with XML, it currently isn't suited to the kind of XML authoring that FrameMaker is. It's not easy to author for XML in InDesign or InCopy, as it is in FrameMaker, and even in FrameMaker, it's not without problems. InDesign can't do DITA.

It might be worthwhile to create a small-scale trial in which your SMEs work in Word or InCopy, or some other application whose output maintains style names. Import that material into you InDesign templates, then analyze the problems.

One major problem will undoubtedly be inconsistent tagging of material with proper styles. A close second will be attempts by the users to apply custom formatting (overrides) to the content, rather than using styles. Other problems include inconsistent use of lists of items, and inclusion of items in running text.

If you can define a simple set of styles and requirements that the SMEs agree to follow, importing their material to any style-conscious application will require less manual effort.

If the SMEs will need to revise material that the technical writers send back, you'll want to experiment with round-tripping from your publishing application via RTF or Word file format and reimporting from whatever editing application the SMEs use. If SMEs will agree to edit in Acrobat, this is one way to avoid the inevitable round-tripping artifacts, though it requires manual attention from the technical writers.

Using a single-flow layout - "single story" in InDesign terms, "single text flow" in FrameMaker terms, rather than the kind of discontinuous graphic-designer's visual layout of pasted page objects and separate stories, will make it easier to reflow revised content. This is the usual way that FrameMaker users work. InDesign's improved long-document tools make it possible to work the same way.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Kathryn,

It seems to me you still have some misconceptions regarding the role of WebDAV and XML. Regarding XML please read

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/framemaker/articles/fm8_xml/fm8_xml.pdf

(Although it talks about FrameMaker 8 it is still true.)

Buying FrameMaker plus enabling WebDAV alone will not give you a satisfactory XML-based process. Buying a tool does not automatically give you a process matching your needs. Compared to the InDesign/InCopy workflow FrameMaker is much more flexible and therefore needs more configuration.

I have not said that it is not possible, but I would first try to deal with the "little problems" you have with the current workflow.

- Michael Müller-Hillebrand

If you want to have SMEs directly inputting content, each workstation would need a FM license.

However, I would never recommend that workflow because in my experience the tech writer has the ultimate responsibility for content (and I wouldn't want to take the chance that someone would screw up the working file), so I'd set up something different:

• Create a Word template for the SMEs that uses the same paragraph style names as your FM template. Distribute it to all your SMEs.
  
• When they're done with a file:
  • edit it in Word (either in .dox or .docx format, if you want to work in XML) and work with the author until the content is correct, or
  • open it in Frame, and apply your FM template to impose your formatting.
• When the clean copy is in Frame, you're good to go to review. I use Acrobat for electronic reviews because it's tightly integrated with FM and has a host of tools that make review easier for both reviewers and writers.

Art