Inspiration for creating trouble shooting guide which is usable as an app

Can't offer any immediate replies, but I'll follow the thread with interest! I've just started looking at options for converting HTML output to some sort of native app format, starting from structured source files. I can see I have a lot to learn, but luckily I also have some very knowledgeable colleagues :-}

Is there a reason you can't have a series of Probable Causes chapters that enumerate your choices?

The chapter layout would enable you to have a MiniTOC for each that keeps the list of choices linked to the current content of the doc.

-Matt

Hi Bjørn,

Sounds like a great idea and a fun project. I have to say, though, that it looks like you will need custom development to get what you want. Certainly, no desktop publisher can support this type of specialized content manipulation without some significant customization.

With some certainty, I do believe that the first step you should take is to structure the content. If you want to do interesting things with content, it needs metadata; that is, a logical roadmap for an automated process to follow. Unstructured content is now decades obsolete for any type of advanced publishing, because it lacks the markup to facilitate automation. With structural metadata, you can define any nature of additional information that could serve as instructions for conversion to your app. Of course, you would still need to build that conversion process, but at least you would have some better foundation to start with.

Hope this helps. Sounds like a fun project.

Russ