#30269
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Automated Templates 
Automated templates are an alternative to traditional supporting information for helping users perform complex tasks. In this study users performed tasks with and without wizard to trial and error, printed manuals, and online the use of automated templates. Results suggest that if fakes help, and examined the use of supporting information some time for users to learn to use automated templates, but in performing complex tasks. We also considered once they do, the templates help users perform tasks more whether automated templates serve an educational successfully and more quickly.
Bayer, Nancy L., R. Darren Carleton, Susan Goetchus, Robert Krull and Rick S. Sapir. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Document Design>Content Management
#31747
These are exciting times and we have a great opportunity to finally leverage technical communications into the spotlight. The value of information is finally being properly realised, and we are ideally placed to help any organisation make the most of what information they have and help them understand and create the information they really need.
McLean, Gordon. One Man Writes (2008). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy
#10235
Exactly What Is Content, Anyway?
Not too long ago, one of the key people behind a substantial e-commerce operation confidently assured me, 'Content is not a consideration for our site. We just sell stuff – we don't publish content.' CRINGE!!! This statement reflects a sadly limited understanding (a profound misunderstanding, actually) of the nature and role of content in online media. Content is a broad term, with broad implications. It includes far more than article-style material.
Gahran, Amy. Contentious (2001). Articles>Content Management>Theory
#24772
Extensible Markup Languages and Traditional Abstracting and Indexing Strategies 
Object oriented coding languages are used to more accurately label and search for content embedded in electronic texts. An object can be a graphic, a row of specific data housed in a table, a written text, or any other piece of information that conveys meaning. XML, XLink and RDF are second-generation object-oriented coding languages and tools derived from SGML. I illustrate how these object-oriented languages can effectively deploy the indexing techniques and systems traditionally used by information professionals.
Applen, J.D. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2001). Articles>Content Management>Knowledge Management>XML
#23135
How to extract content from a portion of a PDF document.
Baker, Donna L. PlanetPDF (2004). Articles>Content Management>Document Design>Adobe Acrobat
#27458
Fifteen Steps to Select a Content Management System
These are suggested steps to research Content Management System options for your organization, large or small. They can take you from knowing nothing about CMS to final vendor and product selection. Even if you are replacing a CMS with a new tool, you should follow these steps in the CMS lifecycle.
Doyle, Bob. CMS Review (2004). Articles>Content Management>Assessment
#23658
Fight the Unbeatable Foe: Challenges in Implementing Single Sourcing
Single sourcing documentation is a hot topic among technical writers these days, but very few organizations have implemented single sourcing strategies or solutions. This session presents the problems faced by organizations that want to move towards single sourcing and steps to successfully implement a single sourcing strategy and solution in your organization.
Sukach, Rebecca, Robert Kennedy and Marie Devine. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing
#27990
The Five Biggest Mistakes in CMS Selection
Describes the big 'gotchas' in choosing a web content management system.
Welchman, Lisa. CMSwatch (2003). Articles>Content Management>Assessment
#31945
The Five Hidden Costs of Running a CMS
We all know content management systems (CMS) can be beneficial for most websites. However, they do come with five hidden costs. Many think of a content management system as a magic bullet that solves all of their content woes. Unfortunately the cost of a CMS is greater than its price tag. Before making a decision about whether to adopt a CMS, or indeed which CMS to choose, you first need to be aware of the hidden costs. These include: the cost of training; the cost to quality; the cost to functionality; the cost of redundancy and flexibility; the cost of commitment. It is important that you understand the impact of each beginning with the cost of training.
Boag, Paul. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Content Management>Management
#27129
The nucleus of building an online community is a popular an well run forum. When building a community using php CMS software the forum is the first thing that should be configured. Unfortunately most opensource php CMS software is lacking in the area that it should be strongest, the forum. For users a lot of time and effort goes into choosing the right software to accomplish the task of building an online community. Missing is the effort by the CMS developers to ensure that the software is up to the job.
Hiveminds (2006). Articles>Content Management>Community Building
#30684
The Four Disciplines of Content Management
A lot of stuff gets lumped under the heading 'content management.' In my experience, however, all the technical activities under the banner of content management can general be broken out into four disciplines.
Gadgetopia (2007). Articles>Content Management
#31017
From a Business and Science Search Firm
Discusses some principles of managing an information search firm and their similarities to managing corporate libraries. Compares information search firms to other professional service firms. Describes the evolution of one small business and science information search firm. Gives insights into managing customer service and client relationships, quality control and processes, risk taking and professional growth. Touches on David Maister's theory of the quality experience and Michael Gerber's idea of the role of the entrepreneur vs the technician in small start-up businesses.
Lesky, Cynthia. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Content Management>Knowledge Management>Search
#27453
From Enterprise Content Management to Effective Content Management 
The vision of enterprise content management (ECM) as a single system to manage all content became popular in 2000 and 2001. In theory, having a single, centralized system to organize and manage all of an organization’s content into an accessible and navigable electronic library is very attractive. Companies must manage a wide array of assets, including internal how-to documents to support business processes, internal and external correspondence, marketing literature, and product documentation. Organizations are buried in digital content, leaving people scrambling to find the right information when they need it.
Gottlieb, Seth. Optaros (2005). Articles>Content Management
#22415
Fulfilling the Promise of Content Management
The Web explosion brought with it the proliferation of published content and the heightened need for content management (CM). Before that CM lived primarily in the publishing industry, where it never truly fulfilled its promise. Now that the 'dot-com' hysteria has settled CM has become a focal point again as mature, more traditional enterprises from all industries tune their sites – Internet, intranet and extranet.
Kartchner, Chris. ASIST (2001). Articles>Content Management
#31125
The Full Definition of Content Management
The next time you start a conversation about Content Management with someone, start by trying to gain an understanding what they think content management is. You might be surprised.
#21768
Content reuse is fundamental to a successful unified content strategy.This chapter defines content reuse and the benefits ofits use.It explores how other industries have employed reuse for decades to improve their processes and the quality oftheir products. Content can be reused in many ways. The choice ofthe different methods and options for reuse are dependent upon your organization’s needs and technology.This chapter details the pros and cons ofusing each method and the associated options,and it provides the concepts that underlie the remainder ofthe book.
Rockley, Ann. AIfIA (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Content Strategy
#14593
Fuzzy Matching as a Retrieval-Enabling Technique for Digital Libraries
This paper advocates an often-neglected search-support technique, approximate or 'fuzzy' matching of user search terms. When properly deployed, fuzzy matching can significantly enhance the benefits of other, more common approaches to end-user answer retrieval from online reference collections. We compare crude with more sophisticated approximation techniques to explain how astute fuzzy-match software can convert many different near-miss situations (such as those involving faulty prefixes or suffixes, character misplacement, nonstandard word stems, or unanticipated redescription of concepts) into more adequate results. We also suggest practical ways to overcome fuzzy matching's own major drawbacks (namely, problems with search speed, search imprecision, and misinterpretation of search results). The resulting analysis clarifies how to deploy fuzzy matching for maximum effectiveness. We conclude that appropriate fuzzy matching enables more frequent, more flexible search success than do ordinary retrieval-improvement techniques used without it.
Girill, T.R. and Clement H. Luk. CSU Chico (1996). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Search
#28507
Getting Started with Blogging Software
We reviewed and compared the seven tools most frequently used to create a blog. Which are easiest to get up and running, or to tailor to match your site? Which has the best comment moderation features? Reporting functionality? We'll give you all the details and recommend a tool for you.
IdealWare (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software>Blogging
#23980
Goal-Directed Content Management
Anecdotal evidence from within the CM industry indicates that CM implementations fail to meet corporate expectations about half of the time. Part of the reason for missed expectations could be poor usability.
Fore, David. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Articles>Content Management>Usability
#14588
Going On-Line: Bringing Technical Reports To The Desktop
Information management is moving quickly toward archiving and retrieving documents electronically, so Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is taking steps to help its research staff create electronic documents. Declining budgets frequently dictate that authors handle the technicalities of getting published as well as the scientific and technical information that they publish. To help the Laboratory benefit from being the leader in this area, ORNL’s Information Management Section formed a multidisciplinary team to develop, pilot, and implement a Webbased process to register and clear technical documents and to add the full text of these documents to the Laboratory’s Comprehensive Publications and Presentations Registry (CPPR). Making this happen required implementing policy changes to address the new performance measure, acquiring software needed for file conversion, developing Web guidance, and providing training and consulting for ORNL staff.
Dole, Jeanne, David Hamrin and Rebecca Lawson. OSTI. Articles>Content Management>Reports
#20332
Going Online: A Case Study in the Development and Implementation of Netscape NetHelp
Computerized Medical Systems, Inc. (CMS) - the worldâ*™s leading radiation therapy planning (RTP) company with over 1000 installed RTP systems and over 400 installed dosimetry systems - decided in late 1996 to move existing FOCUS documentation online. Reasons for this included: the existing documentation set perceived as too difficult to use; increasing printing cost; and customer feedback. Using Netscape NetHelp as a basis, the CMS documentation staff reduced printed documentation size by two-thirds while making the information more accessible. Reactions to FOCUSHelp have been highly favorable. Future plans include migrating to the NetHelp2 framework and reducing topic lengths.
Rupel, Roberta A., Ellard Douglas, Bill Bledsoe and Frank Watson. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Help
#24626
Graphic Designer Needs a Web CMS
While you can create very powerful content management solutions with most open-source packages -- they have a much steeper learning curve than you experienced with HTML or Flash.
Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Articles>Content Management>Graphic Design
#14584
“Hand It To Them On A Silver Platter: Meeting Researchers Needs In The Electronic Age”
This paper describes the Electronic Resource Library (ERL) at http://plutonium-erl.actx.edu. This is a web-based, subject-oriented digital library on the topic of plutonium and its ancillary disciplines. Previous research analyzing differences in the information-seeking behavior of scientists and engineers is reviewed and lessons learned applied to this digital library model. Special consideration has been given to recommendations in the SATCOM report from the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication. This report strongly advocated the development of “specialized need-groupservices” to support the work of the engineer and practitioner.
Ruddy, Karen. OSTI (1999). Articles>Content Management>Web Design
#19985
Hands-on XML and Round Trip HTML for Technical Communicators
XML can simplify production of documents for print, help and web delivery. It can make document components reusable, portable between platforms and easier to maintain. XML also has a dark side. Parts of the standard are turbulent, vendors are rushing XML products to market that are not fully standard-compliant, implementation requires careful planning, and porting of legacy documents to XML is not trivial. Technical communicators can prosper by identifying the parts of XML that can be implemented immediately, by preparing documents to exploit support for XML available in new versions of Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker, and by using hybrid HTML/XML for document delivery.
Reichman, Katriel. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML
#31841
Provides a recap of how the online, wiki-based Carolina Communique evolved and won an Award of Excellence in the Newsletters: Web & Online category of the 2008 APEX Awards for Publication Excellence
Sapir, Rick. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>Content Management>Newsletters>Wikis
