Managing and Delivering Your Content as Data  

Houser describes several options for organizations interested in data-oriented publishing--the delivery of discrete, independent pieces of information that can be selected, manipulated, and presented to meet the needs of different audiences with different characteristics and different goals.

Houser, Alan R. Intercom (2003). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML

Managing Documentation: From Hard Copy to Repository  

New technologies have added to the complexity of today’s documentation management. Documents have grown beyondpaper into compoundfonns that can include audio and video segments, and may exist only in electronic form. This documentation can capture much of an organization’s knowledge and wisdom. But often, these intellectual assets are lost because the organization lacks a formal knowledge management system. Many professional communicators already manage their documents from creation through delivery, but stop short of archival. This paper explains how to plan for efficient document production so that intellectual assets become available for easy retrieval and reuse.

Sharp, Michael V. and Beverly M. Bruns. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Single Sourcing

Meet Me in RIO: Implementing Reusable Information Objects  

Reusable information objects and reusable learning objects are the building blocks of e-learning courseware and e-documentation. A strong business case can be made for implementing a single-source content repository for RIOs/RLOs to achieve reusability between enterprise applications. Keys to achieving reusability include: an effective metatagging scheme, appropriate levels of granularity, and adherence to standards such as the SCORM.

Ruyle, Kim E. . STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Moving to Single Sourcing: Managing the Effects of Organizational Changes    

Argues that the move to single sourcing often requires changes within teams as new skills are introduced and members' roles shift. Points out that while some changes may threaten the stability of the team, managers can anticipate and prevent problems.

Bottitta, Jeanette, Alexia Prendergast Idoura and Lisa Pappas. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Collaboration

The New DUI (Documentation User Interface): Developing an Online Documentation Interface Using Microsoft Visual Basic, Word, and Access  

To address the increasing need for online delivery of customizable documentation, a writer for an information warehouse product presented, developed, and delivered an online documentation user interface. Developed using the standard PC development tools for the application, including Visual Basic and Access, this system lets users view and customize Word documents, online help files, and Access database tables.

Swain, Julie. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Documentation>Single Sourcing

Oblivious Organizations and Content Management: Not Yet Ready for Prime Time  

In brief, documents are created everywhere by everyone. They each develop the documents any way they like, with no common look and feel. Company officials have vehemently opposed hiring technical communicators for the R&D teams. They feel that the engineers know the products best and should be able to write about them. Marketing materials are created independently by many different marketing staff and even by executives who regularly post announcements to the company intranet and Internet sites.

Hackos, JoAnn T. ComTech Services (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Case Studies

Off the Paper and Onto the Web

With the professional publishing tools of Adobe InDesign and the expert Web production tools of Adobe GoLive, you can move printed content to the Web to create inspired Web sites that complement the design of your printed pieces.

Adobe (2005). Design>Web Design>Single Sourcing>Adobe GoLive

Off the Paper and Onto the Web

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how we adapted content from a full-color, printed brochure to create a visually rich Web site for attendees at a fictional design conference. As you follow along, you’ll learn tips and tricks that can help you move content from InDesign to GoLive to get the results you want.

Adobe (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Adobe InDesign

One Source, Five Deliverables: A Case Study of Return on Investment  

A case study of the implementation of a single-sourse content management system.

Martin, Ben. ComTech Services (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Case Studies

One-Stop Shopping: Creating a Single Source Information Base for Multipurpose Delivery  

Until recently, many companies developed two sets of documentation for each product - one set was delivered with the product, and the other set was used for customer training. In this panel presentation, we will discuss a new approach used at Lucent Technologies. Lucent is producing task-oriented customer documentation, stored in an asset repository, that can be tailored to each customer’s requirement and that can also be used for training purposes. This new way of producing information involves an integrated effort and provides order and structure to the development of information products. Each panelist will develop a different aspect of this process. how and why of applying order and structure to the process.

McGuire, Mildred E., Lee Anne Center, Gregory Henderson, James Moran and Christine Wentworth. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Single Sourcing

Planning: The Key to Successful CMS Implementation

So you think you need content management? The temptation is to call your Information Technology (IT) department and ask them to help you choose a content management system (CMS). Being very tool oriented, your IT department will love buying you the latest 'silver bullet' without ever looking at your content requirements or your internal processes. This is the best prescription for failure.

Glick-Smith, Judith L. 'Judy'. Rockley Bulletin (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Publishing for Dual Media — Paper and Electronic  

With electronic publications moving solidly into the mainstream, it is becoming apparent that steps must be taken to streamline the production process. Compared to the relative simplicity of traditional hard copy output, the electronic medium introduces new capabilities — and complexity — for publishers. Indeed, electronic publishing is not much different than programming; publishers must address issues like user interfaces, hypertext linking and context-sensitive intelligence.

New, Michael. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

The Rockley Bulletin

The Rockley Bulletin addresses issues of importance to those interested in content management, content reuse, new tools and technologies, resources, strategies, best practices and more.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Journals>Knowledge Management>Single Sourcing>Content Management

Selecting a Content-Management System  

It's not about buying a tool; it's about understanding your requirements.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. ComTech Services (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Selecting a Content-Management System  

A discussion of the features and functions of content management software packages.

ComTech Services (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Selecting a Content-Management System  

Your output requirements will drive many of your decisions when selecting a content-management system. An abbreviated version of the checklist from JoAnn Hackos’s book, Content Management for Dynamic Delivery, follows to aid you in defining your output requirements.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Selecting the Right Single Sourcing Tool  

Tools and technologies available for single sourcing and content management have grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and indications are that they will continue to do so for some time to come. Understanding just what they do, and what kind of tools you need for your single sourcing or content management strategy can be confusing. The tools can be expensive, and a wrong decision can be costly. This session will cover authoring tools, content management tools, workflow, and delivery tools. This session will discuss a number of representative tools and provide guidelines for developing criteria for evaluating tools.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Simultaneously Developing Large Quantities of Documentation: Lessons Learned from Groupmax  

The development cycle of software is becoming shorter. Despite this, there are increasing demands to more efficiently develop software documentation and to decrease costs while maintaining quality. Writers must also provide the documentation on a variety of media to satisfy users’ demands and to add value to the documentation. When developing a product consisting of many software components, sometimes dozens of manuals must be developed simultaneously in a brief period. This presentation examines measures taken by the Hitachi Technical Information (TI) Department for developing the software Groupmax. This software requires that large quantities of documentation be developed simultaneously.

Kobayashi, Akiharu and Shouji Katayama. STC Proceedings (2000). Careers>Documentation>Single Sourcing

Single Source Documentation for Today

What happens when the software firm you work for decides it will not deliver large printed manuals any more? Then the request comes to put everything online. Six months later, user profiles shift to the World Wide Web and you're asked to deliver HTML. In the future, a database of SGML information chunks may let us deliver anything, any which way.

Stieren, Carl. Simware (1997). Design>Documentation>Single Sourcing>Online

Single Source in Practice: IBM's SGML Toolset and the Writer as Technologist, Problem Solver, and Editor    

Describes how single sourcing adds layers of complexity, problem solving, and project management to the writer's task. Cautions that single sourcing is often a response to a documentation requirement for the market, not to the writer's need for less complex tools.

Kramer, Robert. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Source Indexes

Many publishers of technical material are now publishing in more than one format, e.g. print, Adobe Acrobat (PDF), HTML, HTML Help and XML. Typically, a master document is first created in a package such as Adobe FrameMaker or Microsoft Word. The master document is then converted into different formats for publishing. Indexes are often the Achilles heel of such a process, because indexes can rarely be converted like regular material. Indexes usually have to be regenerated or recreated within the new format rather than simply converted from an existing file.

Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2002). Articles>Indexing>Single Sourcing

Single Source Information: An Agile Practice for Effective Documentation

In agile software development you want to travel as light as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to choose the best artifact to record information. I use the term 'artifact' to refer to any model, document, source code, plan, and so on created during a software development project. Furthermore, you want to record information as few times as possible, ideally only once. For example, if you describe a business rule in a use case, then describe it in detail in a business rule specification, then implement it in code, you have three versions of the same business rule to maintain. It would be far better to record the business rule once, ideally as human-readable but implementable code, and then reference it from any other artifact as appropriate.

Ambler, Scott W. Agile Modeling (2006). Articles>Documentation>Single Sourcing>Extreme Documentation

Single Source Tools: An Integrated Solution  

Tools are a key component for the success of single sourcing. Tools should be selected to support the information model and development processes. This session reviews the types of single source tools (authoring, content management, publishing, and dynamic content (personalization) engines) that are available to you today. The session presentation will review the available tools.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Source Tools: An Integrated Solution  

Tools are a key component for the success of single sourcing. Tools should be selected to support the information model and development processes. This session reviews the types of single source tools (authoring, XML, content management, output, and dynamic content engines) that are available to you today. The session presentation will review the available tools Note that the tools mentioned in this paper may change by the time of the presentation.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Sourcing: An Introduction

Many documentation departments produce detailed and well-designed paper documentation. Increasingly, however, one paper manual is not enough. Pressure is growing to deliver your information online, perhaps on several different user platforms. You may need to reuse the information in your manuals for quick reference guides, training courses and marketing publications. This can mean that you find yourself re-creating virtually identical content over and over again. Duplicating your material for multiple media, multiple uses and multiple audiences is time-consuming and costly.

Darley, Justin. Cherryleaf (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing