one tool to help them all - leigh white
DESCRIPTION
One Tool to Help Them All - Leigh WhiteTRANSCRIPT
One Tool to Help Them All
Leigh White
DITA Specialist
October 2014
End-to-end solution to manage
Authoring
Reviewing
Localization
Publishing
An enterprise-class solution
Fault ToleranceCompliant with Windows and
Linux clustering systems
Multi PlatformWindows and Linux
ReplicationA replication mechanism to support
a global solution deployment
Tokyo
Los Angeles Bangalore
Many people create and manage
content inside the organization
• Writers create user manuals, installation guides, etc.
• Engineers create application notes, knowledge base
articles, etc.
• Information Architects organize content
• Trainers create training guides
• Support teams create FAQs
• Translators localize content
• End-users comment on the content
All of them need the right tool
• The DITA CMS includes many tools to support the needs of
different groups within the organization
• Today, lets have a look at 3 types of activities that require 3
different tools:
Authoring by power users
Authoring by casual contributors (SMEs)
Reviewing process with a PDF annotation tool
So many things to show…
Authoring by power users
• Who are they? Technical writers, information architects, editors, project
managers
• Characteristics Spend most of their time in the CMS
Need an extensive set of functionalities
Understand XML and DITA
Limited number of people in the organization (less than 100)
• Recommended tool The DITA CMS Eclipse client
Search result panel• Configurable display
• Sorting capability
• Quick preview
• Grouping
• …XML editor panel• Topic authoring
• Oxygen or XMetal
• XML tags are visible or not
• Tracks changes
• …
Map Editor panel• Create and edit maps
• Drag & drop topics/submaps
• Reorganize topics
• Inserts a sub maps
• Open objects
• …
Search panel• DITA generates a very large number of
content components. Advanced search is
mandatory.
• Multiple filtering criteria is available
• Recently used objects
• Favorites
• …
Dependencies view panel• Show all related objects
• Show all relations to other objects
• …
Eclipse plugin• Eclipse environment offers a
highly configurable perspective
for different kinds of users
• Writer perspective
• Project manager persp.
• IA perspective
• Unified User Interface
• Extension can be developed
Authoring by Subject Matter Expert
• Who are they?
Engineers, developers, support teams,…
• Characteristics
Use the CMS application occasionally
Need basic functionalities
Limited XML or DITA knowledge
Potentially large number of people (hundreds)
• Recommended Tool
Web Author
XML editor panel• Topic authoring
• Form-based authoring
• Can be used for Topic review
• Tracks changes
• Commenting
ToDo list• Work is assigned to them (e-mail)
• Can display assignments by role
• Contributor or reviewer
• Interface is very intuitive
Web browser• Easy to deploy
• Ease of use
• Perfect for distributed teams
Reviewing with a PDF annotation tool
• Who is doing the review?
Engineers, developers, writers, editors, …
• Characteristics
Perform tasks occasionally
Need features to annotate, comment and approve/reject content
Do not need to be knowledgeable about XML and DITA
Potentially large number of people (hundreds)
• Recommended Tool
Web Collaborative Reviewer
ToDo list• Work is assigned to them (e-mail)
• Interface is intuitive
Web browser• Easy to deploy
• Ease of use
• Perfect for distributed teams
PDF annotation tool used to:• Comment (cannot edit)
• Suggest modifications
• Accelerate review process (concurrent users)
• Track comments history (audit purposes)
• Document review
Reviewers can• Add comments
• Strike out text
• Propose new text
• Draw information
• Stamp notice
• And much more
Approval• Users can approve or reject content
• Supports multiple approval mechanisms
• Tracks the “approve and reject” history
How do you select the right tool ?
• Identify the content that needs to be created
User guide, FAQ, application notes, knowledge base articles, training material, …
• Identify the content creator
Technical writers, engineers, support engineers, developers, trainers, …
• Identify the workflow required for each content type
Does it need to be reviewed? Does it need to be approved by a specific person? Is it
regulated content?
• Identify the characteristics of the content creator
Power users, casual users, DITA expert, …
With that information in mind, it is possible to select and configure
the right tool for the job
If you need more, I can talk about…
• Version control management Keeps track of revision history for all object types
• Release management Support for branching (modifications can happen in parallel versions)
• Link management Includes support for the new link management of DITA 1.2
• Relationship table editor Manages relations between topics
• Asset management (images, PDF, videos, ...)
• Dynamic publishing Generate more than just PDF and HTML
• Localization Minimizes the content sent to translation vendors
Three things to take away …
• Enterprise-class solution
We provide a solution which supports geographically dispersed teams for the creation,
review and publishing of global documentation efficiently and with a high level of
reliability
• Best-of-breed approach
We work with many best-in-class partners with complementary technologies to give our
customers the flexibility to build the solution that fits their specific needs
• The “one size fits all” approach is not flexible enough
We build a solution that gives our customers the possibility to put the right tool in the
hand of each user
