SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: [Sigia-l] When Should a Manual be We
Re: [Sigia-l] When Should a Manual be Web-based?
From: Martin Langhoff (martin_at_cwa.co.nz)
Date: Tue Feb 25 2003 - 15:49:24 EST
Bollaert, Jodi wrote:
>Greetings...
>
>Does anyone have any tips for deciding when a manual should be web-based
>(vs. in a PDF or Word format)?
>
When the product is _only_ a website, I guess it is probably ok to have
a web-based only manual.
The rest of the time, write the manual in a display independant format
(TEX, DocBooc, whatever) and generate multiple outputs: PDF, website,
RTF, etc. Also allows you to do what the Linux Documentation Project
does: supply a large HTML doc or one HTML per chapter.
The only reason not to do it like this would be... cost... and maybe
lack of expertise of your technical writers... but I would never trust a
technical writer that cannot see beyond MSWord. Indeed, the LDP has a
host of resources to help you in the 'cash/expertise strapped' scenario.
They run a wiki that allows you to edit a large document with a
web-based interface, and crank out DocBook SGML out the other end. And
there is a howto on how to do it yourself. Perrrrrrfect.
regards,
martin
--
______________________
Martin Langhoff
Team Leader RHCE
Senior Programmer
martin_at_cwa.co.nz Phone: 64 4 382 6523
CWA New Media http://www.cwa.co.nz
Phone: 64 4 382 6500 PO Box 19-090
Fax: 64 4 382 6509 Wellington, NZ
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By all means, do not use a hammer.
-- IBM maintenance manual, 1925
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