Archive - Feb 9, 2006
jhackos
User requirements
Users tell us that they want to reach just the nugget of information they need to do their work and move on.
jhackos
JoAnn's Blog on topic-based authoring
I'm convinced that topic-based authoring will become the standard for the development of technical information.
Day Lights
Daylights
Working on the development of DITA has been one of the most fulfilling activities ever in my life. I've had the pleasure of working with many creative and inspiring individuals along the way, both across IBM and in my public activities related to DITA. I've been plunged way deeper into the intricacies of XML processing behaviors than I imagined possible.
Who Is Using DITA?
Comtech Services, Inc. has adopted DITA for a client pilot project, using the base DITA standard information types to create User Guides for two models of equipment and generate two Quick Reference pamphlets from the User Guide content.
Topic-based authoring
Topic-based authoring has been a mainstay of technical information development since we first began developing help systems. We learned quickly enough that we couldn't split our existing books into help topics by making every heading level a new help page. Information originally designed with a narrative flow no longer made sense nor assisted users in finding exactly the content they needed. We had to rethink the type of information that our help systems should include and create a new set of standards for its development. The result is topic-based authoring.