When you’re coming up with a metadata strategy for your content, you should start by developing a taxonomy, or a hierarchy used to organize metadata. A taxonomy will help shape your metadata strategy and make implementation of that strategy possible. In this follow-up post to Making metadata in DITA work for you, you’ll learn some tips for creating a taxonomy that will succeed in helping your audience—both internal and external—find what they need.
For some content developers—especially those using DITA for the first time—any features of DITA that go beyond the basics can seem intimidating. But sometimes, a special feature of DITA might be exactly what an organization needs to solve one of its content problems and save money. Features like conref push, subject scheme, and the learning and training specialization could play a powerful role in your content strategy—and they’re not as difficult to use as you might think.
Metadata is one of the most important factors in making the most of your DITA XML-based content environment. Whether you’re converting legacy content into DITA or creating new structured content, it’s important to know what metadata (or data about data) your files will keep track of and why. Coming up with a plan for using metadata can be tricky, so here are some tips to make the process easier.
When companies need to change the way they’re producing content, localization and scalability can be two of the biggest motivating factors. If your company’s content is not consistent, you may face significant challenges with translating it into new languages or distributing it via new platforms. A content strategy that embraces consistency and emphasizes planning for the future will help your company navigate these changes more smoothly.
Things have changed since we wrote this! Check out the latest post here with new insights from our team.
Keeping a content strategy implementation moving forward is important, but it isn’t always easy. You may have to deal with an extremely slow-moving project or unexpected delay. You may even have to put a project completely on hold. Here are some common obstacles that get in the way of progress, and some ways you can work to overcome them.
The recent slate of announcements for candidacy in the 2016 US presidential election got me thinking—how do campaigns relate to content?
You’ve probably heard the announcement countless times: “Please locate the nearest emergency exit.” Chances are you ignore these exits most of the time, but you feel safer knowing they’re there. You wouldn’t go to a restaurant or movie theater or travel on public transportation that didn’t have an emergency exit—so why would you develop a content strategy without one?
In a recent blog post, Alan Pringle brought up the the importance of having an exit strategy, and I wanted to expand on that idea. Without a plan for what to do if your implementation doesn’t go as expected, your company could face tremendous costs—in terms of both time and money—trying to move on to a system that works.
You’re probably hearing it more and more: silos are bad for your business. They discourage collaboration, lead to duplication and inconsistency, and prevent you from delivering a unified content experience to your customers. But what really happens when you try to break them down?
Having trouble with your technical content process? Need a strategy that can help you improve and scale? Before you make a change, talk to the other content-producing groups in your company—marketing, training, sales, support—to develop a content strategy that works across the entire organization.
You’ve made the transition to an XML workflow for publishing your technical content, converted all of your legacy content, and started authoring in the new system, as discussed in part 1 of this post. Although you now have a much better outlook on sustainability, you’re still facing a problem: your content creators are having trouble with the idea of separating content from formatting.
