Dear future intern
Dear Future Intern,
As you, too, will surely be, I was overcome by a wave of panic when I started at Scriptorium. Not the first day, and not the second, but definitely inside of a week.
Author: ScriptoriumTech
Rhetorical theory vs. tech comm reality
Let me qualify (heavily): this is, seriously, a rant.
I started at Scriptorium in June (2010), and since then I’ve learned more than I did in my entire time in the tech comm MS program I was enrolled in. And what’s more, the knowledge I’ve gained here has been useful.
How to succeed in ePub building with really trying
The ePub spec is long and very formal, but the format itself is fairly straightforward. And while building an ePub by hand is not complicated in itself, reworking content from other formats can be tricky.
Webcast: Knowledge integration: The future of technical communication
Scriptorium hosts Tristan Bishop of Symantec as he muses on technical communicators’ evolving roles.
Webcast: DITA-FMx demonstration
This webcast demonstrates using the DITA-FMx plugin with FrameMaker 9 to author, edit, and create output from DITA content. Topics covered during the demo include creating DITA topics using different options and templates and generating a book from the map and then saving to a PDF file.
Handling XSL:FO’s memory issue with large page counts
Formatting Object (FO) processors (FOP, in particular) often fail with memory errors when processing very large documents for PDF output. Typically in XSL:FO, the body of a document is contained in a single fo:page-sequence element. When FO documents are converted to PDF output, the FO processor holds an entire fo:page-sequence in memory to perform pagination adjustments over the span of the sequence. Very large page counts can result in memory overflows or Java heap space errors.
Friend or foe? Web 2.0 in technical communication
The rise of Web 2.0 technology provides a platform for user-generated content. Publishing is no longer restricted to a few technical writers—any user can now contribute information. But the information coming from users tends to be highly specific, whereas technical documentation is comprehensive but less specific. The two types of information can coexist and improve the overall user experience.
Managing implementation of structured authoring
An updated version of this white paper is in Content Strategy 101. Read the entire book free online, or download the free EPUB edition.
Moving a desktop publishing–based workgroup into structured authoring requires authors to master new concepts, such as hierarchical content organization, information chunking with elements, and metadata labeling with attributes. In addition to these technical challenges, the implementation itself presents significant difficulties. This paper describes Scriptorium Publishing’s methodology for implementing structured authoring environments. This document is intended primarily as a roadmap for our clients, but it could be used as a starting point for any implementation.
Assessing DITA as a foundation for XML implementation
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is being positioned as the solution for XML-based technical content. Is DITA right for you?
This white paper describes the potential business advantages of DITA, provides a high-level overview of DITA’s most important features, and then discusses how you can decide whether to develop a DITA-based XML implementation.
The State of Structure
In early 2009, Scriptorium Publishing conducted a survey to measure how and why technical communicators are adopting structured authoring.
Of the 616 responses:
- 29 percent of respondents indicated that they had already implemented structured authoring.
- 16 percent indicated that they do not plan to implement structured authoring.
- 14 percent were in the process of implementing structured authoring.
- 20 percent were planning to do so.
- 21 percent were considering it.
This report summarizes our findings on topics including the reasons for implementing structure, the adoption rate for DITA and other standards, and the selection of authoring tools.
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