XML product literature
Your industrial products become part of well-oiled machines. Unfortunately, your workflow for developing product literature may not be as well-oiled.
DITA localization for output (premium)
The first step in DITA localization is to translate the actual content of your DITA files. The second step is to address DITA localization requirements for your output. This article provides an in-depth explanation of the localization support in the DITA Open Toolkit.
The case for XML marketing content
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say “XML and content”? If large technical documents and back-end databases pop into your mind, you’re in good company. But many content-heavy groups can benefit from adopting XML. Marketing is one of these groups.
Webcast: Understanding the need for XML and structured content
In this webcast, Sarah O’Keefe provides a basic introduction to XML and explains how it could affect your content creation efforts. This presentation emphasizes the overall concept and has minimal technical content.
Content strategy and engineers
When developing a content strategy, you consider marcom, techcomm, and other groups whose primary role is creating content.
But don’t forget about engineering. Just ask the NASA Mohawk Guy.
Content strategy burdens: cost-shifting
In assessing an organization’s requirements, it’s important to identify content strategy burdens. That is, what practices or processes impose burdens on the organization? A content strategy burden might be an external cost, such as additional translation expense, or it might be an internal cost, such as a practice in one department that imposes additional work on a different department. A key to successful content strategy is to understand how these burdens are distributed in the organization.
Content without a face: anonymity, egos, and corporate content
The novels of Italian author Elena Ferrante are getting a lot of attention, but “Elena Ferrante” doesn’t actually exist. The writer behind the pen name prefers anonymity and shies away from publicity. Creators of corporate content should take a few pointers from the author when seeking recognition for their work.
XML workflow costs (premium)
Everyone wants to know how much an XML workflow is going to cost. For some reason, our prospective clients are rarely satisfied with the standard consultant answer of “It depends.”
This post outlines typical XML projects at four different budget levels: less than $50,000, $150K, $500K, and more than $500K.
The companies described are fictional composites. You should not make any major budgetary (or life) decisions based on these rough estimates. Your mileage may vary. Insert any other disclaimers I have forgotten.
Three factors for evaluating localization vendors
Localizing content can be a frustrating and expensive effort. In addition to per-word costs and turnaround times, keep these three key factors in mind when choosing a vendor.
Fall 2014 Scriptorium conference round-up
We have a full schedule of stellar conferences coming up this fall. We hope to see you at one or more of these events.
