In this 41-minute webcast, Sarah explores how XML affects the management of technical communication and proposes a new system for measuring documentation quality.
Managing technical communicators in an XML environment
To understand how XML changes technical communication, we need to step back and look at how the rise of information technology has changed the content development process. Through the 1970s, most technical communication work had separate writing, layout, and production phases. Authors wrote content, typically … Read More
XML: The death of creativity in technical writing?
Originally published in STC Intercom, February 2010 I spend a lot of time giving presentations on XML, structured authoring, and related technologies. The most common negative reaction, varied only in the level of hostility, is “Why are you stifling my creativity?” Does XML really mean … Read More
Removing XML whitespace in structured FrameMaker documents
An ongoing frustration with using structured FrameMaker to generate great PDF files from DITA or other XML files is that structured FrameMaker does not ignore whitespace, resulting in excess spaces in paragraphs and table cells and unnecessary space between paragraphs. These spaces are annoying and … Read More
XML & lone writers: can they go together?
STC Intercom, December 2009 The relatively low percentage of lone writers who have implemented XML is a logical result of the typical lone writer working environment. Given the current status of the authoring and publishing tools, any lone writer who implements XML will need to … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
Helpful flowchart for XML implementation
For a recent presentation entitled “Is XML Right for You?” I built a handy flowchart to help you with the decision-making process. Unfortunately, it’s sort of hard to fit within this blog. Here are two potentially more legible versions: XML flowchart, 800×600, GIF (opens in … Read More
The ABCs of XML
STC Intercom, September/October 2009 XML is rapidly becoming part of the required knowledge for technical communicators. This article discusses the three most important reasons that you should consider XML: automation, baseline architecture, and consistency. Download the PDF (144K)
Building efficient multilingual workflows
STC Intercom, April 2009 A common argument for XML-based workflows is that they automate production and localization tasks. With XML, localization can be reduced to a fraction of its original cost, but how exactly does that happen? Sarah explores automization in localization and two technology … Read More