Re: Single-sourcing DIDN'T work for me just now

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- oddpost -dot- com>]

 David, 
  
I don't know how to ask this gently, but has it occurred to you that the problem was not with single-sourcing methodology at all, but that you came at it from the wrong premise? 
  
Once the content is divided into all the various pieces required of an online help system, it is indeed too late to easily reincorporate it into a manual. However, perhaps that's just the point--if you *knew* you'd have to produce online help *and* a manual--shouldn't you have created the proper source doc from the start and then output it in both ways? 
  
In other words--was the problem in this instance "single sourcing" or your process? 
  
I should add that I concur completely that some projects are unsuited to any single sourcing approach. In fact, I daresay that *many* are not unless the desired output is mediocre in all media. However, in this example it seems to me you didn't give the single sourcing idea a fair trial--you simply didn't plan properly for it and then <surprise!>it didn't work</surprise!>. 
  
David 
  
-----Original Message from "Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- Users -dot- com>----- 
  
Here's an anecdote for all you folks who don't like single-sourcing. I'm currently writing a manual to document some software for which I wrote online help awhile back. So, I got the idea to recycle the text from the online help for part of the manual. After copying all the little chucks of text, which involved different secondary windows for different situations, and various other sort of multi-directional hypertext branching, then trying to organize this into a narrative passage suitable for a manual, I finally decided it was going to take me forever and give me a royal headache, so that I should just write the text from scratch, as it should be written for a manual. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH YOUR FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE?
?Mustang? (code name) is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to Web, intranets, and online Help.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! See a live demo that
will take your breath away: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.