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Subject:RE: WIKI to produce customer documentation From:"Char James-Tanny" <CharJT -at- helpstuff -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 25 Oct 2003 15:28:42 -0400
Hi, Cheryl :-)
> control the amount of updates esp since there is a nightly
> build every day. -placing all customer docs into WIKI
> requires a whole lot of re-formatting (all cust docs are in
> HTML) ,plus the fact WIKI is not exactly printout friendly,..
If the editing is done directly in the Wiki (which is typically the way it
works), there shouldn't be any reformatting required. When you're first
starting, you can copy the existing docs from your browser, paste them into
the Wiki edit box, and add the Wiki codes. (The Wiki provides the HTML tags
according to the Wiki codes.) After that, all editing is done in the Wiki.
I've edited the base code for a Wiki that is done with PHP. It's possible to
add custom CSS files (for online and print) and to customize the "shell" of
the page. If the Wiki is set to use a print CSS, it's possible to make it a
bit more print-friendly. It depends on how "friendly" you want it to be...
> 1. Can WIKI be used as a tool to output customer docuemtnation?
I would say that a Wiki could be used as a tool to supply customer
documentation. It doesn't seem like an optimal solution, although Wikis do
include features such as locking down individual pages.
> 2. Should WIKI instead be used as a process tool e.g. placing
> parts of the customer documentation on WIKI to be edited and
> then the new updates are placed back into RoboHTML and
> re-compiled to create the final CHM?
This method could work...once the edits are made and the page is finalized,
you can View Source through the browser and grab the HTML file (with the
HTML tags) and replace the content of the old page with it. (The PHP stuff
isn't included in the final pages.) Because it's coming from PHP-produced
HTML, the code should be very clean.
Holler if you have any questions :-)
Char James-Tanny ~ JTF Associates, Inc. ~ http://www.helpstuff.com
2004 Microsoft Help MVP ~ MSHelpWiki http://www.mshelpwiki.com
AuthorIT Certified Consultant ~ AuthorIT Development and Training
RoboGURU: RoboHelp Consulting, Development, and Training Moderator,
HATT and MSHelp2 Web site Hosting and Design ~ http://www.jtfhosting.com
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
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competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
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