TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
::: Call me wishy-washy, but I'm a Luddite again. I can see how
::: single-sourcing
::: would work for the help, training, and manuals, etc. in a
::: single project,
::: but to try to make it work over more than one project
::: sounds like a complete
::: waste of effort and a form of bureaucratic abuse.
I've done so in the past and am working with others in my company to make it
happen for us now. The trick is to intelligently chunk your information for
generic retrieval. This way, you may re-use 20%-70% (for a ballpark range)
of content from project to project and add the remainder in new content
specific to the project at hand. Regardless of what the content is, it all
goes back into the available pool for later reuse.
IMO, a waste of effort is re-writing similar info or copy-pasting it all
over the place. It's busy work the first time, and a maintenance nightmare
the remainder of the time.
Bill Swallow
wswallow "at" nycap "dot" rr "dot" com
