Re: Queries on Single Sourcing

["John Posada" <writer -at- tdandw -dot- com>]

> You are right, it is a waste of effort copy-pasting
information all over the
> place, but it rarely happens. Except for glossary
definitions, templates,
> boilerplate text, and perhaps copyright information, I
have never had to
> reuse information between projects. Once the documentation
for a project is
> done, it gets moved to maintenance mode for a newbie
writer to look after
> with minor updates.

I'm moving slowly toward single sourcing; first FM, then
XML, for the following type of scenario that I have going
on:

We have three flavors of the same products; one runs on
UNIX, one runs on z/OS, and one runs on x86. They each have
(or will have) four documents; Installation Guide, User's
Guide, System Admin Guide, and Commands Guide. A certain
percentage of content is shared between multiple documents;
what percentage I'm trying to figure out now.

I also have an online help system for each of them, and some
of the documentation is translated into four other
languages. In addition, what if we support another OS in the
future. like maybe Linux, or what happens when Longhorn
comes out...maybe the x86 documentation will apply, maybe
not. In addition, once I have the content in shape where it
can be managed, maybe I'll see that other documentation can
be created or condensed.

 It's in a situation like this that I see some value to
single sourcing some of the content.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
writer[at]tdandw.com