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I have a question about data dictionaries. Are there any tools out there to
develop a data dictionary? First, let me explain the context of my
question. Since I know nothing about "data dictionaries," it could possibly
be that I am mis-stating my question. But here is the deal:
Our usability specialist wants recommendations on how to design/build
something that SHE calls a "data dictionary" but *sounds* like a plain old
thesaurus or glossary. She wants to develop a commercial product that we
can give to our users -- this product will have our industry-specific
terminology (we work in the utilities industry), and we will be able to give
it to our users so they have a common terminology/understanding of our
terms/usage and can look up information on a specific term. For lack of a
better word, my co-worker is calling this a "data dictionary." She has also
used the word, "meta-data."
At first, my thought was to simply plug terminology into a RoboHelp file &
then people could use it for definitions/searching on terms, etc. But that
doesn't seem to be what my usability specialist wants. It sounds like she
wants something a bit more robust, but she doesn't quite know how to
describe what that is. We are playing the "bring me a rock" game right now,
so I'm writing all of my esteemed colleagues for info/advice.
I ran across something called "TermChoir" but I'm not sure its what I'm
looking for. Any thoughts?
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