RE: Please describe value of Information Mapping

[cupton -at- syclone -dot- net]

I took the training over twenty years ago, and consider it the most
important training I have received in my long tech writing career. My
whole writing team took the class, and half of them never used it. None of
us used the software - it was just a layout software that was pretty
useless. We had our own templates (Interleaf).

One other writer and I were able to reduce our HUGE manuals (>1,000 pages)
to 1/3 the size by shutting ourselves in a conference room with lots of
sticky notes and using the information classification techniques of info
mapping. It was very exciting. I later took a "structured writing" course
for my masters degree that reinforced the principles and taught a very
similar approach.

Some good writers may come to the same place on their own, but it would
have taken a long time for me to do so. Defining and organizing your
content is the whole key.

Carolyn

> Sounds like the results were good. How did you like working with it, Jim?
>
> Successes, problems, constraints, etc.?
>
> Not sure I'm asking the right questions here, but here's a stab at it:
> Does the software's output require much tweaking and editing, or is it
> usually well organized? How much depends on the organization of the
> original documents? What kind of input in terms of settings, parameters
> and variables, or programming is required?
>
> How effective, readable, usable is the Information Mapping software's
> documentation?
>
> How long did it take you to grasp the principles vs. your self-rated (or
> even as rated by supervisors) speed and ability to assimilate new
> processes, techniques, concepts?
>
> How successful at information mapping would a beginner be on his own,
> after a few days of training, vs. using the software as well?
>
> I'm looking at learning curve time vs. time saved for authors and
> end-users.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim
>
> "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com> wrote on 04/04/2008 09:16:43 AM:
>
>> >>>>>>>>> Information Mapping is mainly used in a Word-based authoring
>> environment. Because of its open-source nature, DITA is supported by all
>> the
>> major authoring tools (FrameMaker, XMetal, Arbortext Editor, Syntext
>> Serna,
>> ...) and content management systems.<<<<
>>
>> One point I'd clarify: It seems more accurate to say that Information
>> Mapping software is designed to work with Word. However, the process
>> itself is by no means so narrowly constrained to that particular tool.
>> For example, during my first exposure to Info Mapping, around 1994, we
>> did all of our authoring in Interleaf and used Info Mapping techniques
>> extensively to reduce complex government regulations to accessible,
>> useful information for end users.
>>
>> Jim
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