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.
Subject:What to put online From:Richard Lippincott <rlippinc -at- BEV -dot- ETN -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 20 Sep 1994 10:50:12 EDT
Carl Stieren had some questions about on-line vs. paper documentation content.
I can only tell you what the practice is here at Eaton Semiconductor, and
it's probably a bit much for most applications. We manufacture ion implantation
devices, used in the production of semiconductor chips. These devices have a
Sun/Sparc workstation built in to them. We produce a three-volume operations
guide (it was a -one- volume guide, then we info mapped it) on paper. Virtually
this entire document is then converted to hypertext, using FrameMaker, and
installed on the implanter's Sun. (The only thing that we leave out are
illustrations and screen captures.) As a result, the on-line data is
essentially a duplication of the paper manuscript.
A practical reason for this is because of clean-room conditions, the
operators need -all- the data but may not be permitted to bring the paper
manual to the work site.
As I said, this is probably too extreme for your purposes, but it's what we
do at this location.
Rick Lippincott
I can send, but not receive at work. Address personal comments to:
rjlippincott -at- delphi -dot- com
