10 mistakes when moving to topic-based authoring
Sharon BurtonE-mail: [email protected] Tweet: Sharonburton
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Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
10 mistakes when moving to topic-based authoring
Sharon BurtonE-mail: [email protected] Tweet: Sharonburton
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
Who am I?
▪ I’m Sharon Burton
▪ Been in the Tech Comm industry for nearly 20 years▪ Content Consultant▪ STC Associate Fellow▪ Teach:
▪ Technical Communication to Engineering students at the University of California, Riverside
▪ Tech Comm certificate program at UCR Extension▪ Society for Technical Communication Certificate
Courses
▪ I knit, design patterns, work out, write, garden, have a large dog, and am all around just fun
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
Supporting role today…
▪ Bonni Graham is supporting us▪ If you have a question, Bonni will help you in
the questions window▪ We’re doing a live Q and A at the end▪ We’re recording this webinar ▪ Slides are available on SlideShare
▪ Let’s also say “Thank you” to ProSpring Technical Staffing for sponsoring these webinars▪ http://prospringstaffing.com/▪ www.lavacon.org
Twitter: #10MistakesTBA
What is topic-based authoring?
Quick definition
Definition
▪ Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach (popular in the technical publications and documentation arenas) that supports XML content reuse, content management, and makes the dynamic assembly of personalized information possible.
▪ A topic is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone (does not need to be presented in context for the end-user to make sense of the content).
▪ Topics are also reusable. They can, when constructed properly (without reliance on other content for its meaning), be reused in any context anywhere needed.
▪ The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a standard designed to help authors create topic-based content. The standard is managed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) DITA Technical Committee.
From Wikipedia
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What is Topic-based Authoring?
▪ Focuses effort on the information your user needs to use the product▪ Develop a body of information that’s helpful to the
user
▪ Maximize content reuse
▪ Roughly similar to structuring an online help system▪ People who’ve developed a lot of help “get” these
concepts faster
▪ If you are moving to DITA, it’s part of the trip▪ But you don’t have to move to DITA to make use of
this information development method▪ This can be a destination as well as a rest stop
What is Topic-based Authoring?
▪ Topics are small, perhaps ½ to 4 printed pages▪ Perhaps smaller
▪ Only include the information needed to▪ Perform one procedure ▪ Understand one concept
▪ Topics can be (re)combined▪ New products, deliverables, or other ways
▪ Topics are easier to update▪ Easier and cheaper to get approval for updating
topics from management▪ Depending on deliverables, push updated topics to
your users
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Library
What is Topic-based Authoring?
Printing Reports
Using Container Objects
Saving reports
Creating
Reports
About Schedu
les
Adding Users
Setting Permissions
Deleting
Users
Placing Objects About
Objects
About Users
Exporting
Objects
About Containment
Customizing
Objects
About Programming
Objects and
Inheritance
Editing Reports
Containing
Objects
Relating Objects
Importing
Reports
Setting Schedules
About Report
s
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Library
What is Topic-based Authoring?
Admin Guide
•About Users•Adding Users•Deleting Users•Setting Permissions
•About Reports•Creating Reports•Editing Reports•Saving Reports•Printing Reports•Importing Reports
Programmers Guide
•About Programming•About Objects•Placing Objects•About Containment•Objects and Inheritance •Using Container Objects
•Customizing Objects•Relating Objects
Getting Started
•About Users•About Reports•About Programming•About Objects•About Containment•Exporting Objects•About Schedules
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What are the mistakes?
How to mess this up
1: Not getting buy-in
Management and other teams need to understand why this is better and you have to show that. Maybe a business case?
▪ This is not going to be an instant and dramatic improvement▪ Except localization▪ Costs may drop
immediately
▪ Schedules may be impacted
▪ Less content can be scary
2: Using the same tools
Asking Techwr-l what they use and buying that not the answer. What are your problems and what are your solutions?
▪ The tools that got you into this mess are probably not the tools to get you out
▪ Evaluate what your needs are now and in the future
▪ Work with the vendors closely to make sure what you need is what they can do
3: Using the same processes
The processes for developing, editing, and publishing a 200 page manual won’t work.
▪ Developing topic-based content is different
▪ Topics “stand alone” on content and/or formatting
▪ Topics are reviewed as they are ready
▪ Review process must change▪ Maybe use a special review
product
4: Not training people
Not training sets up projects and people for failure. You can’t expect people to magically know.
▪ New tools + new process = training
▪ Training provides more than how to use the product▪ Includes best practices for
our workflow▪ Identifies the changes for
our workflow▪ Instantiates how we do
what we do
5: Not planning the move
You can’t jump on your horse and ride off in all directions. Analyze what you have before you decide what you have
▪ Your legacy content is not going to fit neatly
▪ It’s at least not well written/structured/ organized
▪ One manual/help may not give you the real picture
▪ Especially if you had a lot of contractors, the legacy content has been around a long time, and so on
▪ This can be very hard on the staff▪ People want their content to be the
exception▪ It’s special content, not like other
content and needs special attention
6: Not using writing guidelines
We must have good writing standards in place.
▪ Before we can start thinking about moving to topic-based authoring▪ And gaining the benefits
thereof
▪ Content reuse demands consistent writing standards▪ The content can appear in
many places▪ In more than one deliverable
▪ Everyone cannot write in “their style”
7: Slicing content according to headings
Because most tools allow you to import and slice your legacy content based on headings, it can feel like you’re done after you import.
▪ That’s step #1 of x and x is bigger than 2
▪ Now you need to think about ▪ Content reuse▪ Smaller topics▪ Embedded topics (snippets)▪ Localization▪ Outputs▪ Devices▪ More
8: Not reusing content
Writing content is expensive. Re-creating existing content is very expensive. Localizing similar but different is really expensive.
▪ You can’t reuse what you can’t find
▪ Opportunistic reuse▪ People remember this content
from before▪ Maybe they can find it▪ Big time sink
▪ Systematic reuse ▪ The system knows this content
has been written previously ▪ Prompts the writer for reuse▪ Tracks reuse and reports it
9: Not considering audience
Identify your audience and their schemas. Identify their domains of knowledge. 69% of your users are intermediate level.
▪ Your users are not stupid▪ They know how to use
Windows▪ They know their jobs
▪ Most users are intermediate users
10: Thinking this is trivial
Your legacy content is not going to fit neatly in content categories.
▪ It won’t take any time to figure this out
▪ We can do this as we need to
▪ It’s easy
▪ We’ll hire an intern to do it
▪ We can meet deadlines while we completely restructure all our content
11: (Bonus) We don’t need to worry about Localization
Always act like you’re going to localize and nothing bad will happen to you.
▪ If you are not localizing now, you will be in the future
▪ If you are localizing now, you know how complicated it can be▪ Someone will decide to
add more languages▪ Because that’s not a
problem, right?
More information
Resources for more information
Good reading resources
▪ Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation by Kurt Ament ▪ ISBN-10: 0815514913 or ISBN-13: 978-0815514916
▪ Content Strategy 101: Transform Technical Content into a Business Assetby Sarah S. O'Keefe and Alan S. PringleISBN-10: 0982811845 or ISBN-13: 978-0982811849
▪ Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business, brand, and benefits by Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz UrbinaISBN-10: 1937434168 or ISBN-13: 978-1937434168
These are good, too
▪ Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra, 2011. ISBN-10: 0981333516. ▪ Anthology of creative non-fiction and poetry▪ My first creative non-fiction book publication!
▪ 8 Steps to Amazing Webinars, 2012ISBN-10: 1937434044▪ Available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble