All right...tell me good, solid reasons why a company would want to structure their documents. With my limited knowledge, I know structure effectively controls styles, fonts, etc...but I could manage that myself without structure. By extension, I know style control also controls content location because particular types of writing usually use a particular style...but I can also manage that myself. I know structure is designed to encourage single-sourcing, but I'm already headed in that direction without structure. I'm convinced with time and continuing documentation analysis, I can parse our documentation so duplicate verbiage in all our documents imports from one source. I can do that without structure. I can use conditional text to further cut down duplicate verbiage; it requires no structure. I can buy scripts or third-party software to automate documentation procedures without resorting to structure.
So tell me...why structure documentation? I don't know enough to answer that question, and neither do my bosses. What's so great about it? What capabilities does it offer that demand its use? Right now, I'm just doing what I'm told, but it's always nice to found actions on solid reason. Matt > I'm working with legacy documentation created in Word and FM 7.0 > unstructured. The goal is FM 7.0 structured. Whose goal is this, and why? I've seen the gee whiz demonstrations from Adobe reps and been utterly convinced that I Need Structured Docs Now! only to return to my pdf-output-only client projects that have no real need for structured Frame. Before committing, make sure there's a business case for structuring.