Take a look at Paligo. It gives you structured authoring (DocBook), a CMS, and reuse in a single package without having to hire a developer to build a custom system.
On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 3:20 PM, Pat Christenson <pat.christen...@morningstar.com> wrote: > I'm the only tech writer in my group. Everyone else is a trainer/presenter > (although they do quite a bit of writing). > > Our software has numerous components, each on its own release track. At the > end of each month, I post extensive release notes on EVERYTHING from the > month (written in FrameMaker, distributed as PDF). This is taking a big chunk > of time because the preference is for very detailed documentation. > Step-by-step, lots of screen shots, and assume the user has never used any of > our software before. > > This allows the rest of the group to leverage what I write but because it's a > monthly release note, all the topics are together in one PDF. It's a pretty > safe assumption that none of the users look at it after that month and even > if they remember reading about how to use a new feature, they almost > certainly don't remember that it was in the February 2016 release notes. Very > few people would be willing to open each month's PDF and check the front page > for content. > > And the cherry on this sundae is all our user guides and help content are > very much out-of-date. > > I also create a very brief release announcement in HTML that generally > describes the new features and directs users to the PDF. > > > My manager has asked me to come up with ideas on how to get more use out of > what I'm writing. Some of my ideas are: > > > - Recognize that these are release notes, not training materials. > Assume the reader has a certain level of competence. No more screen shots > after almost every step. > > - Update the various product user guides (which would be a > gargantuan task, given I'm the only writer) and perhaps pull material from > the monthly release notes into each guide as an addendum and appendix. > > - Break the existing release notes in separate docs/books by topic > (ad hoc user guide). In the monthly release announcement, link to those. > > - Make a master book of release notes with a TOC and maybe even an > index (Lord, where would I find the time?). Even if it's still organized by > month, the user would have a way to skim for content. > > In the long run, we probably need to get away from the idea of release notes > in one document (or in a document at all). We should probably be chunking and > tagging material, using a CMS, and single-source this into Help, release > notes, etc. But we are a small group with a great deal of legacy > documentation. I've been here 6 months (there was no tech writer before-each > product team "wrote" its own release notes). Everyone loves that the notes > are now well-written and comprehensive, and look polished, but my manager and > I both feel that I'm building up more documentation that isn't flexible. > > I hope this group may have some ideas. I can't stress enough that right now, > we need short-term solutions. > > All ideas and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. _______________________________________________ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
