The traditional approach to documentation is to create a document, print it. Create another document, print it.
Create a help file, compile it. Create an html file, publish it to the web.
Like individual dinner plates in a restaurant, you’re serving up plates to a customer.
But where did that meal start? In the kitchen. The chef has large containers of food that he takes from to put together a meal. One plate has mashed potatoes, corn, and chicken. The next plate has mashed potatoes, roast beef, and green beans. The chef doesn’t begin each meal from scratch, present it, and then move on to the next meal – creating each dish from the beginning. The chef has large quantities of food prepared that he uses to put together the individual meals.
So why in the documentation business are so many people still creating each individual meal from scratch before moving on to the next one? It makes about as much sense as our chef scenario.
Aesbus’ response to this question is Single Sourcing – the concept of WRITE ONCE, housing information in a central repository. Information is then drawn from the repository to create the individual documents (meals) your customer’s desire.
- The first step to single sourcing is to think in chunks of information, rather than in completed deliverables.
- Think about all of the side dishes, meats, and desserts that comprise your information.
- After you have these chunks identified, it’s simply a matter of putting them in one central location, and then plating them up.
Aesbus has the experts available to help you analyze and organize your information so that it can be kept in a central location, and output in the formats you need: print, .pdf, help, html. Write once, deliver as needed, in the format needed. That’s what single sourcing is all about.
Visit Aesbus at the door64 Tech Fair on April 30th. We will share more information about Single Sourcing and other NextGen Content Solutions.
