Structured Authoring Without DITA or Frame

Structured authoring is a hot topic in technical communication, but companies that want to adopt it often encounter two problems. First, structured authoring isn't clearly defined. Put a question on a forum asking for a definition and you're likely to get several different answers. Second, it's often presented as requiring DITA or structured FrameMaker. There's nothing wrong with using DITA or structured FrameMaker; switching to them may simply be unrealistic for companies that use Word, or help authoring tools like RoboHelp or Flare. So can you define “structured authoring” in a real-world way that's implementable? And how can you adopt it if your company uses Word or a help authoring tool? That's the subject of this seminar.

This intensive seminar starts by discussing structured authoring's pros and cons. It then offers four definitions of structured authoring, each of which may lead your company to use different technologies, tools, and workflows. Adopting structured authoring as a methodology is also a true paradigm shift, and the workshop discusses the strategic, managerial, planning, and cultural aspects of that shift. Finally, you'll walk through a set of lab exercises, some on paper and some online, that can serve as the basis for a real implementation of structured authoring in your company. All without the complexity and expense of switching to FrameMaker or DITA.

This one-day, lecture and hands-on workshop is aimed at documentation managers, technical communicators, and help authors who want to explore the concepts behind structured authoring in order to:

• Determine whether structured authoring makes sense for their company.
• Determine whether they can implement structured authoring using their current tool set without expensive upgrading.
• Find an affordable methodology for moving to structured authoring using their current tools.

There are no specific prerequisites but experience on at least two online or hard-copy projects, or project or group management experience, is helpful. You'll also be asked to bring in real material for use in the exercises and to bring a laptop configured for your primary authoring tool – Word 2003, RoboHelp X5/6/7, or Flare 3.1 for this workshop.

Seminar Outlines

• RoboHelp 8 (and X5, 6, 7)
• Madcap Flare
• MadCap Flare Project Setup
• Adobe Captivate 4 (and 3)
• Advanced Adobe Captivate 3
• MadCap Mimic
• Structured Authoring Without Frame or DITA