WritePoint Staff Blog

Congratulations to Alex Masycheff and ThirtySix for their excellent presentation at the recent seminar dedicated to practical ideas on content reuse in MS Word.

WritePoint was thrilled to work with ThirtySix to present SmartDocs, the product that integrates many single sourcing, content reuse, and content management capabilities into the traditional MS Word environment. Highlights of this event and the link to the recording are posted here.

Also, as a result of the evening, another three hi-tech companies have decided to evaluate SmartDocs to see how this product can solve their documentation needs (to see how one of our customers is already using SmartDocs in production, see the case study here).

If you didn’t manage to attend the event but would like to consult with us about how SmartDocs can solve your needs and/or beta test, please contact Alex at alexm@writepoint.com.

pstern Case study, content management, single sourcing, software CMS, content management, content management system, content reuse, dms, document management, single sourcing, team collaboration, technical writing

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest seminar that we’ve conducted in association with ThirtySix Software, the developer of SmartDocs. The seminar was intended for technical writers, marketing writers, and proposal writers. Based on our real-life experience with implementing SmartDocs for various teams of content authors, we showed how SmartDocs can be used for easier and faster creation of technical, marketing, and sales documentation.

If you missed the seminar or want to refresh your memories, watch the recording of the event here.

During the seminar, we talked about:

• Identifying reusable content in your documents using the content reuse matrix
  
  
• Splitting your monolithic documents to reusable snippets using different methods. We demonstrated real-life scenarios that our SmartDocs customers use:
  
  
  • You can keep big portions of information inside one big snippet and handle content variations (for example, product-specific or customer-specific variations) using conditional text. Then you filter conditional text to prepare a deliverable.
    
    
  • Alternatively, you can keep snippets on a low granular level (such as individual sections within a chapter or even individual elements, like tables or images). In some situations, this approach gives you more flexibility.
• Customizing documentation to different customers with conditional text and variables
  
  
• Updating content using various scenarios. SmartDocs provides powerful automatic notifications: when you update a snippet reused in multiple locations, you get a notification and can decide whether or not you want to propagate this change into a specific document. However, some customers prefer to use another method: insert a snippet to a document and turn it into a regular text. We’ve explained the situations when this approach can help you.
  
  
• Tracking versions of snippets and possibilities to configure versioning capabilities of the content repository
  
  
• Using metadata and organization of a content repository for easy search
  
  
• Various scenarios to assign roles and responsibilities within your team
  
  

Don’t worry of you missed this event. Just click here and watch the full recording of the event.

To learn more about SmartDocs, check out these links:

• Article in the summer issue of the Communicator magazine (UK): “Integrating Single Sourcing into Word”
  
  
• Highlights of the Webinar “Content Reuse and Single Sourcing in MS Word with SmartDocs” (includes the link to the recording)
  
  
• Case study on implementing SmartDocs (includes the link to the presentation)

We’ll be glad to get your comments!

Alex Masycheff content management, document management, single sourcing, software CMS, content management, content management system, content reuse, document management, single sourcing, technical communications

It’s hot…it’s summer…and WritePoint is offering an unbeatable offer to help you get ready for a return to work in the fall! These are the lowest prices…for the best courses in the industry. Sign up by July 31 and save!

Technical Writing: Course was 11,000 NIS – register now for just 8,000 NIS (7,000 for those paying in two installments or less). Course is scheduled to begin August 22. This is the full, 130 hour technical writing course that has been presented more than a dozen times. We have hundreds of graduates – working in major hi-tech companies throughout Israel. This is the most in-depth course available…at the lowest cost ever!

Translation: Hebrew to English – this course includes modules to train you to work in the field of translation, handling medical, technical, legal, literary, academic and marketing projects. We include sessions to make you more efficient, improve your skills, and expand your job search. Sessions on maintaining and promoting a business are included as well. This 22-session course has been offered for 7,500 NIS. Sign up before July 31 and pay only 5,500 NIS. Course scheduled to begin August 24^th.

MARCOM: Learn to be a marketing professional! This 18-session course teaches you about marketing strategy and messaging, about branding, design issues. About writing brochures, white papers, web content. About writing for business and putting all the relevant issues together to be a marcom professional. The course has been offered for 5,100 NIS in the past – sign up by July 31 and pay only 4,500 NIS.

SEO: This course is being offered for the first time in Jerusalem. An in-depth course that teaches you how to take the concepts of search engine optimization and apply them to your website! Join this course – in Jerusalem, in English. This 10-session course includes 80 hours of in-depth presentations to teach you the importance and methodology to successful SEO implementation. This course was being presented for 10,000 NIS in Hebrew elsewhere – sign up now for only 7,000 NIS for the English/Jerusalem course.

RoboHelp Training Seminar: Learn RoboHelp 8 and the concepts of online help authoring. This course has been offered for 1,700 NIS for a two-day, hands on course. Sign up before July 31 and pay only 1,500 NIS.

ADDITIONAL OFFER: Sign up for any two courses and save an additional 10% on both.

All courses are being offered in Jerusalem – in the WritePoint Training Center in Har Hotzvim, convenient to buses and cars. (Other upcoming courses include: Effective Editing; The Basics of HTML; Advanced Word Skills; The Journey from Word 2003 to 2007; and much more). Write to seminars@writepoint.com for details and registration forms.

Disclaimer: This is a one-time offer – discount offer expires July 31. Discounts apply only to the courses listed above. You must register before July 31 to be eligible. Classes will only be held if minimum course registration requirement is reached. Multiple payment installments are available.

Ezriel Yellin RoboHelp, Seminars and courses, help authoring, social networking, technical writing, translation

If you ask a technical writer to name the five most popular single-sourcing tools, there’s a good chance that the list will include FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Flare, Doc-To-Help and probably some XML-based tools.

I can bet Microsoft Word will not even be mentioned. There’s a good reason for this: implementing techniques such as content conditionalizing, content reuse and multi-channel publishing in the way that we can in single-sourcing tools is virtually impossible in Word.

This results in a serious dilemma. On one hand, many technical communicators need to single source their documentation. On the other, they are often tied to Word for historical or budgetary reasons and have to use inefficient methods (such as copy-and-paste) that increase the cost of creating and maintaining content.

This is where a product called SmartDocs can come into its own. It’s an off-the-shelf product that lets you integrate
many single-sourcing capabilities, including reuse and conditionalizing of content, into the Word environment. SmartDocs is developed by ThirtySix Software, a US-based company that specializes in building content management solutions on the Microsoft platform.

In the summer issue of Communicator (this is the quarterly journal published by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators), based on our real life experience with the SmartDocs, I reviewed how this product integrates many of single sourcing, content reuse, and content management capabilities into MS Word.

For the full article, click here.

Alex Masycheff content management, document management, single sourcing, software, technical writing CMS, content management, content management system, content reuse, dms, document management, help authoring tools, single sourcing, team collaboration, technical communications, technical writing

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest webinar on publishing from MS Word to multiple formats with Doc-To-Help. The recording of the webinar is now available. You can watch it here.

During the webinar, we’ve demonstrated how to:

• Configure a look-and-feel of your documentation for the PDF output using usual Word templates (.dot files)
  
  
• Create and use different templates for different PDF outputs in different languages
  
  
• Configure a look-and-feel for the online help output
  
  
• Customize a table of contents for different outputs
  
  
• Create a help embedded into software applications
  
  
• Create a context-sensitive help with advanced features
  
  
• Build an index and “related topics” section
  
  
• Use conditional text for different outputs

Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions!

If you want to learn more about Doc-To-Help, check out these links:

• Highlights of the webinar “Introducing Doc-To-Help”
• Recording of the webinar “Introducing Doc-To-Help”
• Doc-To-Help web site
• Independent review of Doc-To-Help 2009, v.2 in the Communicator magazine

Alex Masycheff Seminars and courses, single sourcing, software, technical writing authoring tools, d2h, doc-to-help, help authoring tools, multichannel publishing, single source publishing, single source tools, single sourcing, technical writing, technical writing tools

One of the advantages of being an “old-timer” in the industry is that you understand that much of life in Israel’s hi-tech industry is cyclical. The concept that it is good is quickly replaced by it was good; and quickly enough, it is bad, becomes it was bad.

WritePoint was founded in 1995 as part of a personal decision to be an at-home mother. That was the way WritePoint continued for more than a decade before we opened our offices in Jerusalem and created the Training Center. The first really bad fall for Israel’s hi-tech (that I remember) was in 2001, a few years before we opened our current offices. That bad economy, like this one, was part of a global crisis but it was felt particularly hard in Israel as it joined political unrest and very depressing times.

During that time, amazingly enough (and contrary to most other businesses in our industry), WritePoint continued to grow. There were a number of reasons for this – but I do believe quality and positioning were chief among the reasons why we grew, hired more writers, and kept them busy. When times get tough, you have to innovate and be prepared to flow with the new reality.

Last time around, it was about economizing. Companies were tired of paying inflated salaries and wanted accountability. One of my clients called and apologized because the company was no longer prepared to accept a bill that said “80 hours” – they now wanted a breakdown of how those hours were spent, and when. He was embarrassed that he had to ask…I was amused. It was not a problem because careful timesheets and not inflating bills was standard operation here.

He told me stories of companies that had charged him days of preparation, and he had no idea for what they were preparing (or why the company was billed for someone who was preparing to write). Within minutes, I forwarded him detailed explanations of all bills – something we continue to do today for most of our clients.

Today’s reality is again one of a down economy. Things are tough again. What this means is that WritePoint is innovating again – offering new courses (marcom starting soon, SEO, and more). We are also offering many webinars that benefit the attendees who learn about new technologies that are available to make us more efficient…and as authorized resellers, WritePoint is in the forefront for offering training and conversion services to take your legacy documentation into today and tomorrow’s tools.

More, we have expanded our internship program. This is an amazing program that is growing quickly. We place our graduate students for below entry-level rates. The company gets trained technical writers…and mentors who assist them in those first critical months. The new writers get an opportunity to really apply all that they have learned in the last few months, and, of course, WritePoint benefits from its latest business model. Our senior writers continue to handle very technical projects, but also serve as mentors to the new writers and, in some cases, instructors for some of our classes.

What this shows, even in this tough economy, is that a company that is determined to survive…even more, to grow…can. Too many people get discouraged. The ones who persevere and innovate and adapt are the ones who will survive this bad economy…and even the next.

admin Industry standards, about us

If you’ve ever thought about trying to easily and quickly assemble your MS Word documents from pieces of already existing and thus, reusable content, this event is right for you.

ThirtySix Software, a leading developer of content management solutions on the Microsoft platform, and WritePoint Ltd., a leading provider of documentation solutions, are conducting a FREE seminar on reusing content across multiple documents and single sourcing in MS Word using the product called SmartDocs.

This seminar will be much more than a simple product demonstration. Based on our real-life experience, we’ll tell you how SmartDocs can be used by various teams of content creators, including technical writers and proposal writers.

We’ll show you real life scenarios of using SmartDocs by different types of users and share with you practical ideas on how SmartDocs can work for you. The seminar will be useful for both those people who already attended our introductory webinar and for those participants who will see SmartDocs for the first time.

This seminar will be packed with practical tips. You’ll learn from real-life examples how to:

• Write technical documentation faster
  
  
• Assemble proposals and responses to RFPs from the content you have already written for other customers
  
  
• Easily maintain complex content variations
  
  
• Easily find the content that you previously wrote and want to reuse
  
  
• Easily update content appearing in multiple places documents
  
  
• Collaborate with your team members
  
  
• … and much more

Hosts:

• Alex Masycheff, WritePoint, Director of Strategic Partnerships
  
  
• Eric Wolf, ThirtySix Software, Co-Founder

The seminar will be held on Wednesday, July 14th at the WritePoint Training Center at Hartum st. 9, Har Hotzvim, Jerusalem from 5pm to 6.30pm.

Whether you are a technical writer, marketing writer, proposal writer, or a member of a presales team, anyone who works in MS Word should join us to see how content reuse and single sourcing can work for you.

A discounted promotional price for SmartDocs will be offered exclusively to seminar attendees.

We have limited seating so please register early to reserve your space by sending an email to alexm@writepoint.com with the following information:

• Name
• Title
• Company/freelancer
• Authoring tools you are currently using
• Your interest
• Email
• Phone (optionally)

Based on this information, we’ll tailor the presentation to your needs and expectations.

We look forward to seeing you!

Alex Masycheff Seminars and courses, content management, single sourcing, software CMS, content management, content management system, content reuse, dms, document management, Microsoft, single sourcing, technical communications, technical writing

If you’ve ever thought about painless publishing of Word documents to multiple formats, such as PDF or online help, this is the event that you definitely should attend.

On Thursday, July 1st, at 4pm Israel time, together with ComponentOne, the developer of Doc-To-Help, we are conducting a webinar that will show you one of the most powerful and flexible features of this product. I’m talking about the ability to generate a wide variety of output formats, including PDF, online help, NetHelp, and JavaHelp, from your MS Word document.

Join the webinar and you’ll see how easily and intuitively you can configure a look-and-feel of various formats using Doc-To-Help.

During the webinar, we will show you:

• Configuration of a look-and-feel for the PDF output
  
  
• Configuration of a look-and-feel for the online help output
  
  
• Creation of a help embedded into software applications
  
  
• Creation of a context-sensitive help with advanced features
  
  
• Customization of a table of contents for different outputs
  
  
• Automatic creation of an index and “related topics” section
  
  
• Usage of conditional text for different outputs
  
  
• And much more!

The webinar will be held on July 1st at 4pm Israel time. The webinar is FREE. To register, click here and fill out the registration form. After you submit the form, you will receive the invitation with a link to the webinar by email.

You’ve never heard about Doc-To-Help before? Then watch our webinar “Introduction to Doc-To-Help” that we conducted earlier this year.

See you soon online!

Alex Masycheff single sourcing, software content reuse, d2h, doc-to-help, single sourcing, technical communications, technical writing, webinar

Our webinar on content reuse and single sourcing in MS Word with SmartDocs that we conducted in association with ThirtySix Software, the developer of SmartDocs, went great! Thanks to everyone who attended.

The recording of the webinar is now available. You can download and watch it from here

To watch the recording, you need Windows Media Player. Please let me know if you have any problems with downloading or watching the recording.

There are a few of the highlights:

• SmartDocs addresses challenges that nearly every content creator – a technical communicator, marketing writer, or proposal writer – is facing today. These challenges include:
  • It’s hard to locate content that already exists in other places and can be reused in a new document
  • As the amount of content reused in multiple places grows, maintaining and updating content becomes a critical task
  • Customers expect to get personalized content rather than generic documents
  • Trying to avoid inconsistency and outdated information requires too much effort
• To solve these issues, SmartDocs integrates many of content reuse and single sourcing capabilities into MS Word. For example, SmartDocs lets you:
  • Store all reusable content in a central repository
  • Access the content repository from within MS Word
  • Quickly find content you need in the repository
  • Centralize content updates and control how changes are propagated
  • Conditionalize content in MS Word
  • Centralize the use of variables
• SmartDocs consists of two parts:
  • Server-based content repository that stores reusable content
  • SmartDocs client installed on local computers
• SmartDocs repository requires SharePoint Server 2007 or SharePoint Services 3.0 (a free add-on to Windows Server)
  
  

We encourage you to watch the webinar and consider how SmartDocs can improve the efficiency and quality of your documentation practices. Contact WritePoint to learn more and to participate in a hands-on evaluation session.

If you have any questions about SmartDocs, want to try the product, or want to learn more, please contact me at alexm@writepoint.com for the evaluation copy.

Alex Masycheff content management, document management, help authoring, single sourcing, software, technical writing CMS, content management, content management system, content reuse, dms, document management, single sourcing, technical writing

If you can’t find the information you need, it’s as if this information doesn’t exist at all.

Even a perfectly written, beautifully designed document is worthless if you waste hours trying to find it or, worse yet, decide to recreate the document after you could not find it.

There are two most popular methods to organize your documents: using a hierarchy and using metadata.

An excellent example of the hierarchical method is a folder structure on your computer. You create a taxonomy of your documents and then decide to which branch each document belongs. For example, you can create a hierarchy based on types and versions of operating systems:

• Windows XP
  • Home
    • End-User License.doc
    • Installation Instructions.doc
    • Datasheet.doc
  • Professional
    • End-User License.doc
    • Installation Instructions.doc
    • Administration Guide.doc
    • WhitePaper.doc
  • Vista
  • Windows 7
• Unix

Hierarchical organization can help you see the big picture of your documentation set. Well-built hierarchies are also easy-to-browse and let you drill-down until you find what you need.

The disadvantage of hierarchies is that you may have a document that fits more than one “folder”. For example, you may have a document that is relevant both for Windows and Unix. To solve this issue you’ll have either to restructure the entire hierarchy from the beginning or duplicate your information.

Another disadvantage of the hierarchical approach is that it’s one-dimensional. The hierarchy described above presents the information from the point of view of an operating system type and version. It may satisfy some users. But what if some users require the same information, but from the perspective of the document type?

• End-User Licenses
  • Windows XP
    • Home
      • End-User License.doc
    • Professional
      • End-User License.doc
  • Unix
• Installation Instructions
  • Windows XP
    • Home
      • Installation Instructions.doc
    • Professional
      • Installation Instructions.doc
  • Unix

  Usually, a hierarchy can present only one dimension, which means users who see the same information differently will have difficulties trying to find what they need.

  An alternative approach to organizing information is using metadata. Metadata is additional information about a document. In fact, metadata is information about information. A perfect example of metadata is information about a file on your computer. At the very least, you can see the file size, creation and modification dates, and file type. You can then use this metadata to find files of a certain type or check out files created in a specified range of dates.

  With metadata, a hierarchical organization loses its sense: all you need to do is provide meaningful metadata for every document and then you can run search queries like “Find Installation Instructions of Product ABC for Windows XP Professional“.

  It doesn’t matter that a document can belong to more than one “folder” simultaneously: you just define several values for the same metadata (for example, Operating System=”Windows, Unix”). Moreover, users who see the same information from different perspectives can still find what they need.

  With metadata, all the information can be stored in a flat structure; you just need to take care of metadata.

  The disadvantage of metadata is that you need a special tool that can extract and use the metadata. Additionally, when you have a significant amount of metadata, browsing your document storage to find a documentcan be very difficult.

  As you see, both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. You should consider both of them when deciding on how to organize your information storage.

  In the next posts, I’ll talk about tools and different techniques that help you choose the most effective way for you. We’ll also talk about how to reconcile these two worlds – the world of easy-to-browse, but rigid hierarchies which gives a clear, big picture with the world of flexible, but hard-to-browse metadata-based repositories.

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  Alex Masycheff content management, document management content management, document management, information architecture, information design, metadata, search