Do you ever come across any of these scenarios?

1. My client requires a User Manual and Online Help for an application. I add an additional 20% effort to convert a manual to help and offer him my quote. But he has a time and money constraint. He wants both the outputs in the time and effort of a single output. And I cannot say no to him for my own good. What do I do then?
2. My client wants role based user manuals. Approx 40% of the content across all the manuals is the same. How can I save the effort of replicating the common content across manuals?
3. I am documenting a Health Care System, which has 50 applications, which implies I have to write 50 manuals. The functionality of one application is interwoven with another. Change in functionality in one application will get applied across all applications. Do I have to affect those changes across all manuals or is there a way where I can make the change at one location and the change get applied in all manuals?
4. I need to publish a Configuration guide for two different sites. The sites use the same product but the configuration values may differ for each site. Can I maintain a single source of the Configuration Guide and use conditional publishing to generate two guides with different customized configuration values?
5. I have 25 Styles in the document template. My team comprises 5 writers working independently on sub tasks. My job is to consolidate all the work. I face the problem of styles and format getting corrupted in the process. Is there a remedy for this issue, where in the format and styles defined can be made tamper-proof?
6. I often find it tough conveying to my team the correct structuring of a manual. Inspite of my best efforts, everyone writes based on their whims and fancies. Is there a method where I can define and fix the manual structure and ensure that my writers follow that without any ambiguity?
7. My client wants me to deliver my deliverable in iterations. He wants me to deliver all the overview information first (to assess my understanding), then procedures (to check the navigation is captured correctly) and then the field level information. Can I develop content based on my client’s requirement and later easily merge the contents to create a user manual as per the application flow or task flow?

If yes, then Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is the RIGHT solution for you. DITA not just answers all the above questions, but does it easily and effectively.

DITA is neither a software language nor a documentation tool; it is an architecture that provides us a simple and flexible way of developing and managing content. It follows the basics of technical writing, that is, topic based writing.

One of the most powerful languages in the information industry, XML, is the foundation of DITA. Industry trends indicate clearly that XML is going to be the future of technical communication. Some of the most prominent authoring tools are making their transition into XML, namely MS word 2007, RoboHelp 9, and Frame Maker 10.

In future posts on DITA, you will be guided through the following sections:

• DITA Overview – Definition of DITA with the basic concepts.
• DITA Characteristics – Features of DITA that provides flexible way to develop and manage content.
• DITA Implementation Principle – The complete flow and involved technologies.
• DITA User Classification – User expertise required to adopt the architecture.
• DITA Framework – Complete Guide to implement content authoring and publishing in DITA.

About This Blog

“Contemplation gives direction to our knowledge and leads to realization." - Rig Veda

Hello Friends,

I have started this blog to share my knowledge about technical communication and get your directions to develop this blog as a successful platform to host the future of TechComm – Content Engineering. I see an incredible opportunity in the TechComm industry for providing innovative and cost effective documentation solutions.

This effort could be one of the initiatives to make ourselves cognizant of the challenges and innovations in the industry. Today technical communication has gone beyond the scope of traditional User Manuals and Online Helps. We have observed the gradually increasing importance of TechComm in the form of User Assistance, Embedded Help, Interactive Help, Web Content, Mobile Applications and many more. The technical wizards from different domains in the industry are making several innovations and setting up the standards to meet the future documentation challenges. It is now our turn to learn and adopt the innovations, which would make us best and challenging in the industry.

On this occasion, I want to talk about one of the most powerful language - XML. XML is everywhere. It is designed to transport and store data. The present and future of TechComm has many dependencies over XML. We will discuss about this in the coming posts.
In this blog, I would focus on some of the best practices in the industry such as DITA, User Assistance, and some of my own innovationsJ. I would be sharing learning from own experience, people, and Web in the form of posts in different pages of this blog. Please read the posts and share your comments to make it an excellent learning platform for all of us.

Regards,

Vikash