Spring Workshop: Is XML the right solution for your publishing environment?

by Leanne Rollins, Education Manager

(L to R) Alissa Goudreau, NCR and Sarah O'Keefe, workshop leader enjoy some good conversation and a healthy breakfast before getting started.

Out of every workshop comes new-found wisdom and a budding sense of excitement. The XML & Structured authoring workshop delivered exactly that… plus a healthy reality check from Sarah O'Keefe. Sarah has worked with many clients to assess their current documentation set and implement the best strategy to suit their specific authoring and publishing needs. So, from the voice of experience, we learned that it will take a minimum of 6 months time to implement XML-based authoring, regardless of the tool you choose. Ouch.

In the beginning…

Fifteen seasoned technical writing veterans arrive at the Hilton in Cambridge prepared with a barrage of questions for Sarah O'Keefe. After quick introductions, we all began to realize that we were in the same boat, so to speak. Although we had heard a lot of hype about XML and how it could rock our worlds, we had no real clue about how to get started or even if XML was the right solution for our respective environments.

Sarah set us straight very quickly. In her no-nonsense, lay-it-all-on-the-table style, Sarah began to prepare us for the tough road ahead. We started with an analysis of our hopes and dreams for XML, our expectations of the technology thoroughly examined before Sarah even gave us a peek at any implementation details. She wanted to make sure we realized that implementing XML-based authoring in any environment is a long and arduous task, one that you should undertake only if the payoff will be really, really big.

Congratulations to John Fewster from NCR who won the $150 Chapters gift card for his early registration. It pays to reserve your seat early!

On the first day, we focused mainly on XML as a concept. What is it, how do you work with it, what does the syntax look like, what does well-formed and valid mean? Sarah walked us through exercises and examples to get us in the XML mindset. She wanted to ensure we understood the technical complexity in the underlying guts of the technology, and the change in workflow that an XML implementation would require in our publishing environments. We left day 1 absolutely exhausted. But in a good way. Our brains were full and our interest was definitely peaked for Day 2.

Why XML?

• Places focus back on writing and content only. Removes the need to fuss with the layout, and ensures that your content is more prescriptive by following a set structure. Ultimately, this creates a more mature approach than freeform writing and should result in better and fast writing output.
• Can reduce the cost of translation because you remove the need for the translation vendor to perform desktop publishing work (which can account for up to 40 percent of the translation cost!). The more languages you translate to, the more you save when authoring in XML.
• Makes information sharing and reuse much easier. If working in a multi-author environment, XML will produce a more consistent result.

Building a business case...

On Day 2, we focused on building a business case for an XML implementation. Sarah's theory is that if you can't build a business case, why would possibly want to tackle something this technically complex and costly? She has seen many companies rush headlong into implementation without stepping back to consider the cost/benefit. She encouraged us to look beyond the "this is so cool" aspect of XML to the cold reality: you must prove that XML will result in substantial savings for the company (measured in time, effort, money, whatever the company uses to measure success) or don't even bother getting started. We then looked at the ways our traditional roles would have to change in an XML authoring environment, and how to best prepare our peers for that implementation. We talked a lot about the resistance we might face, and how to counter that resistance. Sarah helped each one of us examine the obstacles in our unique environment and what to do to overcome those obstacles.

By the end of day 2, over half of the class came to the realization that their companies were simply not ready or able to tackle XML authoring, at least not right now. The planning requirements and cost implementation alone were enough to scare the entire the room into reassessing their *actual* authoring and publishing needs. But by day 3, we realized that a phased implementation may be the best approach. Sarah worked with various individuals to determine the best phased approach for success. She continued to warn that it would not be easy, the tools were clunky and immature, and resistance was guaranteed. Sarah kept it very real for us, and gave her frank opinions of various vendors and tools, which we all appreciated and needed.

Is Framemaker the right authoring tool?

Day 3 arrived, and with it came a lively discussion of tools. We focused mainly on implementing XML in Structured Framemaker. Sarah gave us a thorough guided tour of structured Framemaker, and how to adapt the tool in our authoring environments. This sparked a lively discussion of other possible tools and how to best publish to various output formats. Framemaker does an excellent job of producing PDF output. However, to create HTML output, you must output XML, then convert the XML to HTML. However, the same hurdle applies for all of the other publishing tools also - while great at one output format, each tool lacked in an easy way to get to another output format.

And so, we all left the workshop with a lot to think about. Sarah had shown us the guts and glory, warned us of the hurdles and set us on our way. But, she also offered the following list of resources to help us:

• Structured Application Developer's Guide, located in the Online Manuals folder wherever you installed Framemaker on your computer.
• Migrating from Unstructured to Structured Framemaker (white paper available from the Adobe website).
• Scriptorium white papers, www.scriptorium.com
• Publishing Fundamentals: Framemaker 7; available from www.scriptorium.com
• XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference, 3rd Edition, by Michael Kay (available from Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca)

To learn more about Sarah O'Keefe

For those of you who were unable to attend this fantastic workshop, you can still learn from Sarah O'Keefe. Sarah's company, Scriptorium, offers web-based training and live training sessions in North Carolina. Visit www.scriptorium.com and click on the Training link to view the schedule.

Here's what the participants had to say:

"I thoroughly enjoyed everyday and found the information absolutely timely and relevant. Sarah obviously knows her stuff and can get it across. I also credit her for not "plugging" any vendor."

"This was the first workshop I have taken where I did not feel the need for that "post lunch" nap! The organisation, pre-course information and administration was excellent."

"The workshop was a very useful introduction to XML and structured authoring. It provided a better sense of where we currently are on the XML implementation path, what it would take to implement an XML solution and some of the major issues that would need to be addressed. "

"The information Sarah provided was valuable and fascinating. I appreciated her style and professionalism. The course gave me a great feel for what XML and structured authoring are all about and helped me assess if it would be a good fit for the work we do in our shop. Some of the concepts can fit and may allow us to move to this in the future. "

"I liked the fact that I didn't have to attend day 3 if I didn't feel it would be worthwhile."

"The workshop was an excellent overview of how to structure an XML conversion from building the business case right down to nitty gritty implementation details. It helped to demystify a lot of the hype around XML tools, and their usefulness in different situations, as well as hype around DITA as the silver bullet for XML conversion. I feel confident that I could run an XML conversion project from start to finish with all of the excellent information I received at the workshop."

"Sarah is a very dynamic speaker who knows her subject matter very well. She’s able to answer business case and tool-related questions equally well. I was impressed with her frankness and objectivity."

(L to R) Eva Szabo, Psion Teklogix; Tricia Ward, Psion Teklogix; Helen Vuletin, Witness System; Darlene Wood, Freelance Writer

(L to R) Nancy Nagy, Deloitte; Joyce Hirae, Esprida Corporation; Carrie Spira, RDM Corporation; Susan Smith, NCR; John Fewster, NCR; David Tinsley, NDI

About Leanne Rollins

Leanne is an experienced freelance and full-time writer. She currently works for Equitrac Corporation, where she is attempting to bring structure and consistency to Equitrac's documentation set. In her spare time, Leanne takes on contract writing assignments, plays with her kids, and spends a whole lot of time running, off-road cycling, and playing soccer.