We analyze your needs and help you configure MS Word or Adobe FrameMaker to create the most suitable document.
This includes suggestions for ways to increase productivity by optimizing functionality and the user interface, and setting attribute values to avoid unnecessary complexity. This is made possible by documenting problem cases encountered during project progress by authoring tool experts.
o introduce more convenient features and improve work productivity, new authoring tools and systems are often introduced. Naturally, this also creates the need to migrate existing content, as described below.
- Structuring unstructured content: MS Word or unstructured FrameMaker, InDesign documents
- Conversion of structured content: Conversion of DocBook or XML/SGML documents to DITA format.
However, without clearly setting goals and understanding the meaning and structure of the content, introducing a new tool system can lead to countless trial and errors, wasting valuable time.
To ensure efficient content migration, we've developed a unique methodology, which typically involves the following steps:
1. Original content analysis and information model construction
The first step is to identify and analyze the structure and information elements of the original content, and then build a model that maps these information elements to the target format and structure. This process is accomplished through interviews, consultations, and prototyping with our content experts and the client responsible for authoring.
2. Add contextual clues and clean up unnecessary existing content.
If the original content is unstructured or structured but the mapping to the resulting content is not perfect, it is necessary to clearly define the mapping relationship and firmly structure it to match the target structure.
This includes adding naming conventions for elements that clarify their meaning, or removing and restructuring ambiguous mapping relationships between elements.
3. Develop and test migration scripts
We develop an XSLT-based migration script to perform mapping and transformation based on the previous information model. The resulting transformation output is typically tested for conformance by generating a DITA map.
The initial script was written for general purposes only and requires modification to fit the actual needs of the client. Here, the client provides the original documents requiring conversion, which are then converted into the developed script to ensure that the client's requirements are truly reflected.
4. Establish and adjust a conversion plan that takes reuse into account.
Converting existing content to a new format takes a significant amount of time. It also takes time for authors to become familiar with the new format. Therefore, conversion of existing content is rarely done all at once, and document conversion occurs gradually.
During this period, the migration script also gradually changes and evolves, requiring ongoing adjustments to the conversion results. This may require reconverting previously converted content into a newly expanded script. We apply methods to maximize productivity by minimizing author intervention as much as possible. Repeating this process throughout the project can help maximize efficiency.
