atw: Re: XML - a requirement for a TechWriter looking forwork?
- From: "Matthew da Silva" <mdasilva@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:01:05 +1000
While discussing XML is there any way to use XML to migrate drawings
between software packages? I've got a Visio file I want to get into
Illustrator. I assume the only way is to redo it in Illustrator from
scratch.
=
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Anthony Self
Sent: Wednesday, 10 September 2008 3:41 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: XML - a requirement for a TechWriter looking forwork?
Dear Nikki and all
When Dave Halls advised technical writers to "learn XML", he was giving
good counsel. Not wanting to put words in his mouth, his more explicit
advice might have been to "learn the basics and principles of XML so you
can understand what it all means".
XML is bigger than Ben Hur. It is a bigger initiative than the World
Wide Web. XML is a set of building blocks for the categorisation,
storage and retrieval of all human knowledge. It is impossible to learn
everything there is to know about XML, because of the length and breadth
of the technology. XML has already affected many aspects of our personal
and business lives. Journalists use it to produce your newspaper. iPods
use it for podcasting. Amazon uses it to help you choose books to buy.
Bloggers use it. GMail uses it to provide a richer Web mail client.
RoboHelp uses it to store its project file settings. OpenOffice uses it
to store office documents in an international standard format. Scholars
use it to understand Sumerian literature. The Bureau of Stats uses it to
distribute census data. And so on.
In the documentation field, authoring tools are built around XML. If
your tool is not XML-based, it's out-of-date, and probably about to be
redundant. Frame is XML-based. Flare is XML-based. Word 2007 is
XML-based. OpenOffice is XML-based. AuthorIt is XML-based. Firefox is
XML-based.
It is possible that you can stumble on, perhaps even using Word or
Frame, and be blissfully unaware of what XML is. Perhaps you can
continue to make a living for many years to come without understanding
one jot of XML. But Dave Halls' talk and advice related to professional
development. If you want to progress in your profession, you must
understand XML and its impacts. There are more relevant changes to our
working mode just around the corner. Moving from style-based authoring
to structured authoring is perhaps the biggest change. The return on
investment of structured authoring using DITA (another XML-based
technology/methodology) is potentially enormous. At the moment, the
tools haven't quite caught up to the technology, so it is a little early
for many organisations to move to this approach, but in a year or two,
everyone will be moving in that direction.
You won't understand DITA and structured authoring unless you understand
(the basics and principles of) XML. Because XML is so big, it's best to
start now, rather than try to catch on when it's too late!
Finally, I have had the pleasure of working on a number of DITA
projects, as well as teaching it, and it is an extremely rewarding thing
to work with as a writer.
Tony Self
>>> "Nikki Ward" <Nikki.Ward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 10/09/08 9:32 AM >>>
Hi all,
If you have some time, I would like some feedback on this presentation
supplied to the QLD Tech Writers group.
I just thought it rather interesting that "Learn XML" is becoming part
of a requirement for a Tech Writer who is looking for work.
...
-----
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