[austechwriter] Re: Information Mapping: what the heck is it?
- From: Stuart Lecky <slecky@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 09:40:20 +1000
At 03:13 PM 3/06/03 +1000, you wrote:
>Hi All:
>I'm now at the second site in a few weeks that uses IM templates. From the
>little I've been able to learn about IM, it is a methodology and a format.
>Can't say anything about the methodology, since at both sites any
>knowledge of it has long since disappeared, but the format and templates
>are a nightmare....it apparently imposes effectively vitiate 20 years of
>wordprocessing advances, and are impossible to transform into any form of
>online help.
I used IM for over four years, creating and maintaining user manuals for a
corporate Unix system that had its own Help system - an ASCII, text-based,
non-GUI one with tags.
This text-based system could not handle the label/indented text style of IM
at all and had problems with tables, so I had to adapt it, using Word
macros in (what I vaguely recall was) a three-stage conversion process.
More modern Help systems, while looking better that the text-based system,
tend to be similarly not predisposed to handing indentation or tables
(apart from very simple ones), so you may have to consider adapting too,
replacing the side labels with headings, for example. It could be that
Tactics now have a tool or a method to enable this.
Since they are our competitors it's only fair that I suggest that you
contact Tactics to ask about their trademarked methodology and its online
capabilities, but at the same time I also suggest that you take a look at
our website. Go to http://www.hci.com.au/hcisite2/products/default.htm and
click on the Soft copy "free" link. There you'll find the HCI Style Guide
inside a Word template file that easily allows you to create online
documentation. This is free.
_________________________________________________________
Stuart Lecky, Project Manager
__________________________
HCi Better communications Better Management
(61-2) 9232 6669 (ph) http://www.hci.com.au
(61-2) 9232 1002 (fax) GPO Box 4846 Sydney 2001 Australia
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