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Your need
Do you need someone who writes a specific manual or online help file for you? Or do you want to supply both printed and online documentation with your products for the price of one?
My service
I can create all components of your technical documentation in the required formats – either in English or in German. All texts will be written in plain, clear language, well structured and organized into small modules. This makes you documents user-friendly and easy to update.
With the help of specialized authoring tools it is possible to generate printed manuals and online help from the same, shared source. If required, even different versions of the documents can be produced from this source, like documentation for a standard version and documentation for a pro version of a software, for example. This is known as "cross media publishing", "multi channel publishing", "single source publishing" or simply "single sourcing".
Following this approach, identical content can be used in several places but must be created only once. What is even more: it also must be maintained only once. The gain multiplies with each future update and with each translation. In addition to the cost savings there is the saving in time.
From the technical point of view, single sourcing is relatively simple today, especially due to the widespread use of XML. The challenge is on the editorial side. All content must be structured and formulated in a way which guaranties that there will be no compromise in output quality in none of the generated versions. This calls for special authoring expertise.
Since the mid 90s I have been successfully using single sourcing in most software documentation projects, which made me one of the pioneers in this field (see Publications and Presentations).
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If you need to supply your documentation in different languages I can find qualified translators and coordinate the translation process for you.
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See also
Design of New Documentation
Interactive Software Demos and Tutorials
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