Saturday, April 5, 2008

Structured authoring is a hot topic in technical communication but also a confused topic, with a lot of uncertainty about what it even is, let alone how to implement it.

This intensive seminar starts by discussing structured authoring's pros and cons. It then offers four definitions of structured authoring, each of which may lead your company to use different technologies, tools, and workflows.

Adopting structured authoring is also a paradigm shift, rather than simply the adoption of a new tool, and the workshop discusses the strategic, managerial, planning, and cultural aspects of that shift.

Finally, you'll walk through a set of lab exercises, some on paper and some online, that can serve as the basis for a real implementation of structured authoring in your company. All without the complexity and expense of switching to FrameMaker or DITA.

This one-day, lecture and hands-on workshop is aimed at documentation managers, technical communicators, and help authors who want to explore the concepts behind structured authoring in order to:

• Determine whether structured authoring makes sense for their company.
• Determine whether they can implement structured authoring using their current tool set without expensive upgrading.
• Find an affordable methodology for moving to structured authoring using their current tools.

There are no specific prerequisites but experience on at least two online or hard-copy projects, or project or group management experience, is helpful. Also plan to bring in real material for use in the exercises, and to bring a laptop configured for your primary authoring tool – Word 2003, RoboHelp X5/6/7, or Flare 3.1 for this workshop.

Neil Perlin has 29 years experience in technical communication, with 23 in training, consulting, and development for various types of online formats and tools including WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, JavaHelp, RoboHelp, ForeHelp, Flare, and many now known only in legend. Neil is a columnist and frequent speaker for the STC and other professional groups, a member of the STC’s Boston chapter, the creator and manager of the Beyond the Bleeding Edge stem that ran at the STC’s annual conference from 1999 to 2006, and an Associate Fellow of the STC.

Neil is a Madcap Certified Instructor for Flare and Mimic, and an Adobe-Certified Instructor for RoboHelp and Captivate. He provides training, consulting, and development for online help and documentation, Flare, RoboHelp, Mimic, Captivate, XML, single sourcing, and structured authoring through Hyper/Word Services of Tewksbury, MA. He can be reached at nperlin@concentric.net, www.hyperword.com.

9:00 am to 5:00 pm

The MathWorks, Inc.
Customer Training Center
One Apple Hill
Natick, Massachusetts
Map and Directions

Payment must be received by April 1:
     $145 for STC Boston chapter and Northern New England chapter members
     $165 for other STC members and non-members

Lunch is included in the cost of the workshop. Cancellations must be made by April 1 to receive a refund.

Registration and Payment Instructions

For more information about the program, contact Pam Sarantos by e-mail. For assistance with registration or payments, contact Cindy Cookson, Accountant for the Boston Chapter, by e-mail or phone at 978-409-6112.