How to make manuals by using Indox?
Many companies have technical writing professionals - technical writers to take care of the documentation. Responsibility for documentation can also be distributed among different experts. Structured documentation, technical documentation, technical documentation - all these have in common that good tools are needed for writing.
Index IT has developed the content management system Indox, from which you can read more about here. Take, for example, the creation of user manuals for machine X in a structured format in Indox. If the company already has content produced with, for example, Word software, read here how you can convert a Word file to Indox using the Word2DITA tool.
1. The preparation of the manual begins with the creation of the necessary sub-assemblies, ie topics such as introduction, use of the machine, cleaning of the machine and warranty conditions..
2. Attach the above topics to the same map, which gathers the desired sections of the publication and their contents, such as texts, tables, images and lists.
3. Publish in the desired format, e.g. PDF, word or html.
Now the operating instructions for the machine Y are in the form of a structured document! Benefits achieved in a nutshell:
- If the company starts to make machine Y, the contents can be easily reused, eg the warranty conditions can be attached to the folder of machine Y. If the warranty terms change, they will change in both instructions at once.
- The same images can be used in the instructions, and the images to be changed will change in all instructions at once. The picture also shows where all the places it has been used.
- Changes to the guidelines can be controlled by various workflows, such as an approval workflow.
- The company wants to offer instructions also in html format, now the same material can be easily used, for example, in Oxygen Webhelp.
- The company is expanding into the Japanese market, adding a new language version is easy.
- The appearance of the publication can be modified, e.g. by adding the company logo to the top of the PDF.