New S1000D White Paper
Understanding & Implementing Issue 4.0
Now & in the Future
This comprehensive White Paper provides an overview of the changes and new features of the Specification’s latest release, and how its implementation will impact current and future projects. The paper is based on the informative Inmedius Webinar, S1000D Issue 4.0: What It Means to You, presented last year by Sean Rushing, Inmedius Director of S1000D Products and Services.
The White Paper covers a brief history of S1000D, along with the change proposals and other drivers behind the most recent update.Implications for legacy and new projects are also discussed, along with a view of future developments.
Inmedius also addresses how the Issue 4.0 changes have impacted support tools, including its S1000D Publishing Suite™, the fully integrated, seven-module lifecycle software solution. The Suite’s unique design and flexible data architecture allowed Inmedius to be the first to support Issue 1.7 through 4.0 of the Specification.
Read the eight-page S1000D White Paper
Moving from Word to S1000D
Practical Considerations
Many of Inmedius’ clients wish to convert legacy, non-structured documents into S1000D. There are a few distinct challenges which need to be planned and explained accordingly:
- Organization of the Microsoft® Word document
- Mapping into S1000D
- Skills necessary to perform translation work
These are distinct challenges which need to be planned and explained accordingly.
Most documents have some type of organization. It may not be apparent, but the reality is that documents have core components that can be understood by the reader. They are not random. The important point is to understand the organization, beyond looking at the Table of Contents. What did the author do? What conventions were followed? These need to be discerned and recorded for the project team.
Secondly, the Word document needs to be ‘cut-up’ to map into the concepts of Data Modules (DM). Which portions describe the equipment? Which portions are procedures for repair? Where are the cautions? A keen eye and understanding of DM types will allow for the Word document to be reorganized at best, or at least marked-up to simulate where the DMs would ‘break.’
Finally, the actual translation needs to occur. There are many choices from creating skeleton documents in S1000Dmanager™ and then cut and paste in S1000DAuthorPro™, to a fully automated approach using Inmedius iConvert®. This is really a function of the number of pages, available staff and their level of expertise.
In the end, converting from Word documents to S1000D is quite feasible and Inmedius has performed over a dozen such conversions. It’s not easy, but it can be accomplished in a timely manner with either your staff or ours.
Contact Inmedius to learn more.
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