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The newsletter of Scriptorium Publishing |
Volume 11, Issue 2
February 2008
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In this issue:
Congratulations, Sheila!
Terry Smith Joins Scriptorium
Out and About: Conferences
DocTrain Discount
Upcoming Web-Based Training: FrameMaker
Solution Brief: Extreme Automation for Requirements Documentation
The XML Strategist
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Congratulations, Sheila! |
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Sheila Loring has been a senior technical consultant with Scriptorium for nearly 10 years. She has done everything from developing document conversion systems to designing XML workflows. Sheila is also a senior member of STC. This month, the Carolina chapter of the Society for Technical Communication is recognizing Sheila for "dedication, leadership, inspiration, enthusiasm, commitment, creativity, and humor." For the past seven years, Sheila has served on the chapter's leadership board and filled many roles:
- Production editor for the chapter newsletter (2002–present)
- Communications manager (2002–2003)
- Chapter vice president (2002–2003)
- Competitions judge (2002–present)
- Presenter at local conferences (2003–2005)
- Meeting presenter at the NC-FUN SIG (North Carolina FrameMaker User Network Special Interest Group)
She just stepped down from her leadership roles this year, making her (finally!) eligible to receive a Distinguished Chapter Service Award for her excellent work. |
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Terry Smith Joins Scriptorium |
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Scriptorium welcomes Terry Smith to its team — again! Terry worked for Scriptorium a decade ago (before Scriptorium even had an office). As a frequent speaker at professional meetings around the area, Terry has long professed her love for FrameMaker, Acrobat online reviews, and moire-free screenshots.
Terry is now working on Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8. |
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Out and About: Conferences |
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Our chocolate stash and a few Scriptorium employees will be traveling a lot in the upcoming months, appearing across the United States and Canada.
On March 16–19, Sarah will be presenting at WritersUA in Portland, OR. Her presentation, Friend or Foe? The Role of Web 2.0 in User Assistance, will address the consequences of wikis, forums, RSS feeds, and the like. Matt Arnold and Alan Pringle will also be at the conference. Drop by our booth to say hello and pick up some chocolate.
During the DocTrain West conference in Vancouver, BC (May 6–9), Sarah will be giving two sessions: Introduction to XSL and What Technical Communicators Need to Know about Flash. Sheila and Matt will be at the booth, along with the chocolate.
This June 1–4, Sarah and Matt will be in Philadelphia, PA, for the STC's 55th annual conference. She will present on the complications that arise from paradigm shifts.
If you would like to set up an appointment and meet with us at any of these conferences, contact us at: sales@scriptorium.com. |
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DocTrain Discount |
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If you're planning on attending DocTrain West or DocTrain Life Sciences this year, use the Scriptorium discount to get $200 off.
This discount is available ONLY via telephone.
To register, call Eileen Savary at (978) 649-8555 and ask for the Scriptorium discount.
If $200 off isn't attractive enough, the first two people to e-mail sales@scriptorium.com in response to this newsletter get free registration. Please respond only if you plan to attend the conference. Free registration does not include travel, meals, or accommodations. |
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Upcoming Web-Based Training: FrameMaker |
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Web-based FrameMaker classes are coming up this March and April. If you have taken our introductory FrameMaker classes before, March is a good time to catch our advanced courses or expand your knowledge of structured FrameMaker.
If you're looking for introductory level courses or just need to refresh your knowledge of unstructured FrameMaker, our accelerated introduction and template design classes will be offered in April.
We have posted this year's class schedule through June. For information about available classes, check out our online calendar.
For information about private and web-based training, see our training options page. If you have any questions, contact training@scriptorium.com. |
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Solution Brief: Extreme Automation for Requirements Documentation
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We have written another solution brief, detailing how we reduced a customer's publication process for requirements documents from a week to 15 minutes.
A client that develops large software applications for military use had a labor-intensive, week-long workflow for generating requirements documentation. Requirements engineers cut and pasted content from Word and other sources into a database. Output generated from the database contained several inconsistencies and required significant manual reformatting. The client requested that we reduce the document generation time so that updated output could be distributed daily as a DITA-based Eclipse help plug-in.
We developed a solution that includes the Ant build tool, macros for Microsoft Word and Open Office Writer, and XSL and Perl scripts. Issuing one Ant command starts the conversion process, and the client has an Eclipse plug-in within minutes.
Read the two-page solution brief (PDF, 200K). |
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The XML Strategist |
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In the November and January issues of Intercom, Sarah has posted articles as the XML Strategist, discussing the advantages and pitfalls of the application-independent technology. If you missed her sage advice, you can read the articles here:
When is XML the Wrong Answer? (PDF, 225K) Intercom, November 2007
Publishing XML Content with XSL (PDF, 350K) Intercom, January 2008
Intercom is a publication of the Society for Technical Communication. |
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Copyright ©
2007 Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last modified
March 27, 2008
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