Technology

Using the right tool for the job is as important for building documentation as it is for anything else. The range of tools available has increased significantly in recent years with more ‘niche’ tools and a number of ‘suites’ of tools becoming established.

At 3di, we are tools-independent, committed only to recommending the most appropriate tool for the project. We keep a close eye on technology development in the market and have access to the experience of many authors who will have worked with new tools for a wide range of companies.

Recent 3di projects have seen us using:

• Epic and Quicksilver at Motorola
• Word at RS Components and Manpower
• FrameMaker and WebWorks at Roche
• Lectora at Complinet
• RoboHelp at Microsoft
• Dreamweaver at AVEVA
• Acrobat at Unisys

For each documentation project, our team will consider the following technology factors:

• What is the established technology environment used by the customer?
• What tools were used to create the existing documents or source materials?
• Will the resulting English source need to be translated?
• How big will the documents be and how will they be structured?
• How will the choice of tools affect the ability to build the team of authors?
• Is there a single-source requirement or the need to tag using HTML or XML?
• Will the resulting documents become part of a content management system?
• How will the resulting documents be maintained?
• Will the choice of tool affect the project timescales or budgets?
• Do we have the right level of internal expertise in the tool to effectively support its use?