I have followed and used Author-it pretty much from the beginning. I have to admit often being confused at family barbeques with the technical aspects, but maybe it was just the beer..?  However, conceptually, Author-it has always been ahead of its time and a breath of fresh air. I first used Author-it in 1999 for a military application in East Timor and ever since it has been my primary authoring tool. When the opportunity to represent Author-it in the Middle East came up several years ago, I gladly took up the challenge.

One of the things that became clear at the time was that I did not know much about the Information Management field. So I set out to rectify this. I researched courses that could educate me and provide me with an informed and balanced view of the industry. I chose to undertake the Graduate Diploma of Information Design at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in New Zealand. It was a tough course that probed deep into this field and kept me very busy for a couple of years. I expected this course would arm me with the knowledge to understand how Author-it fits into this industry. What was unexpected was that Author-it would be covered in two of the six papers on the course.

The first time was in the Research and Theory paper. This paper mentioned Author-it in the context of changing the standard mould and being an industry leader with new concepts. Author-it’s single-sourcing and component content management concepts were explained and highlighted as the next big evolution in information management. This was produced in the context of historical theory of information management.

The second time was two semesters later in the Information Design paper. The context this time was the techniques used to produce professional documents. Author-it was specifically highlighted as one of the first end-to-end solutions to provide a single-sourcing solution to the industry. Single-sourcing concepts were covered in depth as obviously this is seen as an important evolution of the way we manage information.

I am personally impressed that Author-it and associated concepts are being recognized in these courses. It is confirmation that Author-it is indeed an industry leader and that conceptually they are on the right track. I think the ongoing developments (Author-it Live, Xtend, Publishing Profiles, Structured Authoring, Aspect, Assist etc.) that have come out of Author-it are a tribute to them also. It is one thing to be an industry leader, however staying on the leading edge is an even greater challenge. Author-it is doing this well.

Posted by Mark Trotter, Author-it Certified Consultant, TrotterShaw LTD

Tuesday 19th May was Workchoice Day for many year 12 high school students around New Zealand. Workchoice Day is a day Year 12 students (16-17yo) spend cruising through companies with the hope of getting a better understanding about the wonderful world of employment that lies ahead of them.

Author-it Software Corporation signed up to donate its office and its time this year as part of a community service. A fabulous volunteer team, headed by our HR Manager Amanda, put together a fun and informative agenda ready for the arrival of the students.

Macleans College was our first school to visit, with a mixed group of around 15 students. Both Julia (Accounts Assistant) and Richard (Business Development Manager) attended Macleans College back in their school days, so Julia met with the students, giving them a brief overview of what she’d done with her life since leaving Macleans. And afterwards, Richard did a short talk and basic demonstration about Author-it and how it works. An overview of the company and personal employment history was given by the company President Steve, as well as Amanda and Sarah (Reception/Admin Manager). A tour of the offices saw the students interacting with all the staff, asking questions about the various roles that interested them. A group lunch followed, where again the students talked to those whose jobs interested them the most.

After a quick clean-up, our next group arrived, a slightly smaller group of girls from St. Cuthberts College. Although shorter on time than the previous group, Steve, Amanda and Sarah did another company overview and personal working history, and another tour of the offices was given along with more questions (and plenty of giggles).

The students, supervisors and Workchoice Day co-ordinators alike gave us fantastic feedback. They were blown away by our culture and our people. Some of the comments we received, during and after the day: “Has opened my eyes to different careers in finance.” Another student said that what they found most interesting was “The emphasis placed on work culture”. Barbara, the supervisor from St. Cuthberts College, said that “you did convey a very enlightened culture and a happy and supportive workplace.” Since being involved with these schools, Amanda has been invited to speak at a Careers Evening held by St. Cuthberts School. A real credit to her and the efforts she took to make this day a success.

Thank you to all the volunteers, including Steve, Amanda, Richard, Danielle, John and Julia, who took time out of their working day to be with the students. Another big thanks to everyone in the office for being so accommodating with the student’s questions and willingly having your quiet working day interrupted. We look forward to another successful Workchoice Day next year!

Posted by Sarah Smith, Reception/Admin Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

The year 2006 was an exciting year, for all sorts of reasons. It was an exciting year for Author-it Software Corporation when Author-it 4.3 was released with support for the still-embryonic DITA standard. Who knew, in 2006, that DITA would come so far? (Well, we did, obviously.) As Author-it is a controlled authoring tool, built on top of a component content management system, with a multi-channel publishing engine back end, we were pretty much the first end-to-end DITA solution. (After all, end-to-end is such a fluid description. Just because we have more at the starting end (authoring), the finishing end (publishing), and that lumpy bit in the middle (content management), what’s to stop someone else from picking up the pegs and moving them closer together to create their own definition… sigh).

The independent CMS Watch published an industry report in 2008 covering DITA tools, XML, and component content management systems. As one of the few vendors providing a end-to-end DITA solution Author-it rated very highly. High praise indeed. Author-it being an out of the box solution that requires no third party tools or programming certainly helped. Interested in the report? If you are reading this you should be*. 2009 version out soon, I believe.

I don’t want to sound fussy, but first usually means… first. And 2006 is definitely before 2009. So unless I’m missing a very finely tuned definition of ‘First Authoring Software to Support DITA Publishing With No Programming or Third-Party Tools Required’ that somehow magically makes 2009 occur before 2006, I think someone at MadCap is taking liberties with the truth. Now I like Lewis Carroll and George Orwell as much as the next person but such blatant and farcical manipulation of the truth should remain in works of fiction. Or people should hire PR companies that do their homework.

Or, we could agree that MadCap has never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Lovely folks at MadCap, and Flare works very well and lots of people like it, but if no one else is going to call them on the blatantly inaccurate press releases seen over the past year, I will.

Posted by Matthew Armstrong, Sales Director Asia Pacific, Author-it Software Corporation

*From the CMS Watch website:
About the Report
The XML & Component Content Management Report 2009 provides an overview of leading CCM products as well as XML editing tools, including detailed comparative evaluations of 25 CCM vendors XML editing products.
How it will help you
The report can help your team:

• Save time in the selection process
• Create an effective vendor shortlist
• Avoid selecting the wrong product
• Budget more accurately
• Avoid painful setbacks

Who needs this report?
Check out this report if you are considering to undertake any of the following projects:

• Complex content re-use
• Extensive content translation
• Technical Documentation and other DITA projects
• Structuring common office documents
• Multichannel publishing
• Structured authoring with XML editors
• Managing information components at an enterprise level

Last week I travelled to Melbourne to the annual AODC conference. It was good catching up with the technical communicators there and gave me a chance to introduce a new direction that Author-it is moving in – Real Time Performance Support. I gave a talk about the background behind the rise in Real Time Performance Support and outlined how they are being used and to what effect. We have a new product release soon – Author-it Assist, you can read more about this on our latest products page of the website http://www.author-it.com/index.php?page=latestproducts. I see this doing two things for people. Firstly, its a great way to provide contextual help – even in applications made by other people. Secondly these systems are used to create customized support for organizations tying all their applications contextually to their own content repository. We’ve done a lot of research and found that users need a support system in their work place that does several things:

• Integrates directly into applications and provides contextual learning without any need to access the development code or context ID’s
• Provide multiple contextual links from a single page
• Supports informal learning strategies (requiring less investment in formal training and less disruptive peer training)
• That serves up content using ‘just in time’ practice (push and pull the content to the user)
• Provides customized, contextual content that suits ‘how they use it’ not ‘how it works’
• Sends updates to contextual links independently of new software builds

These systems are being used to great success already and are certainly on the rise with the Knowledge Managers. It’s interesting that the technical writer is a big winner as it enables them to do so much more ‘retrofitting’ with their support material.

Do you, as a technical writer, see value in being able to retrofit your material into other applications?

Posted by Richard Ashurst, Business Development Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

One of the most striking issues facing our clients is how to extend Author-it’s collaboration further across their organisation.

The ubiquity of Word, PDF and email means these tools are a familiar, and therefore de facto, method to share and check content everywhere, but they offer poor methods for groups to collaborate.  I know Word and PDF both have review and collaboration features and I’ve seen some brave efforts to actually make these functions work.

After all, the thinking goes, if Word and Adobe Reader are on every desktop it’s easy to distribute a file and allow 50 people to comment directly in the document.

But this doesn’t scale - it’s a simple as that.  No matter how sophisticated your SharePoint system, or the forceful personality of your project manager, amalgamating and approving the comments from more than a few people is an arduous and error-prone task for the people responsible for managing the review process.  There’s either the comments from 50 people in one document (not pretty), or 50 documents with comments from one person.

So how to solve the problem? How to continue using a document distribution method that everyone is comfortable with, but keep the granular control and consistency that Author-it provides.  All without making the review process more difficult or timeconsuming.

We decided the best way to achieve these goals was to start where people are familiar (Word and PDF) and use this document as an entry point to Author-it.  That is, automatically create links to the relevant Author-it content directly within the Word or PDF file.

When a reviewer wants make changes or suggestions to any part of the document they simply click the link next to that section.  This opens the relevant Topic in Author-it for the reviewer to begin making changes immediately.

Because the review is now taking place directly in the original content source, all of the standard Author-it content controls, workflow, reuse, and release functionality applies.

The Word or PDF file no longer become the platform for collaboration, a task neither perform well.  Instead the Word and PDF file remain what they should be, a distribution and publication format, now with added benefit of linking directly to the original (controlled) source with proper collaboration.

As per I’ve created a short video http://www.author-it.com/videos/collaboration/Collaboration%20Plus_demo.swf to outline workflow and a few business cases.  Please check and let me know what you think.  This functionality will be freely available to all Author-it users but requires some scripting skill to configure for your own domain and database details.

(Just a summary for people unfamiliar with Author-it - software licencing is concurrent.  This means the Windows software can be installed on any number of PCs (the web version, obviously, doesn’t need installing on any user’s computer).  The software is smart enough to know who you are and configure functionality appropriately.  That is, no separate ‘review’ or ‘lite’ copies are required - if you are a reviewer the ‘advanced Author-it functions’ are automatically switched once you have logged in.)

Posted by Matt Armstrong, Sales Director, Asia Pacific, Author-it Software Corporation

I was recently sent some information regarding The Center for Information-Development Management that you may find of interest if you are a publications manager. If you’re interested in information about communicating with senior management, building business cases for new initiatives, understanding customer information needs, or confronting the myriad issues and problems faced every day you may wish to consider CIDM membership.
CIDM is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers from around the world who facilitate collaboration regarding information development among skilled managers in the industry. Members include managers, senior managers, directors, and vice presidents of information development and training who are remarkably skilled and happy to share their experiences.
New members join CIDM as a department, which means that all staff members and managers are invited to participate in CIDM activities.
There are two membership types–regular departments and small departments. Member organizations receive one or two complimentary registrations to attend the flagship CIDM conference, Best Practices, each September.
Benefits of membership also include discounted rates for attendance at the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America and the DITA Europe conferences, as well as workshops and seminars held throughout the year. Members receive a subscription to the bimonthly Best Practices journal. They receive the monthly Information Management e-newsletter and a subscription to the management listserv as well as participation in the scheduled teleconferences to share current issues and experiences.
If you are interested in learning more about CIDM or becoming a member, please call to arrange a discussion with Director JoAnn Hackos at +1
(303) 232-7586 or visit the website.
While you’re there, sign up for the monthly e-newsletter for continuing news about the management of information development.

Posted by Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation.

Cross the Solent to the Isle of Wight and you may feel as if you have stepped back in time! The Isle of Wight is one of the best kept secrets in the UK when it comes to areas of outstanding natural beauty. If you like sailing, walking and cycling as much as we do then the Isle of Wight is definitely one to put on your list of places to visit. I also have it on good authority that the golf is pretty good too, but I haven’t been bitten by that particular bug just yet!

Martin and I have fallen so much in love with the Island that last summer we bought a property in Cowes, gave it a complete make over and we are now letting it out for sailing regattas and family holidays. For more information have a look at our Regatta Cottage website (created using Author-it of course!).

Posted by Amanda Caley, Director, Content Chameleon, Author-it Certified Consultant”

With a background in education I’ve been interested in a number of blogs and articles that have come up over the past few months regarding ‘open source collaboration’ for instructional material.  Anyone who has used a wiki knows the general idea: ubiquitous, collaborative authoring by motivated experts un-encumbered by geographic location or commercial constraints.  In some areas, though, a wiki is a very poor choice.  Its egalitarian nature, informality and generally more limited formatting becomes the other edge of the sword.  The ‘heat/light’ ratio changes and users lose confidence in the quality of information.
Beyond the hype of open source (Free software!  No vendors!) lies the real beauty – altruism and belief that information should be shared.  There are some amazing projects by universities to enable professors and industry experts to collaborate on curricula for a wide range of disciplines, from electrical engineering through to agriculture husbandry.  A baseline of material was provided and users can contribute, extend and filter to meet their needs.  Schools and universities are then free to incorporate this curricula into their own programmes.
Here at Author-it we have a large community of intelligent users that have taken the core Author-it software and solved some very complex problems.  We get to hear about it but the information often stays locked inside peoples’ heads or drifts around the user community as anecdotes and rumour.  So, in keeping with the spirit of open source we have made the (very purple) ‘Using Author-it’ guide available as an open source project.  Our own product Author-it Live provides the ubiquitous, collaborative authoring interface via a standard web browser, to anyone, anywhere.  With our long experience in the documentation and publishing industry we believe quality and accuracy are critical and shouldn’t be sacrificed just to get web-based collaboration.  Author-it Live’s controlled workflow ensures that all articles go through peer-review before being made ‘live’.
At this early stage a small group of users will be contributing articles, and this community will grow.  The evolving ‘Using Author-it’ guide will be made available online, and for the old school ‘curl up on the couch with a cup of tea’ people, a regular update to the hard copy will be found on Amazon. (update - the ‘Using Author-it’ guide has sold out already, sorry.  More copies on their way to Amazon’s warehouse early next week)

I’d be interested in feedback from readers about the strengths, weaknesses, joys and disappointments of your own open collaborative efforts…
Posted by Matt Armstrong, Sales Director Asia Pacific, Author-it Software Corporation

Are you interested in looking at the exhibitors at the upcoming WritersUA event at the Westin Seattle but haven’t registered for the event?

Did you know you can get Complimentary Admission for the Exhibition at the Conference for Software User Assistance  on Tuesday, March 31st from 3:45-5:15 pm however you must RSVP by 5:00 pm Friday 20th March. Details are:

Send an email to Shannonm@WritersUA.com with a Subject line of Exhibition. Include your name in the message body. You will receive an email confirmation or call them on 206 774 9294

And make sure you stop by the Author-it booth to say hi to the team!

Posted By Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

A really effective way of managing your review comments in Author-it is to create a number of standard review topics, using your usual ‘review’ style. These standard review topics should containing the questions that you are always asking of your reviewers and notes to yourself or other authors in your team. For example:

Please can you provide more information.
Is this correct?
Insert a screenshot here.

So that you can easily search for these topics the titles should have a prefix, for example RT: or if you work with a team of authors then you may want to prefix with your initials. For example:

AC: Please can you provide more information.
JH: Please can you provide more information.

When required these review topics can be inserted as an embedded topic.
Posted By Amanda Caley, Director, Content Chameleon, Author-it Certified Consultant