XML as well as the way ahead for technical writing

Oct 26
12:16

2014

Michael Dupre

Michael Dupre

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Whilst xml was initially created to help with transferring and displaying data across various platforms, its flexibility and versatility as quickly noticed by publishers who have increasingly used xml to create and publish publications one time across a variety of platforms.

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XML was basically initially produced to address some of the limitations with HTML in carrying and keeping data on web pages and also over the internet. Having said that because technology grew to become extensively adopted and used,XML as well as the way ahead for technical writing Articles other ways to use XML emerged, due to the flexibility and versatility.

In particular, XML has prospered in distributing as well as in technical documents and technical writing, this is because XML tags are not semantic in contrast to HTML tags are, this means you can create your own tags for whatever purpose you want, this is excellent in technical writing.

So not only is XML becoming commonly adopted inside technical writing however it looks set for being the future of technical writing and documentation online.

There are a number of significant reasons on top of the above which are driving this future.

The most important is the need to publish once with no need to publish multiple times for various devices, platforms, formats and many others. This is certainly considered one of XML’s key strengths as it is not fixed or linked to any platform, browser, device etc, meaning XML is certain to be readable on just about anything.

On top of this, you are able to attach CSS style sheets with your XML data to style up your documents or content any way you like, this will give further flexibility for editors along with builders as well, this means you can show your content precisely how you want it to look across pretty much any viewing configuration ie Mac or PC, tablet or laptop, or mobile phone, or Android or Apple or IE9 or Firefox, this really is extremely powerful, and no other option comes anywhere around offering these kinds of compatibility and versatility.

Another good point, which is closely associated to the first, as it comes from the advantage of being able to publish just once, is the cost saving connected with having the capacity to just publish once. For huge publishers with dedicated specialists teams for print and web, the cost savings might be sizeable.

No longer will they need to double up on workers and resources to have one team to write in print and yet another to publish online on websites, exactly the same content material can be utilized for both, possible because of the flexibility of XML.

You could use virtually any plain text editor for example notepad or even a specific XML editor to generate your XML files, to build XML documents for writing you can use Adobe FrameMaker and have it set to structured mode.

Adobe describe their FrameMaker software as “ a complete solution for authoring, enriching, managing, and publishing technical documentation. Author with best-in-class XML/DITA and DTD support. Manage content using out-of-the-box integration with leading content management systems and Dropbox. Collaborate with PDF-based reviews, even on mobile devices. Easily publish to multiple channels, formats, and screens natively from within FrameMaker 12 at no extra cost, without any plug-ins.”

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