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| 20.1 | 19-OCT-1995 Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Tue Jan 30 1996 10:37 | 250 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum "Kickoff" 19-OCT-1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Sue Berube, Sandy McLeod, John Smart, Michael Fallett,
Joanne Sterling, Jim Carrig, Jack Downing, George Cope,
Kathy Icenogle
The following people indicated interest in the forum, but were unable
to make it to this initial meeting due to other commitments:
Dae Cho, Jon Patt, Kathy Turmel, Frank Masullo, Jo Fogarty
Agenda:
Welcome - Intro to Initial Forum "Projects"
Round table intro to what members are working on
Next Steps & Meeting Housekeeping
ACTIONS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All Members Send Kathy availability info (either slots you
usually have booked, or slots you usually
have open.. whichever is easier) so she can identify
a time when all members can meet on a
once a month basis.
For members who could not make it:
Please send Kathy info re: any activities you
have going that may be relevant to the Forum projects.
(i.e. feel free to add your two cents to the notes below)
Sue Berube Talk to Jay Kim (SSB) re: their plans for providing
Portable PostScript Driver on Win95 and NT 3.51, and
whether they will be upgrading to a more recent Adobe
driver release
Jack Downing Develop/schedule seminars to:
Demo Win95 Help - raise awareness re: features
Teach people to use his Win95 tools
Jack Downing Get Pat's input on whether Info Shelf "shell"
should be promoted for use by other SES teams.
If so, offer seminar to tell people about it.
Kathy Icenogle Talk to Liz Gabel re: need for representation
from someone working on NetView side of Polycenter.
Kathy Icenogle Check with Pam Keenan to see if she can provide
input (share what she is doing) re: Win95 "look".
Michael Fallet Invite Jack Downing, Sandy McLeod, and Kathy
Icenogle to Win95 Help Authoring Guidelines meetings.
Kathy Icenogle Get system accounts to receive messages from
LISTSRVs (public info exchanges on the internet)
for TECHWR-L (which has FRAME info) and WIN95.
(This was an idea that came up for making info of
this sort generally available w/o cluttering up
individual accounts.)
DECISIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCUSSION NOTES:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The initial focus of the forum is on the following three areas:
- Guidelines for Designing Info for Win95 Environment
- Win95 & NT Authoring Tools Testing
- Publishing Tools Evaluation
The expectation is that much of this will be accomplished by
simply making work that is being done at the project level more
visible to the whole cost center.
The discussion reflected a clear interest in addressing a wide
variety of tools & technology (as well as design & authoring)
issues that projects share within the cost center. As the initial
projects get addressed, the forum can move on to some of the
other (often interrelated) issues that seem to keep cropping up.
As a result of this meeting, the group decided that it
would make the most sense to pursue the Win95 Authoring
Guidelines effort by expanding the scope of the work that the
Polycenter group already has going to integrate members of other
projects into that team. The other two projects will be pursued
by coordinating individual efforts.
The following information was collected re: current activities
that members are pursuing in each of the identified project areas.
***** Guidelines for Designing Info for Win95 Environment
The goal of this project is to create some guidelines that
will help authors better understand how to design & develop
info for the Win95 environment.
Michael Fallet has been working with a team to define a set of
authoring guidelines for delivering info via Win95 Help
for three products that will ship on both WinNT 3.5 (which
uses Windows Help) and WinNT 3.51 (which uses Win95 Help):
Scheduler,
Performance Expert (V1). and
Event Manager (V1)
Michael had a very preliminary draft of the document they
have been working on.
Michael is open to having that team expanded in scope to
include the interests/perspective of other project teams.
He does not expect it will adversely affect their schedule.
(NOTE: It was recognized that the Win95 Help Auth. Guidelines
effort should initially be a small *working* team to
produce a draft of the guidelines. )
Several members of the group from PATHWORKS have been looking
into what it means to author for Win95 as part of their work on
the PATHWORKS Info & Shelf Dev Process Improvement Team.
The PW team will continue work with their other goals, but
felt that it would be advantageous to join forces with
the POLYCENTER team.
Jack Downing mentioned that one of the trends being set by Win95
is to have the info so integrated into the application (and the
work of the user) that it doesn't feel like the user is accessing
documentation. (This is similar to some of the "future"
that Nasrin Malayery has been exploring in Polycenter as well.)
Jack has been specifically researching
- what an author has to do, and
- how authors will need to work with programmers,
to implement this kind of user information.
Jack Downing also mentioned that the Info Shelf UI could be
used for other projects if needed... (only ~80% of the
functionality could be achieved via straight Win95 authoring.)
John Smart mentioned that the PW team has been looking into the
future of the shelf and described some work he is doing
to find out what customers are really using.
Kathy Icenogle will represent the EOS business on the Win95 Help
Authoring Guidelines team.
***** Publishing Tools Evaluation
The goal of this project is to evaluate new publishing tools
to see how well they meet our requirements and expectations.
Jim Carrig has produced EDMS-compliant templates for D2H that
look like the SES Hanging Head and Margin Art templates.
They have all been tested by PW authors, and some of the EOS
writers are planning to use the Hanging Heads template.
Jim Carrig is currently in the process of creating a RoboHelp
template that produces output that looks like the D2H help
output. Since RoboHelp is designated as an "online only" tool,
EDMS compliance is not a major consideration at this time.
Jim Carrig and Kathy Icenogle are both planning to participate
in evaluating Frame as a publishing system... and to understand
how easy it will/will not be to get info from Frame into WinHelp.
Sue Berube and Sandy McLeod have volunteered to participate in
this evaluation from the production specialist and editing
perspectives.
(Will Polycenter/NetView people be involved in this?)
Jack Downing is evaluating/researching:
Win95 Help Authoring Tools (just sent out "first
installment" of new WinHelp/95 Auth. Guide.)
and creating Win95 "evolution" tools to help
authors move info into Win95.
Dae Cho is rumored (;^) to be evaluating:
Toolbook (..will that be on Win95 and or NT 3.51,
or just Windows?)
John Smart raised a concern re: the need for tool that deals with the
problem of text becoming unreadable when screen captures are
scaled down... Two tools were suggested: SmoothScaling (a product
advertised by Wextechs that John has on order), and a tool
Jack Downing has used called Bit Edit that comes with the MMV kit.
A concern was raised re: considering the needs of groups doing
I18N when evaluating new authoring/publishing tools.. The major
concern needs to be that we should make sure that I18N groups
have sufficient notice when we are introducing the use of a new
tool so they can get it and get up to speed on it.
The discussion didn't uncover any activities in the area of
testing either converters, or new online info viewers, but
things like that are going on... (This is on Kathy's plate
to look into.)
***** Win95 & NT Authoring Tools Testing
Jim Carrig is planning to test:
D2H 16-bit and 32-bit on Win95
(32-bit D2H is scheduled for release around the
end of November... and requires 32-bit Word.)
Kathy Icenogle is planning to test:
D2H 16-bit and 32-bit on WinNT 3.51
Michael Fallet (et al) is planning to test:
16-bit and 32-bit RoboHelp on NT3.51
(32-bit RoboHelp comes in a package called Help Office,
but there is a question re: whether it includes the
WinHelp 4.0 compiler???)
Jim Carrig and Kathy Icenogle are planning to evaluate Frame5
(Beta), so would be able to look at it on Win95 and WinNT 3.51
at the same time.
There are no specific plans for testing Word 7.0 (independently
from help authoring tools). Michael is authoring a book in Word
6.0 for hardcopy only that has a lot of graphics. If working
with Word 6.0 proves to be a roadblock, he may upgrade to Word 7.0.
No one has specific plans re: testing graphic tools, but
some testing may be needed in that area. (This is on Kathy's
plate to pursue.)
! NSCC Tools & Technology Team
!
nm%TNPUBS::BERUBE ! Sue Berube, PW Production Specialist
nm%TNPUBS::CARRIG ! Jim Carrig, PATHWORKS
nm%DONVAN::CHO ! Dae Cho, Engineer
nm%CUPTAY::COPE ! George Cope, PATHWORKS
nm%DEMON::DOWNING ! Jack Downing, PATHWORKS
nm%CUPMK::FALLET ! Michael Fallet, POLYCENTER
nm%TNPUBS::FLEMING ! Cindy Fleming-Wood, Directory Services
nm%TNPUBS::FOGARTY ! Jo Fogarty, Directory Services
nm%TNPUBS::ICENOGLE ! Kathy Icenogle, Team Leader, EOS
nm%DONVAN::KEENAN ! Pam Keenan, POLYCENTER
nm%CUPTAY::MALAYERY ! Nasrin Malayery, POLYCENTER
nm%TNPUBS::MACLEOD ! Sandy McLeod, PW Editor
nm%TNPUBS::MASULLO ! John Masullo, PATHWORKS
nm%CASDOC::PATT ! Jon Patt, PATHWORKS
nm%TNPUBS::SMART ! John Smart, PATHWORKS
nm%TNPUBS::STERLING ! Joanne Sterling, PATHWORKS
nm%NAC::TURMEL ! Kathy Turmel, POLYCENTER
|
| 20.2 | 15-NOV-1995 Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Tue Jan 30 1996 10:38 | 229 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum 15-NOV-1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Jim Carrig, Jack Downing, Bob Govoni, Frank Masullo,
Mike Rogers, Kathy Turmel, Bob Young, Kathy Icenogle
Agenda: Welcome/introduction for new members
Progress (or roadblock) check on project activities:
Win95/NT3.51 authoring guidelines
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
Follow-up on actions from last meeting.
Round table on news & new activities/issues.
FORUM PROJECT STATUS:
Win95/NT3.51 authoring guidelines
Progress here is very good. The Polycenter authoring
guidelines team has expanded to include members from
other businesses and a few rich discussions have resulted
in settling on an outline. Sections have been divided
among members with the goal of pulling a very rough
draft together for team review on Nov 30.
Jack Downing taught a seminar on WinHelp 4.0 to a crowd
in Babbage.
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Kathy Icenogle and Bob Govoni are about to receive
copies of the Frame/SGML beta test software.
(Others are also able to test this software using
NSCC's evaluation licenses.)
Bob Govoni (Polycenter) has done some work with
Arbortext. (Arbortext and Frame seem to be the two
tools "on the table" for SGML authoring.)
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
This activity has been held up (so far) due to
lack fo software, but things seem to be shaking
loose now. There should be more to report next time.
Rod Jack apparently successfully installed
Win95 on Kathy Icenogle's PC.. using his standard
template, and dual booted with NT3.51. (Kathy will
attempt to do the Frame eval on Win95 and NT, since it
should work, in theory, at least.)
Jim Carrig expects to get a beta copy of the new D2H
software any day now.
Kathy Turmel has recently received a copy of the
new RoboHelp software.
NSCC Tools Strategies
Kathy has received very little feedback to date from NSCC
contributors on the tools strategies document. Members of
the group offered to try to do a review.
The doc can be copied from:
TNPUBS::USER$664:[ICENOGLE.PUBLIC]NSCC-TOOLS.PS
OTHER DISCUSSION NOTES:
Welcomed the following new members:
Bob Young Video-on-Demand
Mike Rogers Distributed Computing
Bob Govoni Polycenter Netview
Bob Young told us that the VoD team has been struggling a lot
with producing large books in Word... so, they are
interested in Frame as a possible solution for publishing
large books.
Mike told us that one of the things that the Distributed
Computing team has been doing is delivering very large
books online via WinHelp. They also have an interest in
SGML authoring (since the OSF DCE info is expected to
move to SGML).
Bob Govoni shared the following info:
He has a 1/2 day overview trng on Frame?? scheduled with
Kathy Greenleaf.
Polycenter is leaning towards using WinHelp
(instead of Dynatext) on NT. They have successfully
taken a book that came from IBM Bookmaster (nroff->SGML)..
then ported from SGML to RTF/Info Mapping style
(by Neil Keefe from the tools support group)..
and compiled it into WinHelp 4.0 for display on NT 3.51.
(There are apparently no graphics or index hits
yet, but so far, the process seems to work). More
testing is planned.
There was a great deal of discussion around problems
related to getting the new operating systems (Win95 and NT)
..and the need for better system support.
NEW ACTION ITEMS:
Everyone Send Kathy I. info, issues that will help raise
awareness of business requirements for infrastructure
team... and constructive suggestions for what could
help make it easier for us to work in spite of the
current delays in getting OS swr, servers, etc.
(and please copy Project Mgrs... This is mostly
so Kathy can consolidate date/info to pass on to the
Strategy Group)
Everyone Send Cindy Fleming-Wood (TNPUBS::FLEMING) info re:
training needs for new operating systems... particularly
any system admin tasks you're learning about.
(Kathy I. will alert Cindy that she may receive this info.)
Bob Young Let the group know when he is scheduled for
Frame training.. (some time Nov or Dec).
Bob Govoni Get Lee Fogal's (from USG) input on using Frame vs.
Arbortext for SGML authoring.
Bob Govoni Ask if Kathy I. and Jim C. can attend Kathy Greenleaf's
1/2 day seminar that she is giving for Polycenter.
John Smart Share results of PW Info Shelf customer survey
with the group. (The survey will be conducted at
DECUS in early December, so this may be for
January meeting.)
Jim Carrig Be prepared to share what he has learned re: the
new version of D2H (based on his beta test) at
the next meeting.
Kathy Turmell Be prepared to share what he has learned re: the
new version of Robohelp at the next meeting.
Kathy Icenogle Pass on recommendation for upgrading VMS servers
to UCX as interim solution (if appropriate).
Kathy Icenogle Forward message re: what Kathy Haramundanis'
group does to the forum distribution.
Kathy Icenogle Check with Kathy Haramundanis re: status and plans for
Frame beta test. (NOTE: Kathy H. just distributed beta
software... to me and Bob Govoni. There are
a couple of other kits available to NSCC.)
Kathy Icenogle Check with Sue Berube on SSB status on 32-bit
Portable Postscript drivers. (Progress: Sue said
she had an opportunity to speak to Jae on 11/17.)
STATUS OF OLD ACTION ITEMS:
ACTIONS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All Members Send Kathy availability info (either slots you
usually have booked, or slots you usually
have open.. whichever is easier) so she can identify
a time when all members can meet on a
once a month basis.
DONE
For members who could not make it:
Please send Kathy info re: any activities you
have going that may be relevant to the Forum projects.
(i.e. feel free to add your two cents to the notes below)
DROPPED
Sue Berube Talk to Jay Kim (SSB) re: their plans for providing
Portable PostScript Driver on Win95 and NT 3.51, and
whether they will be upgrading to a more recent Adobe
driver release
KATHY to check status
Jack Downing Develop/schedule seminars to:
Demo Win95 Help - raise awareness re: features
Teach people to use his Win95 tools
DONE Seminar (on both topics) scheduled for 11/16.
Jack Downing Get Pat's input on whether Info Shelf "shell"
should be promoted for use by other SES teams.
If so, offer seminar to tell people about it.
DEFERRED Pending a decision on the part of the PATHWORKS
group re: whether it makes sense (in terms of
what customers value and ROI analysis) to continue
using the shelf software.
Kathy Icenogle Talk to Liz Gabel re: need for representation
from someone working on NetView side of Polycenter.
DONE Bob Govoni has joined the group.
Kathy Icenogle Check with Pam Keenan to see if she can provide
input (share what she is doing) re: Win95 "look".
DONE Pam has limited time, so cannot actively participate
in meetings. She is very willing to answer
specific requests for information or support.
Michael Fallet Invite Jack Downing, Sandy McLeod, and Kathy
Icenogle to Win95 Help Authoring Guidelines meetings.
DONE
Kathy Icenogle Get system accounts to receive messages from
LISTSRVs (public info exchanges on the internet)
for TECHWR-L (which has FRAME info) and WIN95.
(This was an idea that came up for making info of
this sort generally available w/o cluttering up
individual accounts.)
DROPPED - Survey of group indicated that most people didn't feel
a strong need for a central monitoring, so it raises the
question whether a central account would get used.
|
| 20.3 | 13-DEC-1995 Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Tue Jan 30 1996 10:38 | 218 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum 13-DEC-1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Jack Downing, Bob Govoni, Kathy Turmel,
Bob Young, Kathy Icenogle
Agenda: Progress check on project activities:
Win95/NT3.51 authoring guidelines
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
Follow-up on actions from last meeting.
Round table on news & new activities/issues.
FORUM PROJECT STATUS:
Win95/NT3.51 authoring guidelines
Michael Fallet's memo to the cost center (attached)
summarizes the status of this project.
The team agreed to post "work-in-progress" in a public
directory: \\tnpubs\public\winhelp
The team will continue to meet weekly on Thursday
mornings to work on the NSCC-specific guidelines.
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Bob Govoni and Kathy Icenogle have not yet received
the FrameMaker/SGML beta software via Kathy Haramundanis.
It is taking longer than expected for Tracy Parker to
build the DEC DTD into the kit... latest estimate = "end of Dec"
Jim Carrig has one of hte NSCC licenses installed (w/o
SGML), but other priorities have prevented him from doing
much testing yet.
Kathy Icenogle has been working with the SDML-to-SGML
converter to get the OBB Reference Manual sources into
SGML for use with FrameMaker. So far, the effort needed
to modify the files so they will convert is making
progress very slow.
Bob Govoni shared Lee Fogal's assessment of the
difference between Arbortext and FrameMaker as SGML
authoring tools. Arbortext is apparently more SDML-like
(closer to working with a markup language),
and FrameMaker has more WYSIWIG to it like Word.
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
Bob Govoni got the RoboHelp95 kit from Kathy Turmel, but
had been unable to do anything with it prior to the meeting
for lack of having the necessary Word 7 software in requires.
Liz Gabel reported that some contributors in AssetWorks
are having trouble using the 16-bit Word software on NT3.51
Servers. The solution is expected to be in upgrading
to 32-bit Word. This has been the only report to date of
significant problems using 16-bit Word on a 32-bit op sys.
I will need to get more info to understand why they are
having problems. Several others are using the 16-bit Word
software without any problems.
One individual in the VoD group has reported problems with
using the SES templates that were developed for Word 6.0
with Word 7.0. Contributors who depend on the SES
templates (.DOT files) should avoid upgrading to Word 7.0
until SES has had a chance to update the templates.
(***NOTE: Kathy I. checked with Kathy Haramundanis re: plans
for updating templates on Word 7.0. She said that they
are currently working on bugs in the Word 6.0 templates.
They will get to the Word 7.0 templates after that.
So, people who are using SES templates and are primarily
targeting to produce hardcopy docs should stick with
Word 6.0 and those templates until the Word 7.0 templates
are ready and have been tested... If it were my project,
I would also hold off on upgrading to Win95 until the
Portable PS driver is available and proven on that
platform... or at least make sure you have one Windows 3.1
system around that you can do your final .PS print on.)
We are concerned about the lack of availability of a
Portable PostScript (1152) print driver for Win95 and/or NT.
According to Jim Carrig (who is now working this issue in
the context of the WFW Swat team), they are having
trouble getting a definitive response from Jae Kim in SSB
regarding when we can expect to get an updated driver.
***NOTE***: This driver will be required for anyone who wants
to submit EDMS-compliant files from a Win95 and/or NT
system for production.
Individuals who requested early Win95 licenses are now
able to get the software installed.
NSCC Tools Strategies
The tools document got its final update.
It will be presented to the group at the Jan 4 cost
center meeting. (It has been distributed for review to
those who provided comments.)
OTHER DISCUSSION NOTES:
There was a lot of concern regarding the slowness
of software orders.
Pat Baker has recently taken some steps to push current orders
through. She cannot do anything about orders that have
not been submitted via the proper channels. Because of
the significant expense involved, people should only
order what they absolutely need to get their job done.
Project managers are in the process of making sure we
have people's software requirements for Q3 and Q4 understood.
NEW ACTION ITEMS:
Kathy I. Check with Kathy H. on schedule for releasing
(DONE) FrameMaker/SGML beta software. (end of Dec)
Kathy I. Talk to Pat re: software orders.
(DONE)
Kathy I. Talk to Help Authoring team re: possibility of
dove-tailing the two meetings together once
a month... (less travel/overhead for members)
OLD ACTION ITEMS (recently done, or not done)
DONE:
Bob Young Let the group know when he is scheduled for
Frame training.. (some time Nov or Dec).
DONE:
Bob Govoni Get Lee Fogal's (from USG) input on using Frame vs.
Arbortext for SGML authoring.
(PENDING)
John Smart Share results of PW Info Shelf customer survey
with the group. (The survey will be conducted at
DECUS in early December, so this may be for
January meeting.)
(PENDING - no D2H kit in time for this meeting)
Jim Carrig Be prepared to share what he has learned re: the
new version of D2H (based on his beta test) at
the next meeting.
(PENDING - no Word swr in time for this meeting)
Kathy Turmell Be prepared to share what he has learned re: the
new version of Robohelp at the next meeting.
MESSAGE re: DIRECTION OF HELP AUTHORING GUIDELINES
The following people have been meeting over the past few months
with the goal of producing a document titled "Connectivity Software
Business Unit Help Authoring Guidelines for Windows 95 and
Windows NT Version 3.51."
Jack Downing
Michael Fallet
Bob Govoni
Kathy Icenogle
Sandy MacLeod
Annette Manella
Marcy Samel
Kathy Turmel
At the last meeting we decided to not write a standalone set of
guidelines, as there is ample literature already available. Instead,
we decided to produce a supplement to the following two documents,
which we believe to be the help author's primary references:
1. Microsoft Windows 95 Help Authoring Kit
This kit contains a book on authoring Windows 95 help, as well
as a CDROM containing the new help compiler, online help for
the compiler, and other tools. It costs $49.95 plus shipping
and handling, and is available from Microsoft Press
(phone 1-800-MS-PRESS).
2. Help Author's Guide, or HAG
This guide is provided in Winhelp format and is part of
the Microsoft Windows 95 Help Authoring Kit. Jack Downing
has created a DOC file of the HAG, which you can copy and
print. It is located in the tools subdirectory (see below).
Bob Govoni has created a public directory to house the results of
our previous and future work:
tnpubs::public$disk:[public.winhelp]
It has two subdirectories:
tnpubs::public$disk:[public.winhelp.drafts]
Contains rough drafts of work to date.
tnpubs::public$disk:[public.winhelp.tools]
Contains the HAG as well as any help tools
or reference documents we discover
To access the directory from Windows, connect to:
\\tnpubs\public
Look for the WINHELP directory.
|
| 20.4 | 25-JAN-1996 Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Tue Jan 30 1996 10:40 | 115 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum 25-JAN-1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Jack Downing, Jim Carrig, Kathy Turmel, Mike Rogers,
Sue Berube, Bob Young, Kathy Icenogle
Agenda: Progress check on project activities:
Win95/NT3.51 authoring guidelines
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
Discuss use of the NSCC notesfile
Round table on news & new activities/issues.
FORUM PROJECT STATUS:
Win95/NT3.51 Authoring Guidelines
Several sections are drafted and posted in the
\\TNPUBS\PUBLIC\winhelp\drafts directory.
The next several Guidelines team meetings will be
used to review these drafts (weekly on Thursday AMs)
New Pub Tools Evaluation
No progress on testing Frame/SGML due to lack of access to
the beta software from the SES Strategy Group. We expect
to be updated any day now re: when the software is scheduled
to be made available.
There was some discussion re: which DTD NSCC is most
likely to need to work with. The DCE business will require
support for DOCBOOK DTD. Other businesses represented do not
have an absolute requirement for a specific DTD (as DCE does),
but think it would be best to stick with an industry standard
tag set (such as DOCBOOK DTD) versus using a proprietary DTD
(as with DEC DTD). The Forum did not think there was a
strong requirement for using Info Mapping-based tags. In fact,
given the specialized nature of their use, they are seen
as a disadvantage; using info mapping tags limits flexibility
in what we can do with our sources.
Jack Downing and Jim Carrig have begun looking into
Internet Assistant. Jack posted pointers to the Internet
Assistant software (and some other useful shareware)
in the notesfile.
Although still a bit buggy, RoboHelp/95 appears to be
working well enough for developing WinHelp 4.0 products.
Until we see whether there is significant improvement
(from the D2H beta) in the final D2H V2.0 release, D2H developers
should stick with D2H V1.6 and use Jack Downing's "contents
file" tools to build in some WinHelp 4.0 functionality.
We don't have a clear message re: when D2H V2.0 will be
available. The date keeps slipping.
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
Members of the group agreed to post any information
pertaining to testing tools on Win95 and NT in the
notesfile. When a significant body of information is collected,
then we can determine whether it makes sense to distribute
the results as a report.
Bob Young is actively testing Peter LaQuerre's new
SES template for Word 7...
There still seem to be some problems with people not
getting software. Members of the group are still working
on "borrowed" software. In theory, we should have much
of what was ordered, but in practice, there seems to be
some confusion on the deployment end of things.
Also, people wanted to know if we've been ordering
full products (eg. for Office) vs. upgrades, and also,
have we determined if there are instances where people
only need/want Word... vs, all of Office.
OTHER DISCUSSION NOTES:
Jim expressed an interest in seeing some guidelines for
developers on which converter to use when... or "how to
get from here to there" in converting sources.
Jim also expressed a need for people to have guidelines
on which Word template they should use when. (Eg. If you
are doing hardcopy only, use these templates; and if you
are doing hardcopy AND online, use *these* templates.)
The S3 video driver seems to consistently cause problems
not experienced with other video drivers.. We need to
understand how best to address this for our customers who
may have that driver. Is it sufficient/acceptable to
just put in the release notes that they need to set their
display to straight VGA.
ACTION ITEMS:
Kathy I. Ask Kathy Haramundanis whether/how we might get a
version of Frame/SGML with DOCBOOK DTD (vs. DEC DTD).
Kathy I. Find out why there still seems to be confusion/delay in
getting software. (Littleton people appear to still not
have software that they are supposed to have by now.)
..and raise the questions re: what we are ordering
(full office, vs. upgrades, etc.)
Kathy I. Ask Janet Clifford re: getting WFW SWAT team minutes
posted in notesfile.
Kathy I. Ask Nasrin re: getting her online info team's minutes
posted in the notesfile.
|
| 20.5 | 22-Feb-1996 - Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Mon Feb 26 1996 10:52 | 145 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum 22-FEB-1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Jack Downing, Jim Carrig, Kathy Turmel, Sandy McLeod
Bob Young, Bob Govoni, Kathy Icenogle
Agenda: Check in on whether Forum meetings are meeting
group needs.
FORUM MEETING DISCUSSION NOTES:
The Forum has been getting some very nice recognition as a
resource within the group. So, this seemed like a good time
to do a process check on how the Forum could be even more
effective... so we can focus on doing what people value most.
We clarified our purpose as the following:
* Provide a focus for tools & technology within the group
* Be advisors/consultants to decision makers on tools issues
* Evaluate and test tools & technology for the cost center
(advanced development/"trail blazing")
* Share tools information and resources across the cost-center
* Draw on broader perspective of forum team to develop some
consensus of direction to apply within businesses
(Note that much of this is already happening. We agreed to keep doing it.)
The following were identified as some areas to focus on
in the short term:
Moving to Win95 and NT
WinHelp 4.0 development & tools
SGML authoring (the "how to publish big books" problem)
Web technology and authoring tools
Multimedia development
We decided that we would meet for two hours (vs. one hr), still
once a month. ~ One hour would be used for round table sharing
re: activities and learning, and the other hour (if needed) could
be devoted to discussion of specific themes/concerns for the group.
Members of the group also thought that it would be desireable
to have a small budget for purchasing software tools for
evaluation purposes. (Tools that we *know* will serve our
purposes are easy to justify and get via the current channels.
There are other tools that we *think* would be useful, but we
won't know for sure until someone has actually tried to use
them... Not all tools have evaluation licenses.)
FORUM PROJECT STATUS:
(This month's status is provided based on information group
members shared with Kathy outside the forum meeting.)
Win95/NT3.51 WinHelp Authoring Guidelines
A full draft is about to be pulled together to be posted
in the \\TNPUBS\PUBLIC\winhelp\drafts directory.
D2H V2.0 is now out. Some members of the group have installed it.
People are running into some problems with the list
styles in RoboHelp95. This is apparently a WinHelp bug.
One PolyCenter team has decided to back off their
development to RoboHelp V3, because they have a lot
of lists, so the bug is a serious problem for them.
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Jim Carrig and Phyllis Beck are planning to attend the
special Q&A session that Adobe/FrameMaker is hosting for
SES at the Seybold conference.
Bob Young has installed one of the NSCC kits, and has
been going through the FrameMaker/SGML tutorial.
Kathy Icenogle got the SES kit installed on TNPUBS. Bob
will be using that software to build new book for
EventCentral. Kathy will be investigating migration paths.
Others will have an opportunity to use this software
on Bob's or Kathy's systems.
There is one NSCC FrameMaker/SGML kit still available.
The DOCBOOK DTD is built in to the current product
release of FrameMaker/SGML. Several people are looking
at using that (versus a Digital-specific DTD.)
Kathy Icenogle collected a list of possible HTML authoring
tools, but it seems as if everyone is using a different tool.
Internet Assistant is a possible choice, but those who
are using it are finding it a bit limited. We need some
direction on choosing one tool on which we can train people
and provide support. That won't be easy to achieve.
Testing tools on Win95 and NT
We continue to encounter some problems with the new operating
environments.
There was one report of a writer creating .DOC files on
Win95, then having trouble getting the Times Roman italic
font to print with proper spacing from NT.
Information has been distributed to advise people not to
install Video for Windows 1.1e on Win95. It apparently
does not run correctly and there is no way to un-install
it easily. However, Win95 is supposed to have Video for
Windows built into it. (..more info needed on how to use this)
>>> NOTE: There are some existing multimedia courses (such as
ABCs of Multimedia) that currently install Video for Windows
with mimimal opportunity to abort the installation.
NEW ACTION ITEMS:
Kathy I. Schedule Forum meetings to be 2 hrs.
Kathy I. Work with team to develop proposal/justification re:
an evaluation tools budget.
OLD ACTION ITEMS:
(done)
Kathy I. Ask Kathy Haramundanis whether/how we might get a
version of Frame/SGML with DOCBOOK DTD (vs. DEC DTD).
(done - found out why - problem not really resolved)
Kathy I. Find out why there still seems to be confusion/delay in
getting software. (Littleton people appear to still not
have software that they are supposed to have by now.)
..and raise the questions re: what we are ordering
(full office, vs. upgrades, etc.)
(done)
Kathy I. Ask Janet Clifford re: getting WFW SWAT team minutes
posted in notesfile.
(Bob Govoni did this.)
Kathy I. Ask Nasrin re: getting her online info team's minutes
posted in the notesfile.
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| 20.6 | 18-Mar-1996 - Minutes of NSCC Tools & Tech Forum | TNPUBS::ICENOGLE | Kathy | Wed Mar 27 1996 09:04 | 246 |
| Minutes of NSCC Tools & Technology Forum 18-MAR-1996
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendees: Sue Berube, Jack Downing, Jim Carrig, Sandy MacLeod,
Mike Rogers, Bob Young, Bob Govoni, Kathy Icenogle
Agenda: Roundtable reporting on project activities
Discussion topic: Web Authoring Tools
FORUM PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
Win95/NT3.51 WinHelp Authoring Guidelines
Jack has been working on understanding how RoboHelp 3.0
files get upgraded to RoboHelp 95 and is continuing to
work with D2H V2.0. Two main areas of investigation are:
How to get Related Topics built with KLinks to not
show the topic that is calling the list of topics..
(Bob G. offered to share the experience of the PolyCenter
team on this.. They're currently solving the problem by
using Alinks)
Getting better control of having topics appear in
a particular secondary window called from the
Contents window.. (no one knows a solution to
this yet)
Jim C. and Bob G. have made some progress in getting
Blue Sky to take some ownership over the nested list
bug, which we are pretty sure is a RoboHelp95 problem
(vs. WinHelp).
Bob G. reported that the PolyCenter group has come up
against a serious problem with many of the Microsoft
Foundation Classes (for programming NT and Win95
applications) not supporting "what's this" help. They
are working with their engineering team to find a
workaround, which will be shared when found.
Bob Young wrote a job aid to get people in his group
launched on using Doc-to-Help. He agreed to post it for
NSCC to use.
Jim Carrig has updated his D2HEDMS compliant templates
for use with D2H V2.0.
On his project, Bob G. is experimenting with the approach
of designing an info set entirely for online delivery
(using RoboHelp), then extracting a subset for hardcopy
publication. Kathy I. will be doing a similar thing,
except she will be using D2H, so we will be able to
compare the two approaches.
Indexing (quality of) under WinHelp 4.0 continues to
be a major concern.. we need to get Sandy's Help
Guidelines section on Indexing posted for group consumption.
Jack Downing has been facing the problem of "legacy" info
that is not well indexed. The group agreed that the
interim solution is to rely on ALinks for "related topics"
until the existing index (for a docset) can be improved.
New Pub Tools Evaluation
Bob G. got FrameMaker/SGML installed. Sandy MacLeod
expressed interestin getting it installed.
In general, those who are lined up to evaluate FrameMaker/SGML
are having trouble getting time (in and around project work)
to get oriented on using the tool... so, it has been
tough to make progress on any evaluation. After
discussing the problem, we decided to pursue the possibility
of getting "jump start" training for those doing evaluations.
Mike R. went to Seybold.
Web Authoring Tools
NOTE: Given the growing level of interest and concern around Web Authoring
Tools, I am adding that as a "project" focus for the Forum vs.
lumping it under "new publishing tools".
Jack D. and Mike R. (among others in NSCC) have both been
researching Web authoring tools. The "hot" candidates on
their list include: Web Author, Front Page, Hot Dog, and Internet
Assistant... Jack D. and Bob G. both recommended Blue Sky's
RoboHelp -> HTML tool as one to evaluate.
(NOte: Several others Web authoring tools were identified in our
meeting and Kathy I is in the process of compiling a list
for the purposes of the tools evaluation project proposal
initiated in our discussion re: Web Authoring tools.)
Kathy I. has had some Email discussion going with Gene
Cronin, who is also actively pursuing the question of
which Web authoring tool to use.
See NSCC notesfile topic# X for more Web Tools activity
and info.
Testing Tools on Win95 and NT
Sue Berube has been working with SSB on the problem of
getting EDMS-compliant PostScript from a Win95 system.
For Win95, EDMS compliance is apparently a matter of
making sure you have the right print settings, but
we need to verify and document what they are. Sue agreed
to put this info into a job aid when it is known and
verified.
Sandy MacLeod is in the process of testing a Portable
PostScript driver (sypplied by SSB) on NT. She is
planning to write up a job aid on that.
NOTE: Thanks to the efforts of Sue and Sandy and other members of
the WFW SWAT Team, we are a *lot* closer than we were to being able
to submit EDMS-compliant files from NT and Win95, ...but
since we do not quite have a verified result, the recommendation
to print final EDMS files from a Windows 3.1 system still stands.
Projects sending files to print production in the next
month should make sure they retain access to a Windows 3.1
system with the Windows 3.1 Portable Postscript driver for
production purposes.
THIS MONTH's DISCUSSION THEME: Web Authoring Tools
Given the number of times Web Authoring tools came up in the
round table activities, this is clearly a major concern for the group.
The number of tools (in general, as well as tools being used in
SES) is proliferating rapidly. If we all use different tools, it
will be very difficult to:
- provide support
- provide training
- exchange sources
- move writing resources from one team to another w/o
re-training
- get any economy of scale on acquisition of tools
Therefore, in general, it is desireable to minimize the number
of tools we are dealing with. However, in the case of Web
technology:
- our use of the technology is so new, we are still
learning what our tools requirements are.
- there is great diversity in what people are doing for the Web
- the technology itself is evolving rapidly
- new (better?) tools are coming out every day
In spite of this, rather than moving totally towards an
unsupportable situation, we decided it would be useful to be able to
recommend at least one or two tools for potential Web authors
to consider. The following are scenarios that have come up that
would potentially have different tool requirements:
Delivering info to multiple targets (Help, Hardcopy, & Web)
Starting from scratch and delivering via the Web
Converting legacy info for Web use
Delivering multimedia and/or "CBI" via the Web
The following is what we are planning to develop a proposal to do:
Roughly articulate the tool requirements for each of
these scenarios.
Identify potential tools to meet each set of requirements.
Identify which of the potential tools are best to
actually evaluate.. (i.e. focus on a few tools for
evaluation purposes)
Acquire and evaluate the tools... leveraging current
licenses, availability of shareware, trial licenses,
as well as existing user experience as much as possible.
Publish recommendations for each scenario based on
the evaluations.
The proposal will have more detail. (If members of NSCC are
interested in contributing in any way to this effort, they
should contact Kathy TNPUBS::ICENOGLE.)
The Strategy Group's Internet Project (i.e. Janet Piazza et. al)
is currently serving as a clearinghouse for Web tools info. Kathy I.
will coordinate development and pursuit of the proposal with them
to make sure we are fully utilizing their support as much as possible. )
NEW ACTION ITEMS:
Sandy M.- Develop a job aid for the Portable Postscript driver on NT..
(assuming the driver she got from Jae Kim works)
Sue B. - Work with Jae Kim (or whoever) to develop a job aid to
get Win95 users set up to print "portable postScript"
files from Win95.
Jack D. - Send message to Ev McKay (Training Team) recommending
that we get a few copies of Mary Deaton's "Designing
Windows 95 Help" for the cost center "library".
(done)
Mike R., Bob G, Jack D - Get info on Web Authoring tools to Kathy
(done)
Kathy I. Talk to Pat BAker to see if she is open to seeing
a proposal around Web Authoring tools evaluation.
(Done.. Pat said she would be open to see a proposal. )
Kathy I. Work with team to develop proposal for evaluating
some Web authoring tools with the goal of recommending
one or two specific tools for the CC to focus on using.
Kathy I Find out who went to Seybold and ask if we can get
trip report(s) posted in the NSCC notesfile.
Kathy I Get some "jumpstart" training on FrameMaker/SGML for
Bob Y, Mike R, Sandy M, Bob G. and herself.
(Note: Since the meeting, Bob G. has been working on this with
Kathy H.. Jo Fogarty's name has been added to list of
potential trainees. Kathy I. has an action to track
whether we can draw on the experience of from Joe Boyack
in any way, if still needed.)
Kathy I - send message to NSCC to alert people re: problem of
several MS Foundation Classes (MFC) not being able to
support "what's this" help in WinHelp 4.0.
Bob G. - Continue to work with Marcy Samel in tracking down
solution to MFC lack of support for What's this help.
Jim C. - post info re: location of latest D2H V2.0 templates.
(done.. )
Bob Y - Post D2H jump start "job aid" in NSCC notesfile.
(done)
OLD ACTION ITEMS:
Kathy I. Schedule Forum meetings to be 2 hrs.
(done, now scheduled for Mondays 10-12, once a month.)
Kathy I. Work with team to develop proposal/justification for an
an evaluation tools budget...
(reconsidered, or on hold in light of more specific proposal
to evaluate Web authoring tools... much of the Forum's
interest in this centers on Web tools.)
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