Samples
I have included a few examples of the many online help files and PDFs that I have produced during the last couple of years. All are conversions from FrameMaker files using WebWorks ePublisher and/or Adobe Acrobat. One project, the Australian Coastal Public Safety Guidelines, was initially converted from a single, 560 page MS Word file to a series of FrameMaker chapters.
(If you don't have Adobe Reader on your PC, download the latest version of Reader for free from Adobe.com).
Don't forget to look at another excellent working example of a WebWorks Help 5/PDF project — my Cookbook.
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Surf Life Saving Australia
SLSA is a volunteer organisation which has been an Australian icon since the early 1900s. While its primary role is protecting the public from drowning and other beach hazards, it is also the de facto premier coastal safety organisation in this country. I am proud to help them produce and maintain two of their projects online for use by SLSA members and the general public. See the SLSA website for detailed information.
Australian Coastal Public Safety Guidelines
The Guidelines were produced by CoastSafe services of SLSA to cover as many facets of Australian coastal public safety as possible. For the first time virtually all information about this wide subject area has been brought together, combining original guidelines written by SLSA with material from many other organisations and individuals. All those involved have done a remarkable job as you will see below. The Guidelines cover everything: from pollution, boat launching, treating cuts and bruises, and beach degradation; through to shark and crocodile attack — and what to do.
My task was to take the finalised 560 page Word document and turn it into a web-friendly "help" project, suitable for placing on the SLSA website. This was easier said than done, as I quickly found. Because the original was intended only for print/PDF, it suffered the usual Word problem of containing few "real" styles but myriad overrides to Normal. It looked fine, but it was a nightmare when run through a style-driven tool like WebWorks ePublisher. I could have left the original in Word (ePublisher accepts Word files), but given the size of the restyling task, it was far quicker and simpler to move the lot to FrameMaker.
This is an ongoing project involving a wide range of other organisations and Government departments, and the Guidelines are updated as required.
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SurfGuard
SurfGuard is SLSA's National Membership Database which covers all of its clubs and state organisations in Australia. The software was written by
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MYOB
MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) is Australia-New Zealand's biggest accountancy software company. Over the years it has acquired most of the opposition, including CeeData, where I was Documentation Manager from 1990 to 1997. When I left CeeData, it was a FrameMaker shop which was just getting into WebWorks Publisher; but when I joined MYOB, the Sydney office was mainly RoboHelp and Word, with few projects in FrameMaker.
I had the dual roles of technical writer and single-sourcing consultant when I started on a short contract in mid 2007. As detailed in my résumé, I helped plan and implement major changes over the next two years. When I left, Sydney Tech Comms had become a true single-sourcing shop using FrameMaker, WebWorks ePublisher and Adobe Acrobat to produce nearly all technical documentation.
Document Manager
The Document Manager project is a small segment of MYOB's Practice Manager suite for large accountancy firms. I spent considerable time converting the original RoboHelp projects to FrameMaker (using the WebWorks Import Utility and a variety of FrameScripts), editing, massaging and rewriting the contents and then producing the final WebWorks Help and PDF output. It was a mammoth task. The samples below are just 108 PDF pages of about 1500 in the full suite. They include popup definitions, drop-down headings, a proper index and other attributes of the main suite, but on a smaller scale.
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