Techical Documentation – Typical Mistakes
Typical mistakes made when selecting a system
A company buys an editing system and the employees must implement it.
As is the case with any software, the devil is in the detail. Each working day one discovers something else that the system cannot do. Considerable additional investment is required to eliminate the deficiencies – which in most cases has not been provided for in the budget.
Adopting existing contents
When editing system vendors claim that existing text can be transferred, utmost caution must be exercised. Should the internal, unstructured contents be adopted on a 1:1 basis, one forfeits any chance of future-proofing one’s process. To copy existing contents into a new system means that one automatically adopts all past errors. Often this means squandering the opportunity for process optimisation. An editing solution follows an internal logic that is not present in existing documents, otherwise one would not have to change anything.
The editing system also manages the foreign languages
Naturally one wishes to minimise translation costs. However, is this not expecting too much of your editor? The editor already has enough work in creating mother tongue texts. Why then place the additional burden of foreign languages on him or her? Even large motor vehicle manufacturers with complex and sophisticated editing solutions resolve this issue in other ways. Translation costs can be reduced in an appreciably simpler manner. One does not even need an editing system to do so.
Outsourcing
Can function well but one must take care that dependency does not arise. Always ensure that all data belongs to you and that you can operate the respective solution. Significant conflicts may otherwise arise should one not wish to continue working with a service provider.
