Two Manuals: FrameMaker Single-Sourcing Saves $16K & Cuts L10n Time 50%

We had a special guest in a recent “case study” webinar, Marcia Riefer Johnston. Best know as the author of best-selling “Word Up!”, Marcia has years of experience managing and “healing” high volume tech comm projects.

In this webinar, Marcia shared actual metrics on the dramatic time and cost savings she accrued by using just one key feature of FrameMaker: conditional text control. Conditions allow the author to mark portions of text that should appear in just one “version” of a published project. There is only one set of source files, and the myriad headaches associated with managing multiple source files are eliminated.

You may view the recorded webinar by clicking here: Two Manuals: FrameMaker Single-Sourcing

The challenges of multiple source files

In the slide below, Marcia illustrated how much common material existed between two sets of source books in FrameMaker before she took advantage of conditional text control. She covers how she implemented the change later in the webinar.

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Reduced Word Count, Reduced time and costs

You will have to see the webinar “in motion” to capture the full impact of the following slide. In this image, Marcia graphically demonstrates the stark contract in “before and after” on her project in regards to hours and costs associated with having the final project translated into 9 languages.

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