1. Authoring Systems: An
Overview
Presented by
Dave Murphy
Senior Production Manager
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
530 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215 521 8747
2. An Overview of Content Acquisition
u First systems networked on mainframes
u Dedicated environments
u Newspapers
u Audio tracks in science experiments
u Templated, collaborative authoring of Web pages
3. Full Circle – Back to Print
u Generalizing from web-template tools to XML-
based tools
u Adding Content Management features
u Check-in / check-out
u Workflow processing
u Collaborative authoring for an environment that
is not media neutral, but targeted for all media
4. Authoring Tool Process Goals
u Help writers and editors concentrate on writing
u Achieve gains in production by passing well
structured content or XML to the production
processes
u Eliminate the problems associated with managing
unstructured files
u Provide the publisher with some workflow
management and reporting tools
5. What is an Authoring tool?
u A Word template?
– YES! Sometimes the solutions can
be simple.
– You need to balance the cost of
technology against the needs to
the project.
– A template can help guide your
authors in writing to a pre-
established pattern.
6.
7. What is an Authoring tool ?
(continued)
u A slightly more sophisticated version is a Word
template with some scripted features.
– Sample that follows set up with Univers Condensed for box
text, set to 7.5/9 as in specs
Includes Font check during validation also now checks and
resets leading
– Includes a "Paste" macro on the toolbar--if the author uses
this instead of the regular paste function, it will clean the
text automatically for them and prevent a possible error if
they are trying to paste line/page breaks into text boxes,
which Word will not allow.
– This template designed to help control the content depth
during the authoring stage.
– Not 100 % accurate but effective at limiting the author to
the space allocated for an individual topic .
8.
9. Templates the up side
u Low cost
u Easy to create
u Nominal learning curve
u Aids in guiding author to write to a
predetermined structure
10. Templates the down side
u Distribution issues, especially when an update is
needed. Getting authors to change templates
u Macro and Macro virus paranoia - alerts go up, IT
managers don't want to allow the functions
u Compatibility across various versions of Word
u Word files have many issues. If the template
doesn't kill off word features like text boxes, the
author can still break all rules
u Conforming and control issues - dealing with
hundreds of files
u Real virus problems - template may actually get
infected, and can spread viruses.
11. Authoring and Composition tools
u Adobe InCopy® and InDesign®
– Plus Side
u Well
integrated system
u WYSIWYG environment for copyfitting
– Negative Side
u Cost to license
u Learning curve
12. A Case Study of Power X
Editor Authoring System
Developed by Techbooks
13. Tool History
u Developed to support compositor
internal editorial processes
u Has been modified to include
additional editorial features needed
for a collaborative work flow
u Is being reviewed for potential to
work with our internal content
management system (Documentum)
14. Current PowerXEditor Functions
Standard Editing
Cut, Copy Paste, Find, Replace, Bullets
Compare Files, View changes
(3 Levels), Lists (1 level)
Standard Workflow:
Editors: Accept/Reject Changes
Automatic Check Out / Sign over
Copying and Inserting
Copy/Paste from Text Apply/Remove Pre-defined Style
Copy/Paste from Word 2000 Apply/Remove Highlights
Spell Checking
Standard Dictionary Now Alternate Specialized Dictionaries Soon
Other
Single Master Template - Figure Support
Manual Citation Linking
and Insertion Template, Table Templates
Style Application Within Template Status View for Editors
Customized Roles – Authors, Editors, Man. Editor Managed Help, Version Control, Administration
15. PowerXEditor Feature Overview
• Online Web based Authoring Tool
• Familiar MS-Word like interface
• Formatting and Editing is easy
• Maintain the structure of the content
• Supports Table and Figures
• Supports creation of links
• Predefined templates
• Compare files and view changes
• Accept / Reject changes
• Controlled access / File lock
• File Version management
• A built in common workflow is available
• Chapter status tracking
• Help files and Help desk
16. Workflow Overview
Old Edition XML for
XML Conv. PowerXEditor
Production
Old XML XML for
PowerXEditor
Production
XML for
PowerXEditor
Production
25. Priority Development List
ü=DONE!
u Automated Reference Checking ü
u Administrative Features
– Force Check-In
– Sign off on Behalf of Another
u Extend Copy/Paste From Word ü
u Tutorial
u Enhanced Workflow With E-Mail
Notification
26. Priority Development List
(continued)
u Auto-anchors For Tables, Figs And
References To Enhance Internal
Linking (July 2006)
u Administrator Toolset
– Edit Author/Editor Profiles
– Create New or Guest Logins
– Modify Templates
– Opt-Out Automation
27. Mid-term development plans
u Stand-Alone Version Release in JAVA
with E-Mail Check-in/Check-out
u Specialized Content Marking
– Comment Pass-Through
– Mark for Index
u Missing
Symbol Identification
u MathML Integrated Editor
28. Production Advantages
u XML in, XML out
– No Author or Editor XML Knowledge is
Required to Use PowerXEditor
– Supplier Maintains Master Copies,
Backups, File Difference Logs
– Initial Load QA, Clean-up for DTD
Compliance on Export
29. Production Advantages
u Can Provide XML at Any Time for
Marketing, Publish-Before-Print
u Author Productivity Enhanced as
Focus is on Content, Not
presentation
u Development Team Can Provide
Specific Customization to Interface
u Preview Mode Provides a “Galley
View
30. Real Life
u Real people are finicky
u Need to be able to break out of system for special
cases
u The system must be supported by competent
help
31. Summary
u There are no one size fits all solutions. For some
titles none of these are necessary, for some task
a template or a scripted template is the way to
go.
u For multi-authored complex books, for annuals
and for titles where the structural integrity is
requires to facilitate repurposing the data a full
blown authoring system is worth investigating.
u The tool shown in this demo is from the
Techbooks team it started as an internal system
that they are maturing into a system that is
supporting external customers as well. We are
working on 3 titles actively with currently quite a
few more planned.
u It is a system that is growing as our
understanding of its strengths and weaknesses
grow.
