Expanding the Definition of Content Reuse and Applicability

Since the late ’80s, technical publications groups have known that configuration-specific product documents have improved the end-user experience. As tech writers, our focus has been on adding intelligent tagging to the data, and our measurement tends to be how far we can push reuse within our content management systems, or conditional publishing.

However, technical writers in manufacturing – who document everything from toasters to airplanes – spend the bulk of their time researching product design, and rewriting to stay current with their product configurations. In many industries, those tasks account for 50% or more of a technical writer’s time.

Improving our content management applications, automating publishing with stylesheets, and reusing tech pubs content only gets us so far. Direct access to engineering and product data can reduce research time exponentially. New technologies and data formats like the JT ISO standard are available to create document content – text, 2D/3D illustrations, and animation – directly from engineering’s digital thread.

Learn how moving technical writers into the product lifecycle management paradigm and reusing JT and CAD data directly are significantly reducing document development costs and making product documents more effective.

What can the audience expect to learn?

This presentation provides additional information on the organization and availability of technical source data, especially for those who document tools, machinery, and durable systems. By understanding how engineers design and change equipment, and the open standards used in engineering, we open new potential for reuse of engineering source data as document content and reduce the need to create text and graphics manually. This saves us time and effort and allows us to ship our products, with more effective and applicable product documentation, sooner.

Meet the presenter

Trish Laedtke has over thirty years’ experience working as a project manager, consultant, and analyst with technical communications and content management systems. Her specialty is the integration of component content management systems with engineering product lifecycle systems, across A&D, automotive, energy, marine, medical, and other industries. She is currently employed as a Product Manager with Siemens Digital Industries Software.

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