Knowledge base articles

There are several ways and tools you can use to create a PDF from a technical documentation in DITA-XML or a website in HTML. In the first part of this knowledge article, I look at the advantages and disadvantages of the languages commonly used in this process: XSL-FO and CSS Paged Media. In the second part I compare programs for rendering HTML files to PDF files via CSS and compare their functions.  Read more

Imagine you can write and update technical documentation with the same tools as the software developers use for their source code: with the same text editor and in the same IDE (integrated development environment), as plain text and versioned in your favorite version control system. Sounds impossible? It is not: It is docs-as-code. Read more

Metadata has led to a paradigm shift in technical communication. Component content management systems (CCMS) are no longer at the start of all processes. That role has shifted to metadata. Read more

The iiRDS standard makes documentation smart – so it can be made available on portals, apps and data glasses. Case studies in the field of mechanical engineering are very often mentioned in connection with iiRDS – for example, the scenario of the service technician who uses an end-device to scan an error code on a machine that needs repairing and then receives a snippet of information on the display showing how to fix the problem. This article is about the extensibility of the iiRDS model in the automotive sector. Read more

Graphics and screenshots are a popular way of making text-heavy documents lighter, more attractive and, most importantly, easier to understand. But does this visual information really help a user to better understand the text? Read more