Focus, Focus, Focus

It never fails. We ship the quarterly ePublisher release and the challenge begins anew:

What are we going to ship THIS quarter?

Marketing is analyzing, Sales is requesting, and Support is demanding. And on the other side of those groups are our customers. Some, we will delight. Others will curse our names, shocked to find that we have chosen a challenge other than the one they face. The choices are never easy even when the strategy is clear:

All we have to do is choose wisely.

Here’s a summary of what’s on our plate:

Enable per Target settings in the Style Designer
META data and keyword marker support (for formats other than WebWorks Help 5.0)
PDF library update
Research environment specific issues affecting PDF production
Work-arounds for FrameMaker instabilities
Windows 7 certification

And then there’s the list of things that COULD be on our plate:

DITA Open Toolkit 1.5 integration
XSL-FO processor alternative to Apache FOP
Ignore files extension list (for Stationery creation, file copies, etc.) to avoid version control issues
Conditional Expression Builder UI for FrameMaker 8, 9 users
RoboHelp migration path
WebWorks Help replacement (faster loading, cleaner design)
Support for custom index markers
Wiki projects
…

What would you choose?

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8 Responses to “Focus, Focus, Focus”

Lief Erickson - January 27th, 2010

I would choose:

1. Support for custom index markers
2. Support for custom index markers
3. Support for custom index markers
4. Ignore files extension list (for Stationery creation, file copies, etc.) to avoid version control issues

The others don’t affect me, but custom index markers is definitely my pain point. A WWH replacement is intriguing, but other than loading faster and a cleaner design, I’m not sure what it offers my users. On my end, it doesn’t offer anything.
Marcus Baake - January 28th, 2010

My favorite would be:
* WebWorks Help replacement (faster loading, cleaner design)

I love the rich functionality of WebWorks Help 5.0, but the loading times really give me headaches for years… If it would help, I’d give my left arm for a faster loading format with the same features! ;O)
John Pitt - January 28th, 2010

It just has to be:
“WebWorks Help replacement (faster loading, cleaner design)”

But…closely followed by:
“RoboHelp migration path” — for that stack of legacy RoboHell projects cluttering up the network. Then I can forget the hell that is RoboHell.

jjj
allums - February 4th, 2010

It’s on the list Lief!
allums - February 4th, 2010

WebWorks Help… got it.

RoboHelp – We’re seeing a lot of requests for this in the last month. What’s going on? People are finally ready to exit?
Scenes from the Engine Room » Sketching the Future - February 23rd, 2010

[...] RoundUp 2009 feedback session. This year, I asked for reader’s help in last month’s Focus, Focus, Focus blog entry. Those ideas have been added to the great material users submitted as enhancement [...]
John Pitt - March 8th, 2010

Perhaps I’m being greedier than usual (I’ve already made a couple of requests, above), but circumstances change and different priorities bubble to the surface:

* Conditional Expression Builder UI for FrameMaker 8, 9 users

jjj
Franz-Josef Knelangen - March 9th, 2010

I second John’s suggestion completely!!!

The Boolean Expressions maybe the key feature in FM 8/9 to prevent DITA for another period of time but you have to be able to *use* them – with predictable results, of course.

Software engineers are very tricky in using there modules in different contexts – and we have to be able to do this, too. I think simple “classic” conditions are simply not enough.

IMHO the “per target styles” *together* with the “expression builder” would be the killer feature for all of us having to meet intricate connditional output requirements.

Best regards,

Franz-Josef
—
Time for my old std. discl, I think:
“All above has to be turned into decent English.”