Re:Draft. Version control for writing
by kelv on Friday February 01, 2013 @12:26AM
(#5149359)
Working in an industry where Manuals and Policy/Procedure documents dictate, I would also love this.
Eg. in the heavily regulated airline industry, Framemaker still persists as standard. Changes are typically made against a PDF as comments (handwritten or PDF annotations), attached to a paper "Manual Change Request" form and signed by manual owner and passed to a Tech Writer to replicate the change in Framemaker. Turnarounds in order of months are incurred, and where the regulator is involved, I have seen years.
A Git-style version control workflow would work well:
- allowing collaboration
- change documentation and approval is built in (even better if regulator can use it)
- publishing smaller amendments while larger ones develop
- reuse modules across manuals (eg. org charts)
However, uptake will occur when the learning curve is reduced...such as a well designed web UI
Eg. in the heavily regulated airline industry, Framemaker still persists as standard. Changes are typically made against a PDF as comments (handwritten or PDF annotations), attached to a paper "Manual Change Request" form and signed by manual owner and passed to a Tech Writer to replicate the change in Framemaker. Turnarounds in order of months are incurred, and where the regulator is involved, I have seen years.
A Git-style version control workflow would work well: - allowing collaboration - change documentation and approval is built in (even better if regulator can use it) - publishing smaller amendments while larger ones develop - reuse modules across manuals (eg. org charts)
However, uptake will occur when the learning curve is reduced...such as a well designed web UI