Great job, you’ve written everything! It just needs to reach your readers. Online portal, embedded help, printed manual, carrier pigeon subscription? The choice of channels - one or multiple - is yours. And it can all be automated.
Who, what, where and how?
It all starts with a strategy: Who, what, where and how? First and foremost, your audience: Who are you publishing for? Should everyone see the same content, or should some be divided according to product type, product version or knowledge level (admin versus beginner)? Always check in with your users to figure out their needs.
Secondly, what are you publishing? Small chapters or whole manuals? Do you want users to filter the content with metadata, like they would during online shopping? Do you want to combine installation, use, maintenance, and troubleshooting all in one, or separate them into different documents?
Thirdly, where do you want your users to access the content? Your choice for published content depends largely on how your users will interact with the product. You could publish to a traditional (printed) PDF or upload the content to a variety of devices, or store everything on an online help portal. Or all of the above.
Your choice for published content depends largely on how your users will interact with the product.
Finally, how do you want it to appear? With your company branding, obviously. But there are more things to consider like how quickly you want your content to update and in how many languages it should be available.
Asking yourself all of these questions is the first step to drafting a structure that can be automated and rules that can be integrated in your chosen repository, for example GitHub or a CCMS.
Have your automated cake and eat it too
Now you can start combining elements for your output: A troubleshooting manual that has everything a beginner should know, in French on a webportal. Or a maintenance manual in English that an expert in the field could consult on a tablet.
Depending on your chosen repository, you can set the rules and publish these different manuals automatically to your chosen channels, in your selected languages with just the click of a button. Or you can eliminate the one click entirely and set a system going that schedules automated publications and pushes them to the required channels.
Have a chat with your information architect today to see what combinations can bring your users the info they need while making it easier for your writers to keep on track of updates and translations.
Automated publishing of your content?
As always, getting started is half the work. Want to know if automated publishing is right for you? Talk to your information architect today.