English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 8

Question: Working with your XML document from last week's posting exercise, create a DTD and a basic CSS. You may embed your DTD in the XML document. For the CSS, create the stylesheet as a separate file and add a line to reference it in your XML document.

My XML file with DTD and linked CSS is available at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice_css.xml. The CSS itself is available at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice_format1.css. My CSS is far from where I want it to be, but I feel that it fits the constraints of the blog spot. I need to do some more work to get some of the functionality that I desire, for example, pulling in the @type in sec as the heading for each section, altering the after punctuation for the last author/last editor, creating a handing indent, making functional links, etc.

For this type of functionality, I feel that I need to explore XSLT further. It will likely take a combination of XSLT and CSS to create my desired products. However, for the final assignment, I may need to move away from XML because of technical limitations and create the two products in more familiar ways to get the functionality I need for the web product and for the printer-friendly product.

Note Added on Tuesday, November 1: I have continued to make some changes to the CSS since I initially posted it on October 31 and will continue to make changes.

Second Note Added on Tuesday, November 1: Firefox will allow you to use a :before CSS command with your root note, as will the browser in my phone. IE, Safari, and Chrome will not.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 7

Question: Create a basic XML document, using at least five unique elements and five complete data sets. Post a link to this exercise on your blog along with the answer to this question: How might XML a viable technology for use in one of the deliverables for your single-sourcing project?

The basic XML document is located at http://www.scruffypuphotdogs.com/author_notice.xml. I used some of the paragraphs from the Notice to Authors document that I am using for my final project for my data. However, I am not sure that XML is the most appropriate choice for my Notice to Authors project in the small scale and with the technology currently available to me. In my image for the large scale project, I see my company using the same technology that we use to produce books. Each chapter in the book is created as an XML document and then it is pulled together into a whole at the end. I see us assembling each section of the NTA separately and pulling the required sections for each journal, along with journal specific information, into the final document. On the large scale, this makes sense.

On the small scale of this project, not so much.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 6

Question: Make a list of project-specific work tasks you will need to complete for the design (content specification) phase of work on your project. For each task, provide a short 1-2 sentence description.

1. Decide on the type of functionality needed for the web deliverable. Since I do not have access to user studies, I have to do a comparison of the format that other publishers and websites use for this type of instruction. Since the language for the document is set, my control sits in the design and functionality.

2. Decide on the format for the printer-friendly version of the document. My initial thought here was to use PDF as the most obvious printer-friendly document choice. However, my ability to write PDF may be limited by available technology.

3. Create and review prototype designs for both print and web deliverable. I need to complete prototype designs for both deliverables. The prototypes will likely be altered as I work with the text, but I need to more firmly define the appearance of both. For the printer-friendly version, currently, I am aiming toward a format that would emulate the print layout of the journals. Something familiar and comfortable for the users of this particular document. For the web deliverable, something more modern and functional for those users who have been trying to drag us kicking and screaming into the modern world. The printer-friendly version for the old school group and the web deliverable for the more modern.

4. Decide on the structure/order of the information. Though the text is set, I can play with the order. I have to take the order apart and then put it back together in different patterns to decide which flows best. This will be easy to accomplish if I code the separate chunks of the text in separate chunks of the XML. Then, I can rearrange the order by altering the order in which the XSLT calls the chunks.

English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 5

Question 1: Identify the single-sourcing level for your two forthcoming single-sourcing project deliverables. Discuss specific strategies or methodologies you might consider for effective content reuse.

The levels of single sourcing are as follows:

• Level 1: Identical content, multiple media (same content, different use).
• Level 2: Static customized content (multiple media/users/information products/product families).
• Level 3: Dynamic customized content (some context sensitivity, user profiles, user selection, personalization, database).
• Level 4: Electronic Performance Support System / EPSS (context sensitivity, content management systems, anticipating user needs, AI).

At a minimum, my project will meet Level 1 being that it will be the same content, the Notice to Authors document in two different formats, one web-based and one printer-friendly. I may also make Level 2, but this depends on the definition of customized. The user will be choosing the print-based product or the web-based content. The user should also be able to choose which links to follow in the web-based product, which provides some static customization. The user would get the same result each time, but would be making a selection. Level 3 may be achievable in a larger scale version of the project in which work resources would be involved. For example, when an author logs into the ParagonPlus/ScholarOne application a larger version of the product could provide that author with the Notice to Authors documents for the journals to which that author most commonly submits or even separate the different portions of those documents. Level 4 may be beyond the requirements for this document. The document rarely changes and there is little anticipation that can be done with legal documentation.