Not all authoring and publishing organizations require, or will accept, highly structured mark-up and the specialized tools required to work with it. Contenta integrates with applications such as Microsoft Word and InfoPath extending the benefits of structured content management to users in marketing, product development, and engineering who may be able to leverage XML for component-based authoring, but who typically won’t embrace specialized XML tools. With value- added technology from XyEnterprise, authors can continue to use familiar desktop tools from Microsoft including Word and InfoPath to create, edit, and review XML content in authoring environments they know, significantly reducing their learning curve.
With Contenta Word ML — and InfoPath — based solutions, authors of less-structured departmental documents such as marketing materials, proposals, contracts, and product data such as test plans or specifications, need only a limited knowledge of content structure. Using tools such as a graphical interface or the Contenta XML expansion pak for Microsoft Word 2003, XML markup is “covertly” managed behind the scenes. Users can continue to use common word processing formatting and mark-up which can be automatically transformed into XML and processing instructions for formatting. The Contenta integration with Word and InfoPath allows users to “write once and use many times” by harnessing the power of XML and content management.
With limited retraining and retooling of processes, users can create and manage legal contracts, human resources policies, test plans, logistics plans, product safety sheets, and owner’s manuals in XML. Any content that can benefit from component-based reuse can certainly benefit from this moderately structured, modular approach. The end user need not think about tags or attributes, and can continue to use standard formatting conventions. Embedded features such as notes, comments, and edit tracking that users rely on in Word-based environments also remain. Coupled with a content management solution, content can be collaboratively created, dynamically assembled, approved, and automatically delivered within a controlled workflow.
