TECHNICAL MANUALS TO IETMs :.

Program Managers and Technical Writers seeking to create and deploy Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals face a variety of challenges, not the least of which is:

AMCon Conversion Services enable organizations to maximize the equity contained in their existing technical documentation. Whether your documents are stored as paper, image files, word-processing files, or in electronic publishing formats, the AMCon process ensures highly-accurate, cost-effective conversion to full and functional compliance with virtually any Military or Commercial standard.


.: LEGACY SOURCES :.

The first step in any conversion or migration effort must be to identify the format of the source material. In the AMCon process, we categorize all source formats as one of two types:

Type A Source is any electronic format that can be accurately extracted to Rich Text Format (RTF). This includes most word processing and publishing files such as MS Word, FrameMaker, Interleaf/Quicksilver, ArborText, WordPerfect, and Text-editable PDF.

Type B Source is any format that does not fall into the Type A category, such as Hardcopy and Scanned Image files.

Type A Source material requires significantly less preparation and “clean-up” than Type B. Once the content is exported to RTF and the accuracy of the resulting file is verified, it is ready for insertion into the AMCon Production Process. The AMCon Process delivers 100% accuracy on content converted from Type A Source.

Type B Source material must be scanned electronically and migrated to RTF through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software and a robust QA process. To ensure accuracy, AMCon scans each piece of Type B source TWICE, using a different OCR program to export each scan, and compares the two resulting files to identify any differences. This process enables AMCon to deliver 99.95% accuracy on content converted from Type B Source.


.: CHAPTERS TO WORK PACKAGES :.

As XML specifications incorporate more functionality, compliance requirements become more complex. This creates a substantial challenge when attempting to integrate legacy information that has been authored using the traditional methodology of chapters and sections.

Most existing manuals were originally authored under the assumption that the intended user would be reading out of a paper manual. Therefore, no thought was given to the flow of information when it is available in a more powerful and accessible environment such as an IETM.
This variation in the flow of information introduces the requirement for intellectual interpretation. It is this requirement that also produces the most risk in the data migration. This risk comes in the form of subjective interpretation. If two people interpret the same data two different ways, there will be miscommunication and the end result may not be what anyone expected.

The AMCon process enables objective interpretation of requirements through the use of a robust Document Mapping Protocol. This protocol utilizes the capabilities of XML to communicate the interpretation of legacy information to all stakeholders. Such communication includes the generation of reports and flagging of areas where subjective interpretation commonly occurs. The XML protocol contains information that enables everyone involved to see how the interpretation was accomplished via a visual breakdown.


.: PDF TO XML :.

Unlike other legacy electronic formats, PDF is not a word-processing format. This means that the information stored in the PDF is not necessarily stored in the same sequence in which it is displayed on the page. PDF is a Page Description Language with its contents organized in a manner that tells a rendering tool (like Adobe Acrobat) how to draw each page.

The PDF language is not so much aware of a "table" as it is aware that a collection of paragraphs should be drawn in a block of columns. There are a number of tools available for exporting PDF to generic formats such as RTF, but most simply make use of the desktop publishing capability of the RTF language and the resulting content is still not extractable as a word-processing file. Intelligent effort must be applied to the extraction of information from PDF to ensure the intellectual integrity of the content is maintained.


.: XSL STYLESHEETS :.

AMCon's expertise in the use of XSL is evidenced in its use throughout the entire data migration process.

eXtensible Stylesheet Language technology is incorporated in our process at key production stages.

Document Mapping Protocol - XSL templates are utilized to generate multiple views and reports of the intellectual information being communicated.

Data Conversion - XSL templates are utilized to perform the conversion from source to result specification. The use of XML namespaces in XSL enables conversion templates to hook directly into Java based interfaces providing a more interactive and efficient conversion environment.

Quality Assurance - XSL templates are utilized for visual validation throughout the conversion process by rendering the XML markup in a web browser to ensure conformance with the source content. XSL also enables the automated generation and insertion of meta-data and other content that would otherwise leave room for human error.

Deployment - XSL templates are utilized as a delivery mechanism for the deployment of migrated XML Information Sets.


.: VALIDATION TOOLS & TRAINING :.

AMCon assists organizations in the validation of documents converted to SGML and XML for publication as IETMs. Through a thorough review of your specification and requirements, AMCon can define structured formats for deliverables, and create a Validation Tool Set specific to your needs.

Based on your organizations business processes, AMCon can design a system that enables the efficient and accurate validation of structured deliverables from multiple contractors. AMCon Validation Tools analyze the structure and content of submitted files, and guide the user through the steps required for robust validation. This process allows users without SGML/XML expertise to deftly identify anomalies and non-compliant instances for correction prior to final acceptance.