The Many Faces of Single Sourcing

If you are a Technical Writer, Content Developer or any other professional writer you are sure to be familiar with the Term Single Sourcing.

What I have found is that many people only refer to one aspect of single sourcing at a time, when in truth there are many different sides to single sourcing.

Personally I sometimes get mixed messages from other writers in the industry about what the most widely used definition of single sourcing is. So I am going to list the concepts that I think should be included under the single sourcing umbrella.

Reusing content for different output types – The same content, different format (output), PDF, Word, HTML, FLASH, AIR, Wiki …(possibly more)

Reusing content for different products – The same content, different product. This happens when there are different versions of a product such as a community, commercial and an enterprise edition. They all have common information that can be reused such as an introduction or functionality that is shared between the products. Not only do we want to ensure consistency but also make sure that when we update one place all the rest of the places are updated at the same time.

Reusing content for different document types – The same content different documents, I have a user guide, a quick start guide, an installation guide, An API reference, Data Sheet and Web pages. There is no reason why I should not use the same content to a certain extent in all of these and also make sure that they are updated at the same time. A specific example could be a description of a feature that should and indeed needs to be consistent.

In my opinion, this is how true single sourcing should be perceived. It’s true that not all writers need to reuse content to this extent but many do and it’s important to know that you can establish an environment that facilitates content reuse to this extent.

In my next installment I will show how this can be easily done using RoboHelp.

Advertisement