Converting legacy documentation
Technical authors sometimes convert outdated legacy documents into new formats. Typical examples include the conversion of paper documents to an on-screen format, HTML to WebHelp, or WinHelp to CHM.
One project involved converting documentation from Ventura to Word. Much of the textual content of the original documentation was still valid and could be re-used, although it required considerable formatting and clarification of step-by-step procedures. None of the screen shots could be re-used, since they were all outdated.
We couldn't directly save the Ventura files as Word documents. The TechScribe solution was to write a VBA macro in Word. This took Ventura source files (which are ASCII text files with tags to indicate formatting), and using a multi-pass approach, converted the tagged text into Word format (headings, styles, index markers and so on).
As a result, the new documentation was produced in about half the time that it would have taken had it been entirely re-written.
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