However, the entire document library must be planned carefully to determine which paragraphs can be reused, and how the information must be rearranged for its purpose.
Where Can I Learn More About Content Repurposing?
Numerous articles and books are available to help you learn about content repurposing. The following articles, listed alphabetically by title, provide a starting point. (For full publication information, see the annotated bibliography.)
Content repurposing with structured FrameMaker and XML. This work-in-progress by The Idea Store provides a good overview of the subject and distinguishes between single sourcing and content repurposing.
King of the Highway. In the early days of the Internet), Matthew J. Cutler addressed the use of existing content and moving it to the Web. Most of his advice is still applicable today. Cutler recommends digestible sections or file of around 500 words, with links to the remaining material. He suggests rewriting material to achieve the friendlier tone often used in writing for the Web, and in a corporate setting, recommends assigning a content manager to make sure that the friendly tone doesn’t get out of hand.
The Online Copywriter’s Handbook. With content reuse, writers can rearrange information to form new documents from the same source documents. Robert W. Bly applies well-documented marketing principles to writing for the Internet, which will be useful for writers who need to single source marketing from technical manuals. The section on writing for e-zines and the Internet explains why some writing for the Web should be written in the inverted pyramid form, that is, with all of the critical information in the lead paragraph. However, documents that have an accepted design, for example, a scientific scholarly paper that begins with an abstract, should stay with the accepted form.
Repurposing Content. Short but impressively practical, this newsletter article by Elizabeth Weise Moeller addresses issues about when it makes sense to repurpose content. The focus is on converting a print document or PDF file to HTML, and making the content useful in its new format. Moeller discusses the longevity of the document, the size of the expected audience, and the appropriateness of the materials as considerations. She concludes with recommendations for rewriting to improve the usability of the content.
Single Sourcing White Paper. In this classic and widely quoted paper, Joann Hackos and Ann Rockley start by explaining that converting the same files for PDF and help files is not the same as single sourcing. By breaking the documents into components and identifying common information, writers can reuse the content, rearranging it as needed. The consistency of the documentation set improves, and the close evaluation of the content may lead to reorganization that improves usability. They describe a development process that starts with analyzing the content, and finishes with usability testing and training the writers. This white paper is the seed from which both authors have developed numerous articles and books.
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Most recent update: 06/21/04
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