Direct Publishing
Technical documentation

You are already in a favorable position. You can already cover most of your documentation requirements with your content management system: at low cost and in several languages.

But…

• What about the parts of the documentation that you get from your suppliers with the external components that have been installed?
• What about the design drawings which are supposed to be given to the end customer together with the complete documentation?
• How can you combine these parts of the documentation with the results from your content management system to create a uniform contents directory?
• Have the texts in your content management system actually been compared with the results of your design?
• How much of the existing content does your editorial team have to create again?

Several parts of the documentation are standard texts which are compiled separately. You have to provide some documents and files in the original format: digitally signed certificates, machine control systems. Unfortunately, a content management system is not designed for such tasks.

Our final documentation consists of different parts that have to be taken from a variety of different sources. That can be done too!

The ideal approach for an efficient documentation production process is linking all the relevant documents – with the individual items of the production parts list – in the PLM system, and saving them in the integrated DMS. The use of files from a file server can also be integrated into the system. It is then up to us to fully automate the file acquisition for you.

The collation of a comprehensive set of system documentation is generally laborious, time consuming work which is susceptible to errors. Despite the partly monotonous nature of this work, it must be done by highly qualified staff.

Therefore, the automation of these processes is a better approach. With Direct Printing, the production of the documentation can be completed quickly and can be created at the last minute – when all of the partial documents are available in the correct version and have been approved.

Our system uses a variety of previously prepared processing steps which can be parametrized individually for your specific project.

• Uniform format: e.g., PDF or PDF/A
• Title pages, tables of contents
• New page numbers, dynamic headers and footers
• Navigation aids such as bookmarks and hotspots
• Logos, CI compliant layout
• Stamps and watermarks with status and version managed documents
• The pasting of images and drawings
• Layout of continuous text from different sources

There are several useful functions for the fabrication and the subsequent paper publishing:

• The dividing of complete documents into paper file sizes
• The creation of part and full tables of contents
• Templates for title pages and spine labels
• The insertion of folded large format drawings

If the documentation is to be presented in digital form, then we can create a structured PDF with navigable tables of contents and bookmarks. And unchangeable certificates or machine control systems can be enclosed with the digital edition. The subsequent production of the DVD can also be carried out automatically. With this scope of functions, we have realized every customer requirement. Or, is there anything else you have in mind when it comes to your layout?

In the event of tight deadlines for the creation of documentation it is important that the progress of the process of compilation – and possible problems – can be recognized quickly and reliably. For those managing the production of the documentation, there are numerous possibilities for managing and monitoring the processes. This can be achieved in the control panel of the direct publishing workflow.

In addition to the efficient administration tools, the direct publishing workflow also creates warning messages independently (e.g., by email) in order to flag abnormal or unwanted circumstances.

You can forward this data to us. Or, we will actively obtain it for you. An integrated report generator ensures the perfecting of the required layout. This creates files which can then be added to the overall compilation.