Can Word and XML content management co-exist?

Dale Waldt posted a piece this week on the Gilbane XML and Content Management blog called Can Word Processors Be Used to Create Structured Content? Waldt argues that word processors make poor XML editors, and it's hard not to agree with that supposition. One of the issues with structured writing, in general, is that most users don't even know how to use styles in a rudimentary fashion. It's a leap to ask them to write in a XML editor.

As Waldt points out, this is a problem for organizations trying to implement an XML CMS precisely because the content experts are not XML experts and in most cases wouldn't be comfortable using a tool like XMetaL or Arbortext as a writing tool. They like using Microsoft Word because it's what they are comfortable using. That's why it's important to create a workflow with the writers in mind. It's hard enough to implement a XML content management system, and your chances of success diminish greatly if you don't  have your content creators on board.

JetBlue, a MarkLogic customer, I recently interviewed, got around this issue by having subject experts create content in Word 2007, which outputs to XML in a form MarkLogic could handle. It enabled JetBlue SMEs to use a somewhat familiar tool (Office 2007 looks very different from earlier versions) and still enabled Jet Blue to take advantage of XML content management.

Other companies have put an editing layer in place to take the SME's writing and prepare it for the CMS. Regardless of how you do it, you have to design the writing system to meet the needs of the writers, not just the  content management end of it, or you are going to run into problems getting people to use the system you have put in place.

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