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Cherryleaf survey results - Use of single sourcing solutions

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During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf carried out an online survey into the current trends in technical communication. One of the questions we asked was:

  • Do the people directly involved with user assistance development at your organization use a single sourcing authoring solution?

Our findings

Our findings are summarised in the pie chart below:

Do the people directly involved with user assistance development at your organization use a single sourcing authoring solution?

Pie chart showing the use of single source systems

Response

Percentage

Yes - We use a single sourcing authoring solution

35.9

No, but we plan to in the next 12 months

11.9

No

48.5

Yes, but we plan to stop doing so in the next 12 months

1.5

Don't know

2.2

n=134

Conclusions

Based on these findings, it would seem likely that nearly a half of all the user assistance development will be carried out using a single source authoring solution in the next 12 months. This, combined with our findings on the uptake of new Help trends, indicates that most technical communicators will be using software with very powerful capabilities in the forthcoming years.

Article on single sourcing

Justin Darley has written an article on single sourcing.

Considering moving to a single source solution?

Cheryleaf can help you develop a single source documentation solution. Contact us if you would like to know more.

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