LAXMODULES.COM
GeWoVa makes technical data appear in Microsoft Word
Common text and inlined variants
RELY ON THE RIGHT WORKFLOW
At some moment, technical documentation needs less writing and more and more managing of already written texts. I've seen both failed and successful projects, feeled the difference and put the best practices into LaxModules. 1. Write a big generic document with all the features of your devices. 2. Mark the feature descriptions into text modules 3. To get documentation for a specific device, delete unneeded modules.
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LaxModules is a try-before-buy software. Test the completely functional version for a month and then buy for 249 euro. Details.
The current test development version is completely functional, but expires in one month.
The software will cost in future 249 euro (approximately $330). In the pre-release state, the price is only 124 euro. TODO: Click here to buy. Payments are processed by $SOMETHING, a software store located in $SOMEWHERE. We don't have access to your sensitive personal data, such as your credit card number.
Download LaxModules
↓ Run the downloaded file, which is a self-extracting archive. Specify a folder to unpack, for example, C:\LaxModules.
↓ Run the file LaxModules.exe.
↓ In the start window, click the button "Test sample".
↓ The program loads a sample document into Microsoft Word and shows a module selection window.
The window displays section and option names. Double-click on an item to mark or unmark it for deletion. After selection is finished, press the button "Filter document".
↓ Example: delete option 1, retain option 2.
↓ Example: retain option 1, delete option 2, with "track changes".
↓ Example: also sections can be deleted.
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A small firm has invented a device to measure bogomips. The device is good. More and more buyers appear.
Once a new client says: I want an improvement. The device should display roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V...) instead of usual 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... Well, done after a good payment. But even a manager understands that such a change belongs outside the base model. A serie of devices has appeared. So far it consists of two models, DEVICE and DEVICE-ROMAN.
What about documentation for DEVICE-ROMAN? Probably just copy DEVICE.doc to DEVICE-ROMAN.doc and edit as required? Well, it is possible. But the engineer knows, that the text will be reviewed by a corrector, and his changes should appear in the both manuals.
The engineer decides that the following workflow saves time and efforts.
One year is gone. A new client. I want a device with appearence of a pink kitten. The engineers have said something, but made it. The internal layout is changed, and the documentation should be updated.
The procedure is clear.
The file DEVICE-SERIE.doc contains now 3 variants: BASE, ROMAN and KITTEN. This general document can produce manuals for several devices:
The inconvenience is that althout it is easy to delete variants, this task is anyway manual. LaxModules automates the work, saves time and avoids human errors.
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I intentionally do not implement new features. I think I know what the users need, but sometimes the reality proves the opposite. Therefore, for LaxModules I use feedback-based development. If nobody asks for a feature, the feature does not appear.
A task tortures you for 5 hours, and computer can do the job in 5 minutes? Contact me and I'll help you.
There is no size limitation. LaxModules is like an add-on for Microsoft Word. If a document fits to Word, then the document can be processed with LaxModules.
However, for a convenient work in Word, I recommend to limit documents to 300 pages.
The program is written in Python programming language and uses wxPython library for user interface. The tree-component with tags and section headers is based on wxLibAgwCustomTreeCtrl code. The program connects to Microsoft Word through COM using the pythoncom module. The internal interface layer abstracts the connection, so LaxModules runs under Linux and Mac OS X, and can be extended to work with FrameMaker, InDesign and other publishing systems.
The tool pyinstaller takes the source code and compiles it to a program for Windows. A custom wrapper improves possible debug reporting. The distribution package is created with help of NSIS.
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My name is Oleg Parashchenko. I'm an open-source and freelance developer in the area of technical documentation. The main research interests are XML technologies and generative programming. Among the works:
Social networks:
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E-mail: olpa@uucode.com
Phone: +49 (0) 8165 6476593, in English, German or Russian
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