Introduction

No term has caused such a sensation in recent years among technical writers and illustrators as "Single Sourcing". The reasons: Enormous amounts of text and image material builds up in documentation and illustration companies. It is not uncommon for individual documents to contain several thousands of pages. If this is translated into several languages, then the administration needs are greater for both texts and graphics (graphics can contain text which must also be translated).

The desire for tool independence is also associated with this. In the meantime there are lots of expensive tools on the market for documentation, graphics, animation and layout. These are often not compatible with one another.

Then there is the fact that documentation and illustrations should often be published in different media. For example with software manuals it is now taken for granted that in addition to the printed documentation there is also online documentation, usually implemented in the software. It is not uncommon that both types of output be maintained independently of one another.

Therefore the tendency to a single source from which everything can be created in one go, is understandable in particular for communication-orientated careers such as technical writers, illustrators, graphic designers and cartographers.

A simple yet very efficient means for single sourcing is the XML approach for two-dimensional Scalable Vector Graphics. This language enables you to convert that for which you would have earlier required several tools and different formats. SVG includes technical options of established standards such as

• Drawing and CAD formats
• Macromedia’s Flash
• PowerPoint (click with the mouse on it)
• PDF
• HTML

as well as numerous image formats.

Below is a list of additional advantages:

• SVG is saved in text format and therefore can be edited with simple text editors
• SVG is structured as XML and therefore accessible for script languages
• SVG or generally XML localize via the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) and therefore offers the option to reference data fragments occurring in other XML documents
• SVG can be extended by other namespaces (e.g. SMIL, MathML, XSLT etc.) and therefore can have increased functionality

The two major advantages of SVG in regard to single sourcing are therefore:

• There are no redundant information or information carriers (text, graphics, animation etc.)
• You do not require any other application tools

The only disadvantage at the moment is the output . SVG 1.0 is not designed as a page description language and therefore does not support page format definitions and page breaks. Therefore it is only suitable for complex documentation in the online area.