Do I need to clean up my documents before conversion? No. Does it matter if my "books" span multiple files? No. We consider all "files" belonging to a book as one "book". Will Legacy Data Conversion troubleshoot existing documents and files? Yes. Experts from the Legacy Data Conversion Center will review a representative sample of your existing Interleaf files and use the results to improve the conversion outcome. We use a largely automated process to accomplish this task. As we convert more of your documents, the process for converting your data improves. Do you support change pages? That is a function of your production software not source conversion. What products do you recommend? We are vendor neutral. What products do you work with? We are vendor neutral. We deliver source that complies with existing standards, for use in any compliant authoring, editing, and processing environment. Can you help us choose a vendor? We can supply those services if you require them. Our staff members have developed systems for customers in several different industries: software, hardware, manufacturing, and defense. No single vendor was recommended across every installation. Each customer ended up with a different implementation, because their requirements were different. For some, translation was the highest priority; for others, automated conversion. Different vendors have different levels of support for any particular requirement, and you want to choose the one that fits your requirements best. (You also want to plant to scale and change vendors later on, because your requirements will change.) How often do you experience errors during proprietary data conversion? In a sample size of 30 documents (150 chapter files), only one file in one book experienced any significant problem in our conversion process. We were able to correct this error, with very little additional effort (less than a minute). Is there an expensive data modeling step? No. However, we will ask specific questions about your templates and structure and they relate to your required output format. We expect that you have completed all data modeling steps and are ready to begin mass legacy data conversion based on that analysis. Does conversion include layout? No. Conversion only includes the data transfer from the proprietary system (Interleaf, FrameMaker, Word) to SGML or XML. Legacy Data Conversion can assist with Print, PDF, HTML, and eBook output stylesheets for an additional cost. Can you write stylesheets for us? Yes, but this not part of the standard data conversion services. We have written stylesheets for use in several products (screen), as well as for subsequent conversion to HTML, PDF, Palm, Microsoft eReader. We use FOSI, XSL, and XSL-FO. Do you require customers to clean up documents before conversion? No. Our conversion process is automated and designed to work with user templates. What if I don't have 50 documents to convert? We will convert a single, sample document for you for 50% of the standard conversion cost. Discounts apply for large numbers of documents. The discount increases as more documents are converted. Our proofing team will identify issues that reappear and report them to the programming staff. As a result, we can gradually decrease error rates over time and improve conversion time overall. As the time required to proof output decreases, our price decreases. We pass that savings back to our customer. How does your process work? We convert the binary source and we proof the output. We verify that all text that went in, comes out, and that it is tagged correctly based on your output requirements. What do you require customer to provide? The documents, templates and style guides, and any customization or specialization information that you may be using in your choice of output format. Can you convert to a customized version of Docbook? Yes, but we will ask you to detail your customizations for us. What if we have DITA specializations? No problem. We will ask you to detail your specializations for us. Do I have to convert my FrameMaker documents to a particular template? No. We will ask that you provide your template to us, so that we can use your template in the conversion. Does it matter if I have change pages? No. However, we will want final documents to use in conversion. Does it matter what viewer I'm using? No. IETM/IETP conversion is performed on the source we provide to you (i.e., you would use something like iSilo (www.isilo.com) to convert XML to palm (.PDB) format, or Readerworks Overdrive to convert to Microsoft eReader. You would not convert the legacy data source to .PDB directly). Can you help in further IETM/IETP conversion to palm or Microsoft eReader?? Yes. These services are available for an extra cost. This is not included in basic legacy data conversion. Do I have to convert my Interleaf documents to a particular catalog? No. We will ask that you provide your catalog files to us, so that we can use your catalog files in the conversion. Does it matter if I have change pages? No. However, we will want final documents to use in conversion. Do you come up with the Data Module Codes? No. If you have defined the DMCs, we will use those. If you need help determining these, or in doing any data modeling, we can help you with this for an additional fee. Typically, we are concerned solely with source data conversion from one format to another. For example, we will transform your binary Interleaf source document to an SGML or XML document that uses the content tagging for S1000D. We cannot insert anything that we cannot determine either from (1) the document itself or (2) your data analysis specifications. Should you provide your S1000D data analysis specifications to us, we can include that information in the raw source files that we return to you. Do I have to convert my Word documents to a particular template? No. We will ask that you provide your template to us, so that we can use your template in the conversion. Can you convert to my look-and-feel? Yes, but we require sample output documents that demonstrate the Word styles that produce the look-and-feel that you require in your output format.