                  Rockville Information Services, Inc.

  We convert your 'legacy' documents into dynamic, usable references.


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Q: What do you mean by 'legacy' documents and, what do you do to
   make them 'dynamic, usable references'?
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A: A 'legacy' document is a computer-readable document (or set of
   documents) with information from your contracts, studies, reports,
   catalogs...  This information is pertinent to your business but is
   under-used (or not used at all) because of the effort needed to dig
   it out.

   From your original (source) text, we produce hypertext that allows
   the reader to search for information and go directly to it without
   having to read through irrelevant material.  The reader identifies
   the topic, word(s) or subject of interest and 'jumps' directly to the
   information.

   With this usability, you save time and money.  Your employees - even
   new or temporary - are productive almost immediately.  Your customers
   or suppliers can use your material efficiently.  The document is more
   dynamic in that the information within is more usable.

   The final document cannot be altered by readers.


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Q: What types of source documents might they be?
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A: Education-related texts, primers
   Help desk references
   Legal texts
   Manuals - employment
           - policies and practices
           - procedures
           - training
   Papers presented at meetings, conventions ...
   Parts lists, inventories
   Sales catalogs
   Technical reports


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Q: Where might this source material be found?
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A: Inside most organizations, there are valuable reports filed away
   'for the record'.  Often, they are rarely referenced.  There is much
   'computer-readable' material scattered about in various places.
   Selecting the most valuable of these, you can make them available
   in one standard, useful format.

   Outside the organization, there is much publicly-available material
   from Industry and/or from the Internet.  Some (perhaps much) of this
   material could help your organization if you could make it easy to
   search and use.


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Q: How might the new documents be used?
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A: Training:
   - technical, general
   - introductory, for new employees or temporaries.

   Furnishing all employees with:
   - company policies, practices
   - 'how-to' company information

   Giving your customers:
   - product information/specifications
   - first-level help on how to use your products


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Q: How does your hypertext allow the reader to find information easily?
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A: We create indexes so the reader can identify what he or she is
   looking for.  We build links from the indexes to the information.
   The reader 'jumps' directly across those links.


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Q: Where can the finished presentation be made available?
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A: If the audience is on a Local Area Network, it can be on a Server.

   The finished presentation can be downloaded from your Website or FTP
   site.  This is a very effective way of providing your customers or
   suppliers easy access to your information - at low cost to you.

   Finally, it can be distributed on diskette or CD-ROM.

   The finished work is read under DOS or in the DOS Box under
   Windows 3.x, 95, NT or OS/2.


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Q: Can my company distribute these documents freely?
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A: Yes.  The documents we provide are all freely-distributable with
   either a standalone Reader or in a self-reading format.  With a
   licensed copy of the authoring system, you, too, can distribute
   freely.


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Q: Can readers modify the finished presentation?
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A: No.  The finished presentation is in compact, unalterable form.

   However, the Reader itself is quite flexible, permitting users to
   attach notes or change the colors to suite his/her display.  Also,
   the user may select portions of the text for printing unless the
   document owner has disabled that function.


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Q: Can the source material be updated easily?
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A: Yes. The hypertext source material is easily modified and recompiled.
   Modifications ranging from the correction of minor errors to deleting
   out-dated material, adding new material, or simply adding, changing or
   deleting hypertext links within the document are performed with equal
   ease.


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Q: Can my company maintain the source document instead of having to
   use your services?
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A: Yes.  Although we can handle document updates, if you choose to do
   your own maintenance, we will provide you with a licensed copy of
   the authoring system and train your people to use it.


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Q: What other security provisions can you implement?
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A: Suppose your company only wants the finished hypertext to be
   accessible through a customized Reader, or wants it to be accessed
   only by users on the corporate LAN.  These functions can be provided
   at a modest, additional cost.


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Q: What are the steps to producing these hypertext documents?
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   First, if the document doesn't have a Table of Contents (TOC), we
   make one and create the links between the TOC and the referred-to
   material.

   Second, we build an Index of words or phrases so that you can use the
   Search Dialog on the Index to immediately find the word or phrase in
   the document.  You don't have to be an expert to use the Dialog.

   - In the Dialog, you see the actual word-list at a glance.  The
     moment you start typing a keyword, the word-list display
     dynamically updates itself and selects the word or phrase closest
     to what you've typed so far.  You don't have to type the complete
     search object if it's already highlighted in the word-list.

   - Searches can be simple or complex.  In the latter, you can develop
     a multi-word query with "and" and "or" logic linking the search
     words.  Even complex queries are just a matter of performing a
     couple of simple steps.

   - No matter how large the total work, searches are essentially
     instantaneous.  We provide you with total access to a vast quantity
     of documentation with zero waiting and zero frustration.

   - To illustrate how to use the Search Index, let's use information
     from the sample document (see the last Q&A) as an example.  The
     sample document deals with computer viruses.

     * If you're searching for (say) "unix viruses", you enter the word
       "unix" and start to enter "viruses".  By the time you've entered
       the "v" in "viruses", the whole term is already highlighted.  You
       see that these words can be found in three places in the document.
       The first location is is in the TOC.  Clicking your mouse (or
       using the arrow key on your keyboard) on that TOC entry takes you
       to the proper section.

     * If your search word/expression is not in the TOC, what then?  If
       for example, you're looking for "cryptographic checksummers", it
       won't be found in the TOC.  Begin to enter these words.  By the
       time you have entered the first two letters, "cr", the term is
       highlighted and you can jump to that instance of these words.

     * From the Search Index, you can also create complex queries such
       as, "find all instances where the search terms 'zoo', AND 'false
       positive' AND 'VxD' occur in the same line, within 4 lines, 10
       lines or in the same topic".  (Note: the AND's could also have
       been OR's).

   Third, we make a Subject Index if it makes sense.  This is similar
   to an Index in a book, built for the reader who has only a general
   idea of what he or she is looking for.

   - All documents do not benefit equally from a Subject Index.
     Moreover, it takes a lot of work to build a good one.  That
     then, is a decision to be made when the document - and the
     readers' needs - are better understood.

   In all cases, the aim is to get the reader to the sought-after
   information as quickly as possible while minimizing having to deal
   with irrelevant material.


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Q: Can this material, once in your hypertext, be converted into HTML?
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A: No, not at present.  However, any programmer with a knowledge of HTML
   could write a conversion utility to run on the hypertext source files
   which are not in a proprietary format.  Such a utility may soon be
   provided by the author of the development system.


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Q: Could the presentation have been built directly with HTML rather than
   with the hypertext you use?
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   Yes.  However, HTML is not designed to produce the results we seek.
   We aim for a product which can be easily searched.  Our hypertext is
   superior to HTML in security, ease of authoring and speed and because
   it can be used independently of the Net.

   HTML-produced documents, on the other hand, allow linkages to other
   Net nodes, are platform independent and are more attractive.

   Downloaded HTML documents can be changed.  Our final hypertext product
   cannot be.


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Q: Can you handle graphics, animations...?
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A: Yes.


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Q: What if these documents were prepared using WordPerfect or Word?
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A: We would export the documents into ASCII text and create the
   structure from the exported document.  This, because:

   - You cannot insert links into a completed WordPerfect/Word
     documents.  Thus, there's no way to 'jump' directly to the
     sought-after information.

   - A WordPerfect or Word document can be searched for a word but
     you can only locate each instance of the word in turn.  There is no
     way to go directly to that word in a specific Topic.  The problem
     here is that locating the word within a specific Topic (and thus,
     in context) is one key way readers decide whether a search path
     should be followed.

   - Finally, in WordPerfect and Word, multiple words cannot be
     incorporated into a complex query.


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Q: How do clients send you their information and see the work as it
   progresses?  And, how do you ensure its safety and confidentiality
   in transmission?
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A: All of our clients' information is considered their property and
   is held in the strictest confidence.

   The most convenient way to exchange documents is via E-mail, but
   U.S. Mail or courier is fine.

   If all material must be kept absolutely confidential, it will be
   put on diskette(s) and exchanged via Registered U.S. Mail or by
   courier.  E-mail will probably be more convenient, though.  In that
   case, we will help you identify an acceptable encryption scheme so
   that the material cannot be read or understood by anyone else.

   If confidentiality is not absolutely critical, but you wish to avoid
   even the possibility that the material will be seen by others, we
   would exchange documents compacted with password-protection.


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Q: What do you charge?
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A: There's no fixed answer but here are some ideas:

   a) If we work with an existing document, already logically arranged
      into Topics and with a TOC, we would add the hypertext links, the
      Search Index and provide the presentation on diskettes.  For a
      small document, the charge would be around $350.  A large document
      might be $500 or $600.  A large set of documents could run $1,000
      or more.

   b) If the document hasn't been logically organized and doesn't have a
      TOC: for consolidating the document into Topics and adding a TOC
      and the relevant links, add 40% to (a).

   c) For adding a Subject Index (the TOC and the Search Index come
      first): this would be a function of how extensive the Subject
      Index was, but as an estimate, one might add another 40% on
      top of (b).


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Q: Earlier, you referred to a sample document.  What's that?
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A: We have authored a publicly-available document that you may have. It
   is the hypertext version of one of the key papers in the (computer)
   anti-virus world, the "a.c.v. FAQ".  The title is shorthand for,
   'Frequently Asked Questions from the alt.comp.virus newsgroup'.

   Originally in text, we put it into hypertext to improve its
   usability.  It already had a TOC; we added the Search Index and the
   links.  There is no Subject Index as the author and we agreed that
   it would not be worth adding.

   For a a copy of the document, please send your request to the E-mail
   address below.  Alternately, you can get it by FTP from:

              ftp.gate.net/pub/users/ris1/acvfaqht.zip

We look forward to serving you.


E. N. Fenton
Rockville Information Services, Inc
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
(516) 764-6772     ris@transit.nyser.net                          1.1.2
