Getting to the Source:
How Wiley Uses Word to Invite Authors, Engage Editors, Improve Production,
and Put XML at the Source of Its Content
Frank Grazioli | Director, Production Technology
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Start With XML, January 13, 2009

Who Are We
Production Technology Group
– Improve the publishing process through technology: digital workflow, QA
and archiving, e‐books, XML
– Small team with backgrounds in book/journal production, editorial,
graphic arts/design, content technology
Wiley Professional & Trade Group
– 1,200 US publications; globally >2,000; 70/30 consumer/professional
– Very simple to very complex content
– 80% of publications in XML workflow
– >200 Production and Editorial staff; freelance copyeditors; authors
– We are delivering XML for
• Aggregators, online learning, websites
• Global licensing and custom publishing
• Typically full‐book product in WileyML 2.1—proprietary content model
and book DTD
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Workflow
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MS Word Template Is Foundation for Workflow
No extraordinary technical skill required
•
Decoupled from other technology: able to adapt for evolving business need
•
Controlled list of styles covers most content elements
•
– Structural: sections, headers, tables
– Semantic: terms, expressions, feature types
Clean UI: basic styles and extended menus for advanced use
•
Approximates our XML content model—requires some training
•
Macros speed formatting and cleanup of manuscript to help workflow
•
Production supplies some metadata to guide print layout
•
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Compositors Transform Word to XML
Word’s XML not deep enough to support our DTD
•
Compositors convert our Word to XML and provide additional tagging:
•
– Bibliographic and rights metadata sourced from Wiley systems
– Linking between elements (exhibits, sections)
– Conversion of some expressions to entities; some math to MathML
– Additional tagging generates navigational elements such as chapter‐level
TOCs (not part of the edited ms)
We don’t prescribe paging platform—whatever is most efficient/cost‐
•
effective—but this does affect QC (20‐30 minutes to hours per ISBN)
At the end of the process compositor:
•
– Extracts and delivers WileyML
– Generates new MS Word manuscript templated with our styles
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What’s Been Working for Us
Collaboration between Editorial and Production to establish styles
•
Group training—Production and Editorial together—fosters community
•
We focused early effort on series books
•
Flexible author “recruiting” strategy: 20‐60‐20 rule
•
We put our message, tools, and documentation “out there” (website):
•
downloads, style guides, cheat sheets (“placemats”)
Monthly roundtables to resolve technical, workflow, usage issues
•
Upside
•
– Efficiencies in workflow (staff and freelancer skills normalized; able to
work across product areas)
– More use of standardized book layouts and series (saves $)
– Clean ms at the back end
– Process feels “normal” with flexible points of entry: authors, editors,
copyeditors
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Further Advice for Best Prac7ces
Use styles or tags meaningful to content users
•
Avoid “print” language if you intend to deliver more than print—or support
•
variant language with your XML
Understand how your compositors work with your DTD: It will affect your own
•
QA efforts and your ability to reuse the content the way you expect to
– Non‐native use of our DTD means more thorough QA by us because our
XML must be backed out of theirs
– Parsing/validation not equal to good usage (tag correctly from start)
– Completeness: if your XML model “chunks” differ from ms
– Entities: as your usage requires?
– Tags misapplied to mimic print: drop/small caps; ornaments
– Linking: within and across publications: does your DTD support them?
– Overtagging : <term><i>modified adjusted income</i><term>
final
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Get out of a “Box”:
15 Standard Feature Types that Mean More to Your XML
“Box” and “sidebar” define appearance
but do liKle to describe purpose.
In our process:
- Feature types are selected from a
dropdown menu
- Author or editor create 7tle(s)
- Can take on any design: Comp
direc7ve and design specifica7on
- Retain their underlying values in the
XML as metadata
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Choosing a Feature Type
Feature Type Defined Might be 7tled
ac3vity asks the reader to apply exercise, prac3ce,
ideas from the exercise, assignment, ac3vity,
prac3ce, assignment, ac3on points
ac3vity, or body text to
formulate solu3ons or to
ac3on points prove the
concepts
caseStudy situa3ons or events, real or case study, project,
hypothe3cal, scenario, tale, Real
that illustrate, amplify, or World Scenario, situa3on,
argue themes vigneAe, case
and ideas in the body text extract, project case
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Where To?
Continue to evaluate/benchmark the process
– Time/resources for content outside of the workflow
– UK, Asia, Australia, Canada
– Need OpenOffice, Word 2008
– Current book DTD will give way to book‐journal schema—simpler model
but will need to remap Word styles
Beyond Full‐Product XML: Travel “Chunks and Nougat”
– Objec7ve data “chunks” that are places and events of interest (hotel or
concert)
– Prose wraps the places and events in a point of view (thriW seeker or family
traveler?)
– An ontology of audience interests to capture par7cular associa7ons between
the two content types to model products or customize content deliveries
External taxonomies (standardized key terms) for discipline‐ or industry‐specific
relevance: GAAP/IFRS, Engineering, Architecture, Psychology
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