Hi joejoe,
what we are looking into is writing the complete user guides of OpenPetra (this means for all Modules, obviously) in a wiki and to then create individual PDF files from it (one for each Modue, as for Petra 2.x) that can be used for printing and on-screen viewing of the user guides.
A wiki - if its powerful enough - can have quite a few advantages over simply writing user guides in word processing applications:
[]Consistent formatting of the output (e.g. fonts and font sizes for titles and paragraphs), automatic and consistent numbering, indenting, etc.[/:m]
[]Multiple authors can contribute to the same part of the user guides, even at the same time, from anywhere in the world (and they are each able to see the other contributions as they become available)[/:m]
[]Excellent tracking and visual comparison of any modifications in any revisions of paragraphs, pages or chapters[/:m]
[]Workflow/approval processes can be put into place (e.g. draft paragraphs, pages or chapters need to be reviewed and finally approved)[/:m]
[]Multiple Revisions of part or the whole user guide can be maintained (e.g. for version 1.x and version 1.5 of OpenPetra) in one central place[/:m]
[]Multiple translations (of multiple revisions) can be maintained in one single place, again with approval processes in place (e.g. final approval only done by a native speaker of the target language)[/:m]
[]The final format of the output can be controlled largely independent of the content.[/:m][/list:u]
For all of that we are evaluating the use of the Confluence Wiki (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/) with a few plug-ins that facilitate workflow, advanced versioning and advanced PDF publishing (incl. creation of Table of Contents and Index). Also, we are hoping that we can generate an offline and online HTML help system from the same source of text, hence the term 'single-source publishing'.
We are not there yet where we want to get to but we are on our way there.
I hope that helps...
ChristianK
