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Documents are produced in all phases and activities of a software development cycle, e.g. User Requirements, Design and Architecture, Configuration Management, Test Plan, Project Plan, and so on. The content material required by each of these different document types is very specific - in fact a detailed table of contents, as well as additional guidelines, are normally provided by the standard being followed, e.g. IEEE, ESA, ISO. However, it is generally desirable to have a consistency in the layout (formatting, style sheets, visual style) across all of the specification documents for a software development project.

The Software Documentation Layout Templates (SDLT), produced by IT/IPT, are a set of generic format templates to be used in conjunction with separate content-only templates, specific to each document type. A content-only template will therefore specify such things as the detailed table of contents, sample material and guidelines for the type of document. The advantages offered by this scheme are:

• Visual consistency across the various documents for a project can be achieved in a manageable way, and requires the maintenance of only one set of layout templates.
• Allows for the independent production and maintenance of content-only templates - to add a template for a particular document type will require only the creation of a content-only template. This greatly reduces the effort needed both for adding as well as maintaining new templates.
• If a content-only template for a particular document type does not yet exist, 3rd parties have the liberty and the means to add it, as required by their project.

An example of such a content-only template is the new version of the ESA URD content template, which thus supersedes the last release of the CERN PSS-05 template, Version 2 of 30 June 1998.

The SDLT are produced for Adobe FrameMaker 5.5, thus usable on various UNIX, PCs and MACs. Features include:

• FrameMaker book structure.
• Pre-defined formats for cover pages, front matter, table of contents, automatically updated lists, chapters, appendices, and index.
• Comprehensive pre-defined formats for all typical software specification documentation material.
• Automatic generation of structured Webs.
• Comprehensive user documentation.

The SDLT V1.0 package will be available on 15 January 1999. At this time, more information and access will be available from the templates section of the "FrameMaker at CERN" Web page at: http://framemaker.cern.ch/

Anyone wishing to test these templates prior to the release date, please contact docsys@ptsun00.cern.ch.

For matters related to this article please contact the author.