In my work with regulated industries – and particularly life sciences – I frequently encounter the concept of a “structured document.” People in these organizations often struggle with the idea of adopting structured content authoring (SCA) because in their minds, they are already working “in structure.”
They’re not wrong. Alas, they’re not right, either.
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What Is a Structured Document?
A structured document is a document based on a standardized template. The standardized template provides a strict level of requirements for:
- What content to include
- In what order
- Under which circumstance
The template also provides standardized text for section headings and certain paragraphs, lists, or tables.
Some structured document templates are provided by regulatory agencies. For example, a pharmaceutical drug label follows a standardized template as required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Each type of information – the condition or disease, dosage guidelines, contraindication, interactions with other drugs, and so on – is provided in the same place, in every label, using the same heading text, for every drug.
A pharma labeling department typically creates labels by pasting or typing content into the structured document template. Every writer uses the same template. The label is managed as a document rather than as an assembly of information. In this way, pharma companies meet their goal of creating labels that consistently meet regulatory requirements for structure and format.
Unfortunately, structured documents have several limitations. These limitations prevent organizations from achieving the maximum value from their content. Let’s take a look at the difference between a structured document and structured content authoring.
READ MORE: 7 smart ways to write for content reuse
What Is Structured Content?
Structured content is content that is modular, consistent, and reusable. Structured content is:
- Created as a set of building blocks of information (components)
- Created and stored with minimal formatting
- Tagged with metadata for findability
- Organized and stored in a centralized repository
- Publishable to a variety of formats
Structured content is an entirely different way to approach content. With structured content, we treat the content less like a printed document and more like a database.
In a structured content ecosystem, every piece of information is created as a separate component. These components are then assembled into outputs such as documents, reports, presentations, websites, and even printed material. The structured document template provided by a regulatory agency is just one of the many outputs we can deliver by combining components, but it is not structured content authoring itself.
Whenever a piece of information is needed, that component is slotted into place. There’s no need to duplicate or re-create content. Authors can reuse components wherever they need to provide the information.
READ MORE: Writing for structured content in pharma – what you need to know
The Limitations of Structured Documents
Structured documents impose several limitations on the organization. The three most important limitations are:
- Limited automation, if any; mostly manual process
- No relationship with sources of data or other content
- Content is not readily findable or available
All three of these limitations have a significant impact on the business. Manual processes such as copy/paste or retyping data increase risk of introducing errors into the document. It takes a significant amount of time to create, review, revise, reformat, and approve redundant content. There’s no insight into the quality or status of any of the content within the document.
Managing content as individual documents reduces the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of the information each document contains.
Structured Content Sets Your Content Free
What’s the point of managing content as components rather than documents? I’m glad you asked.
Component-based content presents opportunities to automate repetitive content development tasks that consume people’s time and energy while adding no value to the content.
Some high-value examples of content automation include:
- Formatting
- Content reuse
- Data integration
- Enforced content structures and standards
- Image/media integration
- Bulk publish to multiple channels
- Personalization
- Metadata application
- Assembly of working documents from standardized components
- Workflow and change history reporting
Are Structured Documents Pointless?
Structured documents are not pointless. Structure provides consistency. Consistency improves findability and usability for consumers of the content. Structured documents can also help teams of authors learn how to write in a unified voice.
Structured documents can be an excellent launchpad for adopting structured content authoring. And structured content enables us to implement content reuse and automation to streamline process, mitigate risk, and produce quality content at scale.
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