Bernard Aschwanden: Currently I'm working with a few clients on a variety of XML and publishing-related files. Recently, one of the more interesting jobs was for a client with about 15 books translated into about 15 languages. That's 225 books in total.

I worked with them to build the English-language templates with very specific page layout, character kerning, line and paragraph leading, and so on. Once the layout was 'perfect', the English was ready to publish. With some very neat third-party tools, we did FrameMaker-based publishing that looks as good as anything that InDesign or similar software could produce.

The next trick was to line up all the translated content, matching each document and each page break with the English text. If you've ever read the back of a cereal box that has both English and French, you'll know that it's almost impossible to line the two up. We had no editing of content available to us. We could not change the look of the document more than a couple of percentage points in any of the layouts, and we had to meet very specific design demands.

Oh yeah, we also had to finish the job in under 2 months, fully laid out, ready to publish. At present it looks like we've hit all our targets!

CT: Tell us about something good, bad, interesting, or weird that has happened to you on the job recently.

BA: One client site that I went to last August (just before I got married) was in the foothills outside Los Angeles. I was putting in really long hours to get things done for them; we had a few days where we would work from 10 a.m. until 4 or 5 the following morning.

Late one afternoon everyone seemed to vanish. I had no idea why I went from a staff of about 15 to about 3 or 4 people. Then the conversation turned to "the fire". The mountains were burning.

The client had hundreds of staff who are trained to assist the fire departments. I think 9 departments had dozens of fire engines on the scene. The client opened their doors to the fire fighters. They brought coffee, tea, water, and food to them. They provided a place for the firefighters to shower, rest, and recharge so they wouldn't have to drive 60 or 80 miles back home.

The client has a lake on their property that a helicopter used to refresh the pumpers with water. They even provided one of their own pumper engines to help out. It was a great sight to see.

As for the fire, it was stunning to see a range of foothills about as high as Blue Mountain or Snow Valley with their tops burning. The midnight sky glowed with yellow and orange, and you could smell the fire. At one point, it covered 900 acres.

The road to and from the client site goes for about 8 to 10 miles along the mountain side. No one else was allowed in or out of the area, but each day the police and firefighters let me through once they knew where I was going. Since I had the road to myself I took about 20 minutes to travel the stretch, driving slowly and watching the events unfold.

CT: Can you share any good advice about technical communications that you've gotten or overheard recently?

BA: Always ask. It's advice that I've passed on to others and had passed back to me by colleagues. If you don't ask, then of course you won't get it. If there is a class, a conference, a seminar that you want to attend, then ask. Not just "can I attend?" but really ask.

Make the case. Tell your boss/staff/accountant/manager/partner what you can gain from it and then explain the costs associated with it. If you can justify the return then it's usually worth the effort of asking.

CT: Tell us about any cool new technology you've seen recently.

BA: My inner geek tells me to let you know about a very cool client application we set up. The client is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of forklifts. I just happened to walk through a Home Depot on the weekend and saw one of them.

The client produces docs using Structured FrameMaker and DITA. The manuals are converted to PDF and delivered in this one fashion. Then, they take the DITA-compliant XML and transform it for use with a handheld PDA. This is then included with the forklift manuals.

The client's technicians all have PDAs with this file on it, so they can view products graphically, zoom in to a single bolt if needed, and order parts or make notes on line. This dramatically reduces the time required to find and fix errors.

It also means that the client is reusing content in a way that others haven't taken advantage of. As well as a maintenance manual, they now have a way to build revenue by finding issues, addressing them right away, and building a database of support issues that lets them fix problems before they occur.

CT: Tell us about a good speaker you've heard recently.

BA: Two jump to mind. Our chapter had Jack Molisani (of Lava Con) come and present. Jack is dynamic, quirky, and fun. He really gets into the subject matter and works the crowd well.

The other one is Bret Freeman of JustSystems (the developers of XMetaL). Bret works well with any crowd and is very technically knowledgeable, but can also deliver his presentations in the most down-to-earth and entertaining ways.

We were lucky to have both of them presenting at the DITA Conference we hosted in San Jose in February 2007. I'm sure we'll work to get them to present to the chapter or at other events we host in the future.

CT: Tell us about a good book or article you've read recently.

BA: Anything that I read for work doesn't fall in the "good book or article" category for me, but I like reading tech stuff just to learn. Sometimes I'll poke around sites like Wikipedia to do some disconnected reading -- find an article, click a random link in and repeat, then read.

For fiction, I have to say that I've finished some of Tanya Huff's books and found them to be very interesting and a lot of fun to read. Her stories focus on characters in the Toronto area as well, so it's a lot of fun to recognize not only the city the story is based in, but to even identify the streets and shops. I also finished some newer Christopher Moore books and always find him fun and strangely enlightening.

CT: How's business travel been these days?

BA: Good, bad, and interesting.

Good: I got to bring my family with me for a trip to Southern California while it stormed here at home.

Bad: They got delayed for 3 hours in Toronto, missed a connection in Denver by minutes, and would have had to spend the night.

Interesting: About 5 minutes after the flight landed in Denver I got a call on one cell phone from my wife. The other phone was already in use as I was talking with a client (who has their own travel agency).

Between the two of them we managed to find another flight that everyone could make. My family ran for the flight and made it on board, breathless. The travel agent worked further magic and I ended up meeting them at the gate when they landed... 2 hours later than expected, but we all found each other. Air Canada may not have come through for us, but everyone else involved did more than I could have expected or hoped for.

CT: Quick plug for your company -- 25 words or less. Go...

BA: We develop, train and write. We make companies more efficient in how they publish to print, to the web, to XML and other formats. http://www.brightpathsolutions.com

CT: Finally, assuming that you actually have some down time, what are you doing for fun these days?

BA: Not as much as I should be. However, we did spend some time in January doing a quick trip to Seaworld, Disney, and Universal Studios. I also plan to take a riding course in the spring, then get a motorcycle and spend a few long weekends travelling into northern Ontario to look for property on a lake where I can eventually build a house and spend time relaxing.

CT: Great. Thanks again for talking to us.

BA: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me as well. I really appreciate being involved in this way with the chapter and look forward to working next year as the Toronto Chapter President.