Markup and Meaning
Practical writing on docs-as-code, structured authoring, and AI-assisted documentation - how the right structure and tooling make docs scale without losing clarity. By Olivier Carrère, a technical writer working in DITA XML and Markdown.
Latest
Why hand-maintained InDesign files rot - and what docs-as-code does instead
A 370-cell calendar that shifts every year. A lead's name in three places. An IBAN in an invisible text box. These are not unusual InDesign problems - they are what InDesign files become when they accumulate facts with no single home. Two projects show what the alternative looks like - and where InDesign's own global tools stop short.
Transforming a corpus of 7,000 pages into living knowledge
From a massive archive of 7,000 pages to daily insights, quote retrieval, and AI-powered thematic digests-this project turns static content into a living flow of clarity, focus, and well-being.
1.8 million words, freed from Word 97 and made searchable
1,800 lecture transcripts — 1.8 million words once trapped in Word 97 files — converted to Markdown, scored and tagged by AI, and turned into a searchable discovery platform that also generates print-ready LaTeX anthologies.
More articles
- Less is more: from psychology to technical writing · 6 min
- Slow food for fast thinking: designing with cognitive ease in mind · 8 min
- What YAML gives technical docs that XML and Markdown can't · 10 min
- One YAML file, three outputs: API docs, web, and mobile · 3 min
- Translating legacy French docs to English with DeepL and GPT-4o · 4 min
- Manage content in files, not databases · 6 min
- Strong information typing without the XML overhead · 4 min
- A decade of Word 97 conference files, rebuilt for the web for $30 · 5 min
- From DITA XML to Markdown: lightweight information typing · 2 min
- A web journey: from HTML to Git-based Markdown workflows · 4 min