Application of new information technology to DOD legacy paper technical manuals

Abstract

The Department of Defense is in the process of digitizing paper technical manuals (TMs). This consists, mainly, of direct copy to disk, with only a few being upgraded to Electronic Technical Manual (ETM) or Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM). However, there is no clear-cut methodology for cost-effectively converting paper manual to various levels of upgrade. The Advanced Technology Office, the US Army Test, Measurement, and Diagnostics Equipment Activity the US Army Missile Command, has investigated the conversion technologies/tools and developed conversion procedures that can achieve these goals: the most cost effective, value-added, and user-friendly ETM/IETM. The authors provide some guidelines to assist the ETMs/IETMs developers to achieve these goals.