Single source publishing or single sourcing allows the same content to be used in different documents and in various formats.

For example, a software company may have several products with user guides that share a common procedure, like instructions on how to open a file. Rather than maintain duplicate versions of this procedure (one in each manual) the manuals can share the content, perhaps flowing it into the document at the time of publication. Eliminating duplicate content can save translation costs, reduce maintenance costs, improve consistency and reduce errors.

Single sourcing also allows the creation of documents in various formats from the same content. For example, a company might use the same content in online help, a printed document and a Web page. With a single source solution, the company only has to update the one source file for the content and regenerate the three outputs.

Ideally, a single source solution does not require human intervention to customize the formatting or content for the various outputs. This can be difficult to achieve without the use of some kind of content management system, which often employs XML technology.

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