Services
The people involved with OP2S have been writing books and providing publishing, programming, testing, data prep and/or conversion services since the early 1980s. We would be happy to help you with your business project in any way we can.
In the process of doing that we created a lot of little applications to make our jobs easier. Now we are polishing those applications and offering them to other people who want to create content for distribution on CD-ROM or the Web. You are welcome to buy our tools and do all the work yourself. Or, if you would like some help, we can work with you or put you in touch with a developer who has licensed the tools and has experience working with them.
In addition, we have been designing, creating, and maintaining web sites for several years. Read the descriptions below to learn more about the services we offer, and then contact us if you have questions or want more information.
Writing
The principals and employees at OP2S, have written several dozen books and edited hundreds of others. If you need a Help file or documentation for your application, or an editor for your novel, drop us a line. If we don't have the technical skills you need, we can probably find someone who does.
Publishing
The process of creating titles and getting them to your end users involves two stages. The first stage is creating the content—the documents, graphics, videos, and other elements that make up the titles. The second stage is converting the content to an online title that can be delivered to the end user, installed on their computer or posted to a Web site, and viewed. We call the second stage publishing, as it is similar to the publishing process in the print industry.
If you want to create a lot of titles, and have the time, talent, and desire to do your own publishing, you can license the pubStudio development environment and publish your own content.
On the other hand, if you would rather not be involved in that process, you can purchase only the runtime license and have any licensed developer publish your content. Once it has been through the publishing process, you will be given a master CD-ROM or DVD that you can use for production and distribution.
Publishing services can be billed at an hourly rate, or as a negotiated contract. The total cost depends mostly on the condition of your content, and a little bit on the size of the project.
Programming
OP2S offers programming services in the following areas:
Client/Server development
.NET framework web application development
C# programming
MFC Windows programming
Perl scripting
Basic Unix knowledge
Client database development
ASP/ASPX web application development
Java programming
Computer product development cycle
Access database development
SQL database development
MySQL database development
VB programming
VBA programming
We specialize in utilities and applications that make it easier for people to publish information on CD-ROM or the Web, but are always willing to listen to other ideas. Especially if you have lots of money you want to give us to do some work for you.
If you have looked at pubStudio and think it is perfect "except for one little thing," please let us know what that is. Remember, we wrote the code, and we can add new features or enhance old ones.
Data Prep
Data preparation is the process of getting all your content ready for conversion. It may include editing and styling Word documents, converting graphics and video to the preferred format, and just generally cleaning things up and getting them ready to use.
Conversion
We have a lot of experience converting content from one format to another. If you have a lot of content in a different word processor format or a typesetting format and you would like to convert it to another format, we can probably automate the process for you.
If you would like to have your content published online after conversion, we can use pubStudio to convert it to an online format.
Testing
Once you have published your titles they need to be tested before you release them. The authoring and publishing process is pretty forgiving, but it is still possible to create content that doesn't display the way it should, or that is missing graphics or has bad links. We have spent a lot of time building and testing titles in this environment, and can usually quickly isolate and resolve problems.
We also have quite a bit of experience in the testing of software applications and Web sites.
Demo Production
pubStudio supports the use of videos in your content. These can be screen movies showing how a computer program works, or any combination of video, audio, animations, and graphics. There are a variety of programs available that make it fairly easy to capture and edit video and audio. One we particularly like is Camtasia Studio from TechSmith.
If you don't want to spend your time or money buying software and learning how to do this, you can spend your money on our time, and we will do it for you.
Web Sites
We design web sites to meet every business need, from uncomplicated pages to display text and photos to complex sites that involve the serious programming skills required to maintain and manipulate large databases.
Here are a few of the sites we've worked on. You might guess from the content matter that Gale, our head wrangler, has an interest in horses. The more complex sites are listed last. Unfortunately most of these are private, so you can't just wander around. If you would like to see some examples of our dymamic, data-driven sites, contact Steve (see About Us).
Freedom Farm
Freedom Farm is a multi-faceted working horse farm located in Port Angeles, Washington. They offer natural horsemanship lessons, horse training, boarding, a show series, clinics, camps and more.
Homeport Farm
A small horse breeding establishment, Homeport Farm stands the Thoroughbred stallion SmartSound. They are dedicated to producing quality sport horses and breeding Thoroughbreds for show.
Heart Bar X Quarter Horses and Welsh Pembroke Corgis
HeartBarX is a small husband-and-wife operation that raises athletic, all-around Quarter Horses and healthy, loving and playful corgis with excellent pedigrees.
Hosker Livestock and Horse Training
Mike and Deanie Hosker, owners of Hosker Livestock and Horse Training, train horses, conduct clinics throught the Pacific Northwest, and give group and private lessons on their ranch in Ellensburg, Washington.
Timepiece Arabians
Timepiece Arabians gives dressage, eventing and western riding lessons, with an emphasis on Natural Horsemanship. Since 1976 they have been introducing new riders to horses and helping experienced riders gain more skills.
Sound Horse Solutions
Sound Horse Solutions is devoted to using holistic methods of health care to prevent disease and lameness in horses. The site owner, Audrey Bryant, also provides a lot of information about natural hoof care. If you interested in the health of your horse this is a great resource.
Equus N Us
Equus N Us is a group of like-minded people of all ages interested in natural horsemanship. They meet once a month at Freedom Farm in Port Angeles, Washington to share ideas and play with and ride their horses. This site provides information about their activities and links to related information.
Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics
The Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics (VIMO) Clinic provides primary medical, mental health care, and referrals for dental care to adults who live, work or visit on the Olympic Peninsula and do not have access to health care. This site tells all about their services and history and explains how you can make a difference to a lot of people by volunteering to help. Maintaining this site is one of Gale's volunteer activities.
Foreclosure Solutions NW
To keep the Foreclosure Solutions web site up to date we wrote C#.NET applications that gather information from various government web sites, store it in a SQL database, and present it to researchers who add and update information constantly. Unfortunately you can't see much of this site without joining, but if you are interested in a site like this, let us know and we will arrange a tour.
Online Training Solutions
We spun off from Online Training Solutions, Inc., so it is kind of like the family home after the kids move on. This site is updated from a database and some related files by code that generates thousands of static html files and posts them with little human effort.
