Single source strategies / Document conversion?

[Michael Kesper]

Hi all,

I hope someone of you has got experience with this subject:
A department wants to unify its documentations. What's existing are 500+ 
MS Word documents written in a unified template.
What they search: a way to generate different documents from single 
sources (user, teacher, support, in-line help for programs) and a 
"database" that enables access via search, index and keywords.
Sounds very much like a jack of all trades to me, but maybe some of you 
know a feasible approach?

Best wishes
Michael