Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's New Corporate Strategies)

[Ed]

I'm coming from this formerly working in a department of 30 writers that
converted from unstructured Frame to structured using a content management
system. It was a full department effort because 'they' didn't want to hire
(pay) any consultants. Perhaps we went about it wrong, but it was what it
was. I recall at the time (2005-ish) we had to put all of these pieces
together for whatever reason. And I remember that the output was pretty
ugly.

I went to an XSL class and was completely lost. Maybe it's changed since
then, but XSL spooked me pretty well. I enjoy hacking XML and CSS, so maybe
I'll look at this incrementally.
-=Ed.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Quatro [mailto:rick at rickquatro.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 5:01 PM
> To: 'Ed'; 'FrameMaker Forum'
> Subject: RE: Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's New Corporate
Strategies)
> 
> Hi Ed,
> 
> I think you have too many experts in your list. Many of us learned the
steps
> as novices. For example,
> 
> >An expert to create an EDD and/or DTD.
> 
> You can learn to create an EDD by reading the FrameMaker documentation. If
> you are going to use DITA, FrameMaker comes with an EDD that you can learn
> to edit.
> 
> >An expert in XSL to create output.
> 
> If you are authoring in FrameMaker, you can continue to use FrameMaker for
> your print and PDF output. If that's all you need, then you don't need
XSL.
> If you are using WebWorks, etc. for help or HTML, you can continue to use
> that with your structured documents.
> 
> >An expert to map your current styles to elements.
> 
> Since you know your unstructured content, you are the expert that is going
> to do this. Granted, you will have to become familiar with the target
> structure, but that may be easier than the structure expert becoming
> familiar with your unstructured documents. You are going to have to learn
> the target structure anyway to author in it, so may as well learn by
> building the conversion table.
> 
> >An expert to help you update your content to shoe-horn into the new XML
> 'buckets'.
> 
> Again, that could be you, not an expert.
> 
> >An expert to train those who are going to be using the new tools.
> 
> For lone writers, that would be you.
> 
> My main point is that you can move to structure in a measured, incremental
> basis and learn as you go. Before you know it, you will be the "expert".
> 
> Rick Quatro
> Carmen Publishing Inc.
> 585-659-8267
> rick at frameexpert.com
> 
> *** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com
> 
> 
>