ANN: FrameMaker and DITA2Go

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

Many Framers are either considering migration to
DITA, or have already migrated (often using 
Mif2Go to do so).  At that point, there are two 
ways to proceed:

1. Continue using Frame as your editor, and as
a way of producing good PDFs.  Most people in 
this group use DITA-FMx, far superior to native
Frame DITA support, and also inexpensive:
  http://www.leximation.com/dita-fmx/

2. Use an XML editor like oXygen (my favorite):
  http://www.oxygenxml.com/
Or Syntext Serna (which has a free edition), 
XMetaL, Arbortext Epic, or XML Mind (free).

In either case, the tool with which most DITA 
users produce outputs like HTML and Help is
the free DITA-OT.  However, the OT, while good
for a POC, is not quite up to commercial needs.
So we've developed a new tool for this, based
on our popular Mif2Go product, called DITA2Go.

DITA2Go is a Windows application that converts
DITA source (ditamaps and bookmaps) to all the
following output types (which Mif2Go supports):
* HTML and XHTML
* Word RTF
* WinHelp
* HTML Help
* JavaHelp and Oracle Help for Java
* Eclipse Help
* Cross-platform FOSS OmniHelp
* DocBook
* Generic XML
* DITA (to produce specialized topic types)

PDF output is still in development.

The DITA2Go Project Manager GUI creates
and runs conversion projects.  You can edit
simple configuration files to customize every
aspect of output.  A Configuration Manager
GUI is in development.

DITA2Go produces the equivalent of 200 to 500
print pages per minute, enabling a quick
workflow of run, check, edit, rerun.

A DITA2Go license costs $US 295 per seat, with
quantity discounts starting at 5 copies.  This
includes support and all upgrades for the first
year, renewable at $US 75/year.

DITA2Go is available free to the unemployed,
underemployed consultants, academics (students,
faculty, and staff), and all FOSS developers.

Current Mif2Go licensees can purchase DITA2Go
and renewals for it at 50% off.  Alternatively,
if they migrated to DITA and no longer need
Mif2Go at all, they can migrate to DITA2Go at
no charge.

For more information, you can register at:
   http://www.dita2go.com
where you will find downloads (including a free
demo version), support forums, and a 700+ page
User's Guide in many formats.

Note: We wish we didn't have to require you to
register, but the spammers found the site within
days of its creation, and several of them try
to sign up daily.  When one slips through, bad
things appear in the forums.  They now use real
humans, not robots, to get in, so we ask for a
short statement about why you are interested;
so far, that has sorted them out nicely.  ;-)

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  <jeremy at omsys.com>  http://www.omsys.com/