Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10

[Scott Prentice]

Ah .. the OT plugin. Yes .. that's a "connector" plugin that allows you 
to process your DITA content through the DITA Open Toolkit. Adobe 
provided that for FM9, but hasn't made one for FM10 (they want you to 
use RoboHelp instead). The FM9 version should work for FM10 (although it 
was a bit tricky to set up).

I don't think that it's available any more, and I have a feeling that 
you're not supposed to "redistribute" it without Adobe's permission 
(can't say for sure though).

This is functionality that's built in to DITA-FMx, and I've considered 
making it into a separate plugin for non-DITA-FMx users (although I'd 
prefer that you use DITA-FMx  :)

To step back a bit .. the DITA-OT is a library of XSLT and Java code 
that lets you create may types of output (HTML, CHM, Eclipse Help, Java 
Help, PDF, etc.). Yes, it's free and can be used to create all sorts of 
output from DITA, but it can be a fair amount of work to set up and make 
things look the way you want. If you're using Frame for authoring DITA, 
there's really no reason to use the OT for creating PDFs (it's way more 
work and the results are far from stellar) .. however, it can be a good 
option for online output *if* you're willing to do the coding to make 
things work the way you want. It is likely to be easier to use RoboHelp 
(or Flare) to create the online output, but then you're paying for a 
proprietary tool. You decide where you want to spend the money.  :)

Cheers,

...scott


On 5/18/12 9:48 AM, Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net) wrote:
> Hmmm ... I may have been quite unclear in my question, since I am a DITA novice!
>
> The reason I asked is that the Adobe web site has a "FrameMaker 9 Plug-in for DITA Open Toolkit" here:
>
> http://www.adobe.com/devnet/framemaker/fm9_opentoolkit.html
>
> But I don't see an equivalent for FM 10 ... at least, not that I could find!
>
> What does the FM 9 plug-in for DITA do ? I.e., what is different in FM 10 that it does not need a similar "Plug-in"?
>
> BTW, thanks for helping this complete DITA novice here! I learn so much from this list all the time ... :)
>
> Z
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Writer [mailto:generic668 at yahoo.ca]
> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 9:05 AM
> To: Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net); Scott Prentice; framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10
>
> It's built into FM 10 as it was built in to FM 9. You have to switch to the structured interface to see it (File>  Preferences>  General). I don't have very much experience with FM 10, but if you want to use DITA 1.2, the underlying templates and EDDs are different than FM 9. Someone more knowledgeable than I am about FM 10 might have more to say about that.
>
> Nadine
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net)"
>> <Syed.Hosain at aeris.net>
>> To: Writer<generic668 at yahoo.ca>; Scott Prentice
>> <sp10 at leximation.com>; "framers at lists.frameusers.com"
>> <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
>> Cc:
>> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 11:45:29 AM
>> Subject: RE: Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in
>> FrameMaker 10
>>
>> Hi, Nadine, Scott, et. al.
>>
>> A question for users of FrameMaker 10 ... is the DITA support built-in
>> to this version, or is there a separate plug-in for it (like was
>> released by Adobe for FrameMaker 9)?
>>
>> If it is a plug-in still, does anyone have a link for it? I searched
>> the Adobe web site and did not find it ... may not have looked carefully enough.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Z
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
>> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Writer
>> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 6:04 PM
>> To: Scott Prentice; framers at lists.frameusers.com
>> Subject: Re: Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in
>> FrameMaker 10
>>
>>
>>
>>> The problem is that "creating a DITA project" in FrameMaker is
>>        really no different than doing that in any other XML authoring
>>        tool. You do need to understand the structured FrameMaker UI,
>> but
>>        DITA is DITA regardless of the tool.
>>
>>
>> Agreed. What might be particular to FM is how to create output such as
>> PDFs, the topic templates, and the EDD (and perhaps some of its quirks
>> with how it handles attribute filtering).
>>
>>
>> I recommend this book for becoming familiar with DITA:
>> http://comtech-serv.com//index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_3&p
>> roducts_id=10
>>
>> Nadine
>>
>
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