Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10

[Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain@aeris.net)]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Scott!

Right now, DITA is a curiosity for me and I want to learn more about it. I.e., I don't have any specific need to create documents/output using DITA for our company.

So, buying DITA-FMx does not make sense for me, since I would not be able to justify expensing it - sorry about that! Of course, I use and love _another_ one of your products: BookVars - this is a key tool for me when using FrameMaker. :)

Z

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From: Scott Prentice [mailto:sp10 at leximation.com]
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 10:01 AM
To: Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net)
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10

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<mailto: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
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