Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10

[Writer]

Ah, the DITA Open Toolkit (or DITA OT) is a separate beast. It's a free, open source program that allows you to create output from your DITA content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA_Open_Toolkit).

Determine what output you need to create. If you need to create PDFs only, you might want to do that through FM. You'll have the most control over the formatting of your PDFs, but it can take a fair amount of time to generate them. Here's an article that you might want to read (although it's a bit old): http://www.scriptorium.com/whitepapers/dita2pdf/index.html

Personally, I am too intimidated to use the DITA OT because I don't think I am smart enough. If you need to create other outputs, I find that WebWorks ePublisher handles DITA very nicely. You can even create PDFs with their PDF XSL FO output, but it's got a steep learning curve and certain limitations. If you want to contact me offline, I'd be happy to discuss my experience with ePublisher with you.

You can use other tools, too, but I don't have experience with them so I can't really tell you anything about them.

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 12:48:35 PM
> Subject: RE: Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10
> 
> 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
>> 
>