Resources to help a newbie create DITA documents in FrameMaker 10

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Fri, 18 May 2012 10:01:28 -0700, Scott Prentice <sp10 at leximation.com> wrote:

>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. 

To say the least.  You need to become an XSLT programmer
to use it for anything of commercial quality.  And while
it has a facility for adding your changes via plugins
so that they survive version changes (which are frequent),
there are still many reports of breakage from one rev to
the next.  IMHO, the OT is the most expensive free software
ever created...  ;-)

>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) .. 

Yes.  Definitely use Frame for PDFs.  In fact, even if
you are not using Frame to author, using it with DITA-FMx 
for making PDFs is a better idea than using the OT.

>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. 

Not just "willing", also capable.  XSLT is a programming
language, not a "scripting" language.  It makes shell
scripts, and even perl <g>, look easy...  If you want
to get the flavor of it, get Michael Kay's book,
ISBN 9781861005069, Wrox, $34.99 US, 972 pp., or a
more recent edition of it (mine is 2001, before XSLT2).
To attempt PDF, you also need Dave Pawson'r O'Reilly 
book on XSL-FO, another language of its own.

>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.  :)

Or, use DITA2Go, which is Mif2Go with a DITA front end,
and which is *free* for everyone.  DITA2Go produces all
the outputs Mif2Go does, including Word RTF, from your
ditamaps and bookmaps, and supports almost all DITA 1.2
features including keyrefs.  To get it, sign up on:
  http://dita2go.com

If "free" isn't important, WebWorks lets you include
DITA, Frame, and Word sources in the very same project,
the only tool I know of that does that with real single-
sourcing (like *2Go), not just import.

HTH!

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  <jeremy at omsys.com>    http://mif2go.com/