greenfield and new structure

[Writer]

>T hanks Nadine!

> Yes, the existing product documentation was authored in oxygen in India. I 
> don't have good access to those resources, but I have the DITA files. I have 
> to make them look presentable, and then improve the quality of the writing, fill 
> in gaps, etc. 
> So I have no legacy FM content, only DITA content. I want to use FM's 
> publishing capabilities. I am well familiar with unstructured FM10, but 
> unfamiliar with structured FM11. 
> john


I'm pretty sure what I'm about to say is accurate. Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

You should be able to open those files in FM (make sure you're in structure mode). You can edit the EDD files and template files to look as close to your print documentation as you can so that when you generate FM books/files, the formatting is almost exactly as you need it.

Have you tried just opening the DITA files in FM? If so, did you encounter any problems? 

When I used FM9, I only edited EDD and template files a little bit. I relied on my processors to format output completely. In the case of production PDFs, that meant generating FM books/files, and then applying an FM template to the generate files. Part of the reason for doing it this way was so we could use the generated FM files in different ways (branded/custom documentation, quick guides as opposed to full books, etc). BTW, we used WebWorks ePublisher to create draft PDFs and online help systems. ePublisher ingests ditamaps directly; you don't have to create FM files first.

Nadine