Getting a handle on structured Frame (DITA)

[Heiko Haida]

Hi Theresa, 

although this will not help you at the moment: Structured authoring is
not like loading a new and maybe a little bit strange template from
somewhere and thats it. 

It is a completely different approach of thinking. 

There are tons of books about this and all of them say: Take your
time... First step: Define your structural needs. Them: Implement a
suitable DTD (or Schema) and adjust your tools and processes. 

The advice is to calculate at least one year for this, before the actual
work could start (you are already worried about a few days...). 

The main strength of structured writing is the reliability and the
flexibility (if everything is well done) - of course we are talking of
hundreds and thousands of documents. 

The main problem is: There are cases when the structure is either too
narrow or too loose, and most authors do not know how to adjust the DTD
but would sort of bend the material or misuse structural elements, thus
weakening the aforementioned strength. 

So, I definitely agree with Rick: You should start thinking about your
own DTD first and then compare this with DITA or any other made-up DTD. 

Best regards - Tino H. Haida 

Theresa de Valence: 

> On 8/13/2014 11:21 AM, Scott Prentice wrote:
> 
>> XML for sure, and personally I'd use DITA. DITA for 3 reasons .. 1) the implementation of DocBook support has problems, and that may cause you trouble down the line, 2) you'll likely find more options for DITA support in the techcomm space, and 3) I like DITA better than DocBook :)
> 
> OK, conceptually, I understand the value of dividing each part of the 
> document into a single-purpose element and that DITA might be better 
> than the mishmash of DocBook. However, when I look at the DITA 
> applications in structapps.fm, I cannot tell which application is used 
> for plain ordinary text (i.e. what consitutes <para>). How does one use 
> DITA for:
> --Book
> ----Chapter
> ------Section
> --------Body
> 
> Is this what the DITA map is?
> [And here I thought we were going to have geographical maps in the book 
> 8-) ]
> 
> Thanks,
> Theresa
> P.S. I have ordered XML AND FRAMEMAKER by Kay Ethier but it won't be 
> here for several days
> _______________________________________________
 
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