Flare vs DITA

[grant at hedgewizard.net]

My apologies for the format; I seem to be thinking in bullets this morning.
 
* Flare is a tool; DITA is a standard (or collection of standards).
* You can use Flare to produce DITA
(http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare11/Content/DITA/About_DITA.htm)
* There are multiple other tools that can produce DITA output (which is
basically a subset of XML).
* You can do topic-based writing for other formats. (I did that for WinHelp and
WebHelp for years.)
* As Shmuel notes, the big step with DITA is that it has a focus on typed
content, which can allow you to do additional things with the content more
easily.
 
Grant 

> On April 13, 2015 at 8:37 AM Writer <generic668 at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> 
>  Gillian asked:
>   
>  "How does Flare compare to DITA? It seems like you get all of the advantages
> of topic-baesd authoring, without having to have someone write scripts for
> you. Has anyone tried modifying their templates? How easy or difficult is
> that. How is their help file making product?"
> 
>  IMHO, topic-based authoring is writing content in small chunks or modules. To
> quote Wikipedia:
>   
>  " A topic is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject,
> has an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone (does not need to be
> presented in context for the end-user to make sense of the content). Topics
> are also  reusable <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuse> . They can, when
> constructed properly (without reliance on other content for its meaning), be
> reused in any context anywhere needed."
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-based_authoring)
>   
>  It does not imply that the content is typed (specialized).
>   
>  DITA is content that is marked up semantically. Although you can create
> content in DITA that is topic-based, you don't have to.
>   
>  So the difference at the content level between Flare and DITA is that content
> written in Flare is unstructured and not marked up semantically, and DITA is
> structured and marked up semantically.
>   
>  Which approach is more advantageous is going to depend on what you need
> overall now and in the future.
>   
>  Nadine
> 
>  ---------------------------------------------
>  From: Shmuel <shmuelw1 at gmail.com>
>  To: Gillian Flato <gill6034 at comcast.net>; framers at lists.frameusers.com
>  Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 5:35 AM
>  Subject: Re: Flare vs DITA
> 
>  If you are interest in switching to topic-based authoring, and you are
>  using Frame already, it might be easier to stick with Frame and switch
>  to Structured Frame, which I believe is also topic-based authoring.
>  (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)
> 
>  --
>  Shmuel Wolfson
>  Technical Writer
>  052-763-7133
> 
> 
>  On 12-Apr-15 10:52 PM, Gillian Flato wrote:
>  > How does Flare compare to DITA? It seems like you get all of the advantages
>  > of topic-baesd authoring, without having to have someone write scripts for
>  > you. Has anyone tried modifying their templates? How easy or difficult is
>  > that. How is their help file making product?
>  >
>  > Thanks
>  > Gillian
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