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Oh my .. I don't know how I left that out of my post. Yes .. DITA2Go
is an excellent choice for publishing from DITA. Especially since
you can now run it directly from the DITA-FMx menu in Frame (7.2 on
up)!<br>
<br>
Jeremy .. I may just quote you in the future. This is so true .. "OT
is the most expensive free software ever created" .. !<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
...scott<br>
<br>
<br>
On 5/18/12 11:02 AM, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:r42dr7povch4mjkbob6krj63ko1v6lmkk4@4ax.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Fri, 18 May 2012 10:01:28 -0700, Scott Prentice wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
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... ;-)
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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) ..
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
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.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
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.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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. :)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
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:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://dita2go.com">http://dita2go.com</a>
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.
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jeremy@omsys.com"><jeremy@omsys.com></a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mif2go.com/">http://mif2go.com/</a>
_______________________________________________
</pre>
</blockquote>
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