Re: Using CMS with DITA/FM8

[Yves Barbion <yves -dot- barbion -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Hi Joe

If you already have FM8, try DITA-FMx, developed by Leximation:

<http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/>

Easy to use out of the box:

   1. Put your reusable content in one or more DITA XML topics which you
   save on a central location on your file server. I call these files my
   "conref library".
   2. Include these reusable content items ("elements") in your manuals by
   inserting "conrefs" (content references).
   3. Update the content in your conref library to your heart's content. It
   will automatically be updated in all the DITA XML topics which have a
   reference to this library. Before you change something, you can even check
   where a specific element is used.

Small budget: $185 for a single license. For this price, you even get
advanced (sometimes CMS-like) features, such as:

   - Build a ditamap from an outline
   - Generate a report of all the references you have used in your topics
   - Create a ZIP archive of your ditamap, including all referenced graphics
   and conrefs
   - Use a Ditaval Manager to manage your "conditional publishing"
   - Search for any text, element or attribute name or value in a ditamap or
   folder
   - Select any element and generate a list of where it's been used
   - Automatically assign a dpi attribute to your imported graphics
   - Use very advanced indexing features
   - And much much more

With DITA-FMx, you can also use FM's powerful pagination features to
generate professional-quality PDFs (using your corporate house style) and
the free DITA Open Toolkit for HTML-based output. You can, of course, also
use the Open Toolkit to generate your PDFs, but then I'd advise you to ask
around how much it would cost to have XSL-FO stylesheets developed for your
corporate house style.

If you need help or training, feel free to contact me off-list. The fastest
way to get you up and running (within a week) is as follows:

   1. You send me a small sample of your manuals which share content.
   2. I set up a small prototype with conrefs.
   3. I teach you how to author, publish and reuse the content with FM8 and
   DITA-FMx.


Kind regards


-- 
Yves Barbion â Managing Director â Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
www.scripto.nu  â skype: yves.barbion  â T: +32 494 12 01 89
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat