Re: [dita-adoption] Interesting email chain on the STC single SourceSIG

Doesn't a license of Framemaker cost nearly $1000?

Perhaps it is a question of setting the right expectation about the
capabilities of the DITA OT. The DITA OT literature gives the
impression that multiple output formats can be generated out of the
box. There is no mention of the level of effort required to generate
custom branded HTML output or print quality PDF output.

The first look at the generated PDF output can be be really jarring!

I feel like we should focus on documenting the following:

For each output format:

- what does DITA OT produce out of the box

- what are the customization options

- what are the technical details to implement a customization

- what is the level of effort and cost associated with customization

- are there commercial DITA OT plugins that can be purchased to
accomplish customization, instead of hiring a consultant each time

Perhaps the DITA OT needs a model like Red Hat Linux or MySQL, where
the open source / free version is always available, but customers have
to pay a nominal price for extras. For small-mid size companies, that
may be a more palatable option than paying thousands of dollars for a
proprietary  product  or extensive consulting work.

My 2 cents.

Thanks

Sowmya

Briana Wherry wrote:

  
  
  

  

  
 

  
Saw an interesting email chain this morning on
the STC
Single Source SIG. An individual is looking for guidance. It sounds
like she
knows that DITA is the right thing to do, but then it seems doesn’t
really understand how to achieve it with tools. I was most interested
in one of
the replies which did a succinct job of pointing out exactly how
convoluted it
is to achieve the few simple scenarios she wants (html and pdf) and
also
potentially quite costly. 

  
 

  
I  believe this is one of the most common
scenarios we
will find for the tech author audience and the answer that Scott gave
is good.
It does highlight, however, that this is not a simple thing to achieve
by any
stretch. 

  
 I believe where we can make the biggest
impression is
to put a more positive swing on this kind of answer, and as we
discussed last
week, providing some sort of checklist against which to evaluate tools
as well
as identifying what tools are out there. (preaching to the choir, I
know)

  
 

  
I have added the email text for reference. (I am
assuming
this is OK, as long as we don’t distribute further)

  
 

  
Cheers, Briana

  

  
 

  

  
 

  
Hi Vickie...

  
 

  
If you're to be authoring content in DITA
you'll need an
editor that supports DITA. Some popular options are .. Oxygen,
FrameMaker (with
DITA-FMx), XMetaL, Arbortext, XXE (and others .. 

  
http://www.ditanews.com/tools/desktop_editors/).
One of the nice things about DITA is that you don't really need to
decide on a
single authoring tool .. as long as it round-trips valid DITA it won't
matter.
You can have people using XMetaL and others using FrameMaker, and all
of the
files will integrate nicely with your publishing process. As far as I
know
Author-IT will export DITA, but I wouldn't consider it a DITA authoring
tool
because it can't open DITA files (without a complicated import process).

  
 

  
You can generate online output through the
DITA Open
Toolkit, and after a bit of tweaking and effort, you'll probably have
something
that works reasonably well. If you want something a bit more WYSIWYG
for
building your HTML-based output, you might consider RoboHelp (which now
imports
DITA files, but is not a DITA authoring tool) or Quadralay's
ePublisher. 

  
Flare is poised to have DITA support, but as
far as I
know it's not there yet.

  
 

  
For PDF output, you can use the Open Toolkit,
but in
order to get anything reasonably useful will require hiring an FO
developer and
probably spending a substantial amount of time and money. FrameMaker
gives you
nice looking PDF output right out of the box, and modifying a FM
template is
infinitely easier than FO development. Even if you don't use FM as your
DITA
authoring tool, you might consider using it for PDF output.

  
 

  
Cheers,

  
 

  
...scott

  
 

  
Scott Prentice

  
Leximation, Inc.

  
www.leximation.com

  
 

  
 

  
Vickie Hearne wrote:

  
> Hello all:

  
> 

  
> I'm working with a software company to
help them
migrate their unstructured content from their wiki into a more
structured
(dita) format.  

  
> 

  
> We need electronic output (a help system
or another
nested, layered structure that can be delivered via the web), and the
occasional .pdf manuals for training, etc. While not graphic intensive
(screen
shots mostly), we would like to include a video with the task component.

  
> 

  
> I'm reluctant to take them down the Robo
path. Even
though I have a lot of experience with the product, potentially, there
could be
multiple contributors, and, Robo is not the most intuitive for the
occasional
author.  I also would the the single-source tool to be leveraged for
other
non-product content, like RFP response, contract prep, sows, etc.

  
> 

  
> Any insight suggestions (and warnings!)
would be
greatly appreciated.

  
> 

  
> Thanks,

  
> 

  
> -v

  
> 

  
> PS:  I've used Author-IT in the past,
and am
comfortable with the ease of the UI. Anyone working with the 5.0
version? 
Thanks again.