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A Brighter Shade of TEAL

Adobe Technical Communication Suite - Integration

Agile Documentation Development

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APIs and SDKs

Authoring and Publishing with XMetaL and DITA

Blogzilla: Why Blogs Are The Monster In The Business Closet

Building your Author-it Project

Challenges of Creating Documentation for Mobile Devices

Choosing the English That’s Right for You

Comparing DITA Support in XMetaL and FrameMaker

Content Convergence

Content Feedback Methods

Creating Quality Content with Open Source Tools

Creating Visual Training Using MadCap Mimic

Do You See What I See?

Document Testing

Four Features That Matter When Choosing a HAT

Games to Explain Human Factors

Getting Up-to-Speed on Eclipse User Assistance

Lean Instructional Design for Today’s Competitive Environment

Leveraging the DITA Community

Localization Makes Strange Bedfellows

MadCap Flare - An Introduction to Topic Based Authoring

MadCap Flare - Content Control and Publishing Techniques

MadCap Flare - Controlling Document Look and Feel with CSS

Modular Content Projects

Navigating the Vendor Maze

Paths to Success

Practical Uses for DITA

Principles of Web Operations Management

Producing Quality Documentation In An Agile Development Environment

Proving DITA Success in a Small Shop Environment

Quaility Documentation Through Collaboration

Reaching Untapped Markets in the US

Reuse and Conditionality in Author-it (Full Day)

Should You Call It A Wiki, Or A Collaborative Work Space?

Social Media in Organizational Communication

Sustainable XML for Publishing Applications

The Next Generation Home Digital Experience

The Right Tool for the Right Job for the Right Output for the Right Audience

The Shape of Information

Theory of Constraints and Project Management

Understanding Author-it Concepts

Using Adobe FrameMaker

[Case Study] EMC

[Case Study] How Suite It Is

Session Details

Comparing DITA Support in XMetaL and FrameMaker

Speaker: Simon Bate
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   Date: October 30
Track: Modular Content
Experience level: All levels

When your organization transitions from “traditional” publication methodologies to XML and DITA, it’s a good time to consider the tool that your authors use to create content. There are two competing schools of thought on XML authoring: use a more familiar WYSIWYG tool (such as Adobe FrameMaker) or use a newer tool that is much closer to XML (such as XMetaL from Just Systems). Both FrameMaker and XMetaL provide some level of integration with DITA, which makes them both viable candidates. This presentation uses live demonstrations to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of both FrameMaker and XMetaL when working with DITA.  The presentation shows the highlights of both tools, the authoring experience, generating output, conditional processing, working with conrefs, map files, and specialization. The presentation concludes with a series of guidelines to help you assess your situation and which tool might be best for you.