The focus of content development professionals has, until recently, been on getting content into their content management systems, with a big interest in authoring tools and techniques. But equal emphasis was not given to getting content out of the content management system. The advantages are powerful, but the transition to an XSL publishing paradigm can be nerve-wracking for content producers accustomed to an environment where content formatting can be changed on a whim. As content developers learn to better navigate the content management landscape, they are paying more attention to the output side, and look to Antenna House as a beacon to guide them.

Given that the output is the client-facing content, a logical assumption might be that great content output needs to benefit from the various promises of content management in terms of accessibility, usability, and branded output. XSL (XML Stylesheet Language) turns bland XML content chunks into user-meaningful outputs through special transformations. For example, done well, XSL-FO transformations can turn a DITA-mapped content into PDFs, complete with headers, footers, TOC, and corporate branding. XSL can also transform content from one “flavor” of XML to another, allowing content portability between systems and databases.

At this stage of the content management journey, XSL tranformations are where DITA was to technical communicators a few years ago: mysterious, inaccessible, and a little frightening. Yet as some intrepid technical communicators hit the XSL highway and return unscatched, more and more follow in their footsteps. Antenna House, the leading provider of software for formatting XML document for electronic and print output, has provided a map of sorts, with a stylesheet tutorial plus sample files of formatting objects and sample stylesheets, available on the Antenna House site.