Thanks Yves, I'm well aware of DITA. So let's take a step forward. Let's presume I have all my content properly chunked. What then? Is it living on a file system? How do I work with it in FrameMaker, do I NEED FrameMaker? Do I pull content from a database? I'm not worried about the low-level technical details of XML, DITA and so on. I'm learning those, and will understand them better as time goes on.
When I first looked at DITA I suggested that one big stumbling block would be the lack of "ease-into-ability" that switching to that kind of system would imply. Any subsequent discussions along these lines veers between the business reasons of WHY you would want to go down the single source route, or heads off into techie-land discussing the details of how you get it done at an XML level. Surely we are missing a level in-between? Or, again, is it just me? Yes, I know why my current situation suggests single source is something we need to be embracing. Yes I know that DITA is the upcoming player in this space. Yes, we already have an EDD but the content is still stored in FM. Yes, I know I have some work converting things to use DITA as the basis of the structure. I guess what I'm asking for is an inbetween message that says something like: You should save all your files to XML, store them in a database (we suggest product XYZ), then use FrameMaker and...??? to build books and generate PDFs as you normally would. I've used AuthorIT in the past, and that level of re-use is simple and efficient, would I be better switching products?? Is there really not any FrameMaker based solution that can match it? Or does this information simply not yet exist? If not, then I'm curious as to how everyone is managing their content. Yours, still somewhat befuddled, Gordon _____ From: Yves Barbion [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 26 February 2007 13:40 To: Gordon McLean Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: How do you store your information? Hi Gordon, you want to take a look at DITA: - http://dita.xml.org/ - http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/index.html <http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/index.html> - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/framemaker_ap/ Best regards -- Yves Barbion Documentation Architect Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor ____________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ This email (and any attachments) is private and confidential, and is intended solely for the addressee. If you have received this communication in error please remove it and inform us via telephone or email. Although we take all possible steps to ensure mail and attachments are free from malicious content, malware and viruses, we cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any changes to content outwith our administrative bounds. The views represented within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the views of the organisation as a whole. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Graham Technology plc Registered in Scotland company no. SC143434 Registered Office India of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland PA4 9LH http://www.grahamtechnology.com ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
