I'm coming from this formerly working in a department of 30 writers that converted from unstructured Frame to structured using a content management system. It was a full department effort because 'they' didn't want to hire (pay) any consultants. Perhaps we went about it wrong, but it was what it was. I recall at the time (2005-ish) we had to put all of these pieces together for whatever reason. And I remember that the output was pretty ugly.
I went to an XSL class and was completely lost. Maybe it's changed since then, but XSL spooked me pretty well. I enjoy hacking XML and CSS, so maybe I'll look at this incrementally. -=Ed. > -----Original Message----- > From: Rick Quatro [mailto:rick at rickquatro.com] > Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 5:01 PM > To: 'Ed'; 'FrameMaker Forum' > Subject: RE: Structuring documents (was RE: Adobe's New Corporate Strategies) > > Hi Ed, > > I think you have too many experts in your list. Many of us learned the steps > as novices. For example, > > >An expert to create an EDD and/or DTD. > > You can learn to create an EDD by reading the FrameMaker documentation. If > you are going to use DITA, FrameMaker comes with an EDD that you can learn > to edit. > > >An expert in XSL to create output. > > If you are authoring in FrameMaker, you can continue to use FrameMaker for > your print and PDF output. If that's all you need, then you don't need XSL. > If you are using WebWorks, etc. for help or HTML, you can continue to use > that with your structured documents. > > >An expert to map your current styles to elements. > > Since you know your unstructured content, you are the expert that is going > to do this. Granted, you will have to become familiar with the target > structure, but that may be easier than the structure expert becoming > familiar with your unstructured documents. You are going to have to learn > the target structure anyway to author in it, so may as well learn by > building the conversion table. > > >An expert to help you update your content to shoe-horn into the new XML > 'buckets'. > > Again, that could be you, not an expert. > > >An expert to train those who are going to be using the new tools. > > For lone writers, that would be you. > > My main point is that you can move to structure in a measured, incremental > basis and learn as you go. Before you know it, you will be the "expert". > > Rick Quatro > Carmen Publishing Inc. > 585-659-8267 > rick at frameexpert.com > > *** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com > > >
