Hi C2...
That's a big question. Not one that can be answered properly via email.
First .. read up on basic DITA concepts. Don't focus on what you want to
do with it and how you can change it. Learn the fundamentals of DITA and
structured authoring in FrameMaker. Here are a couple places to start
(other people will likely have other ideas too) ..
- http://www.publishingsmarter.com/resources/books-and-articles
- https://www.scriptorium.com/learning-dita/
Also .. you may want to get on the framemaker-dita (Yahoo) maillist, you
may get more help there.
When reading about DITA concepts, don't worry about finding information
about FrameMaker and DITA .. the concepts apply equally to all editors.
Once you learn the basics of the topic and map models, you can focus on
how you work with those models in FrameMaker. Similarly, you can learn
about structured authoring in FrameMaker without focusing on DITA. DITA
is just one model that you can use in FrameMaker, the basics of
structured authoring in FrameMaker are the same regardless of the model.
There are FM/DITA specific issues, but once you need to worry about that
you'll be further down the path.
Once you've learned a bit about DITA and start to feel comfortable
creating basic topics and maps, you may want to consider trying to
modify the elements and model .. try to avoid that as long as possible.
Just work with what's there .. really. You'll be better off.
In order to modify the model you should create your own structure
application then modify that. Don't modify the default structure
applications in FrameMaker. You *will* break things (everyone does), and
if you don't have the default apps available to use, you'll be in trouble.
Take this slow, and you'll find that DITA can be very powerful .. just
don't try to rush things.
Cheers,
...scott
On 6/27/18 11:04 AM, cuc tu wrote:
Hello Frame-users,
I’m not familiar with structuring authoring, so hoping to get some guidance on
creating DITA reference topics of programming commands. I'm spending a lot of
time searching for help and not getting very far for the time I'me spending.
First, I wonder if there are good samples to review of something similar.
Next, I’m unsure of what would be an appropriate high level element structure.
My main question is how should all the content blocks be structured and under
what elements? From my perspective, is the whole chapter wrapped inside a
reference element, with more nested reference elements for each main command
grouping, and then each command yet another nested reference element? I know
Frame limits the valid elements, but there are so many choices.
Our manuals have a common unstructured layout, similar to the default FM
document. The programming chapter of commands simply has a title, H1, text
description and a bullet list of links to all H1 sections. Each H1 section
describe its group of commands, then we use the command syntax as a heading
followed by a series of heading run-ins for each relevant program item that
needs to be described. For example:
Chapter title
H1 Intro
Body description
links
Calculate Subsystem
Text description of this system. May include bullet lists, tables, etc.
:CALCulate:POWer:LIMit <numeric_value> {DBM}
:CALCulate:POWer:LIMit?
Title: Power Limit
Description: Sets and queries the amplitude power limit.
Parameters: <numeric_value> {DBM}
Query Return: Numeric (dBm)
Default Value: 10 dBm
Default Unit: dBm
Range: -200 dBm to 200 dBm
There will be many subsystems and thousands of commands. They each have various
items to describe, not all exactly the same set.
I’m looking at a DITA 1.2 reference topic under the software domain, since I found the cmdname
element. Where are the DTD and EDD and other support files for this topic type? I searched the program
files for all .DTD and none of them have that element name (they didn’t have anything I expected).
Also, the saved XML file specifies: <!DOCTYPE reference PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA
Reference//EN" "technicalContent/dtd/reference.dtd" []
I want to modify the structure to remove most of the elements since we won’t
use them (I’m sure the help will describe that).
Why is only the simpletable element available? Is that an FM12 limitation or
restricted by the topic type?
Thanks C2
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