Easy DITA Authoring Tools: Introducing DITA To The .

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Easy DITAAuthoring Tools:Introducing DITAto the EnterpriseWhite PaperAuthored by JoAnn Hackos, Comtech Services, Inc. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISETable of ContentsTable of ContentsIntroduction.2Adobe—FrameMaker XML Author.3DITA Exchange.6FontoXML—DITA Authoring.9Jorsek—easyDITA Editor.12SDL—LiveContent Create.14SimplyXML—Content Mapper.17Stilo—AuthorBridge.19Sycro Soft—oXygen.21 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEIntroductionIntroductionAn effective content strategy rarely ends with the professional information development community.Content has always been developed throughout the enterprise but it rarely has been developed asa coherent strategy. A new set of tools promises to extend format-free, standards-based contentdevelopment beyond “tech pubs.” In this review article, I’ve reviewed the newest tool set intended tomake DITA authoring easy for both professional writers and casual contributors.Some of the tools are closely coupled with content repositories, specifically component contentmanagement systems, enabling enterprise content to be collected centrally. Other tools are designedto be used by contributors who are outside the central system but need to create content that can beeasily moved through the development and publishing workflow.Several of the tools are specifically focused on users who do not want to know anything aboutXML-based authoring or the DITA standard. They simply want to create content in the easiestways available while at the same time contributing to a central content strategy. Other tools bridgethe needs of both professional authors and occasional contributors by making it reasonably easy toconstrain the authoring environment so that casual contributors are not burdened by too much tolearn.Some of the tool set requires individual names licenses for every user while others have open licensesthat allow a designated number of users to be working at the same time.The variety of solutions, as you will see in this review, enables solutions that supports many needsand environments. Consequently, now is the time for you and your organization to broaden yourreach and support an integrated strategy for enterprise content development.Note: I want to thank the software developers who provided demonstrations and in-depthinformation about their systems for this article. They included Dustin Vaughn (Adobe), OleRom Anderson and Lene Dorman (DITA Exchange), Patrick Bosek (easyDITA), Jan Benedictus(FontoXML), Chip Gettinger (SDL), Les Burnham (Stilo), George Bina (Syncrosoft), and DougGorman (Simply XML). If there are others who wish to contribute to a later edition of this reviewarticle, they are welcome to contact me.The software products are discussed here in alphabetical order.2 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEAdobe—FrameMaker XML AuthorAdobe—FrameMaker XML AuthorWith FrameMaker 12, Adobe has developed a standalone, XML-focused editor with strong supportfor the DITA standard. XML Author is available as a separate choice in your FrameMaker program.Author features a quick element insertion tool bar that is context sensitive. The elements arehighlighted only when they may be inserted in the DITA topic. In fact, the tool bar can be extendedwith images and additional items of your choice.XML Author includes an author view and a WYSIWYG view of the content, as well as an underlyingXML view. Authors can publish through the DITA open toolkit to PDF, XHTML, HTML Help,and more, as well as through the FrameMaker publishing engine. They can even generate a QR codein their content.The author view includes instructions for the authors. The Quick Catalog provides a list of onlythose elements that can be selected at the cursor insertion point. The Quick Element toolbar hasgrayed out the elements that cannot be selected at the insertion point.The Smart Paste functions lets you insert an MSWord file that has used styles into XML Author andconvert it to DITA. Even unstructured content like Excel files can be converted. The interface evenprovides visible indicators of invalid content and suggests ways to correct invalid topics after theconversion. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com3

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEAdobe—FrameMaker XML AuthorBecause XML Author is a fully functioning DITA authoring environment, simplifying the authoringenvironment requires developing a set of constraints or a DITA specialization. By implementing aconstrained or specialized DTD, you get exactly the environment you want.In the Resource Manager, showing the DITA map, new topics can easily be inserted using the iconson map toolbar.4 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEAdobe—FrameMaker XML AuthorThe DITA map editor also gives you quick previews of the content in Document View. This way thecontributor can view a logical flow of the content with a basic rendering.You can also package all the files in a map into a zip file, and you can also exclude some files that youdo not want to include in the move.Included as a 30-day trial is Design Science’s Math Flow Editor. XML Author has both a design anda source view of the equation editor. Adobe also has full support for the Acrolinx content qualityeditor. Because FrameMaker support 3D graphics, you can add them to your DITA topics as long asyou publish through FrameMaker rather than the DITA Open Toolkit.A nice feature of the interface is a listing of all the files currently open. If you have problem findingthe right file to work on when you have too many open files in your editor, you can view a list of allthe files and easily switch.Pricing: The standalone XML Author is offered at 399 per license. Of course, it is also available as aproduct interface within FrameMaker. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com5

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEDITA ExchangeDITA ExchangeThe DITA Exchange editor is one of a handful of products on the market that provide a “Word-like”authoring interface for working with structured XML content. The functionality you’d expect froma fully DITA-compliant editor is present: full access to DITA markup, on-the-fly validation andcursor-aware schema enforcement, DITA-specific functionality like conrefs, ability to see tagged andnon-tagged views, etc.DITA Exchange differentiates itself by providing an interface that is only distinguishable in subtleways from the usual Word authoring experience that SMEs and some authors are accustomed to.There are abundant examples of this approach in the product, apart from the instantly recognizableribbons and menus that contain the familiar Word icons and lexicon. One example is the tablewizard, which uses native Word controls to generate valid DITA tables. Another prominent exampleis the commenting capability, which appears as it would in Word when the author is in fact insertinga DITA draft comment.The one notable exception to the aesthetic is the DITA map viewer, which is necessarily custom-builtand takes on the DITA Exchange UI rather than Word’s. Word, after all, is not built for modularinformation development. The viewer allows the end user to see an outline rendering of the map andpreview its referenced components individually.6 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.6The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEDITA Exchange 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com7

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEDITA ExchangeFrom this view, the user can also trigger a workflow notification or edit the topic in the DITAExchange editor. According to the DITA Exchange product team, the map viewer is the mostfrequently accessed UI by SMEs and serves as a popular entryway into topic creation, review, andrevision. Technically, the map viewer is not part of the DITA Exchange editor, rather it is part ofDITA Exchange’s larger offering, which leads to our next differentiator.While this review is meant to concentrate on the role of the content contributor and thus focuses onthe functionality and UI as it pertains to that role, it should be noted that the DITA Exchange editoris part of a more encompassing DITA Exchange content management solution. The DITA Exchangesolution is built as part of the SharePoint ecosystem, and any discussion of DITA Exchange editorcapabilities should be couched in implementation-specific terms, with the enterprise’s SharePointconfigurations and customizations as the backbone. For example, DITA Exchange editor provides aGUI for adding metadata to topics or maps. From the editor, an author can launch a “picker” thatshows the enterprise’s taxonomy and allows the author to choose and apply the correct metadatavalue from the list. This capability relies on integrating the DITA Exchange editor with theappropriate picker and taxonomy list stored in SharePoint.DITA Exchange leverages existing investments in Microsoft SharePoint and Word licenses andextends SharePoint to become a full DITA XML CCMS, fully integrated with the DITA OT, andavailable in Microsoft Office 365 (the cloud), on premise (installed on company servers), or inMicrosoft Azure (private cloud). The pricing structure is a based on a user-count-server-license and aclient side license. The DITA Exchange solution is also available in a SaaS environment on a peruser-per-month basis.8 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEFontoXMLFontoXML—DITA AuthoringFontoXML is still in the process of developing their XML authoring environment to support theDITA standard fully. The intended user is the technical expert or other large groups of users alreadyfamiliar with MSWord. They have identified groups from approximately 50 users up to 2,000 to3,000 legal experts who are contributing content and can usefully contribute that content in DITA.The intent is for the product to support the full DITA specification and allow the informationarchitect to select the functions needed. The expected release is in October 2014.To develop true user friendliness requires customization of the user interface, which means thatthe cost of customization should be amortized across large user groups. The result should be “semistructured” content that diminishes conversion costs and reduces manual steps. Such content isgenerally more extensive than can be handled with a simple form-based input.FontoXML does not require a connection to a CMS to support authoring. The editor automaticallyis linked to an XML schema. However, the editor can be linked to any web-based CMS such asGoogle Drive, Alfresco, Mark Logic, and SharePoint. A connection is required to start a new topicand to save. During editing, all schema-validation is done on the local machine.Author assistance is provided in FontoXML for many basic functions. For example, adding an imageinvokes a dialog box that prompts the author to enter a title, description, and alternative text, asrequired by the information architect. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com9

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEFontoXMLAdding a conref is handled similarly. The concept is to provide assistance in the interface withoutexposing XML functionality. For example, properties are entered using the interface.The map manager allows users to suggest changes to the structure but not implement thosechanges, unless an organization explicitly wishes to place that responsibility with the subject matterexpert. The implementation is handled by an information architect who understands the overallrequirements. However, the map manager does show the changing TOC as items are moved around.FontoXML supports change tracking using process instructions that can be easily stripped from thefiles if necessary. The “adaptive design” concept behind the FontoXML user interface helps the casualcontributor to work effectively. In fact, the developers have incorporated an analytics tool so thatthey can measure what the authors are doing and make modifications to the user interface as theylearn more.10 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEFontoXMLPricing: FontoXML gives a choice of perpetual licenses or annual subscriptions. Perpetual licensesfor the DITA edition of FontoXML are 749 for a named user and 2,499 for a floating license. Forperpetual licenses, a 20% maintenance and service fee applies.The alternative subscription license is 339 per year for each named user or 1,029 per year for afloating concurrent-use license. In these subscription-licenses, maintenance and a service fee areincluded. Customization, training, and implementation depends on the number of hours needed. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com11

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEJorsekJorsek—easyDITA EditorThe easyDITA editor is an integral part of the easyDITA component content managementsystem. It is built to look and feel like MSWord, incorporating many of the basic MSWordfunction types like Control Shift I for insert and Control Shift D for delete. The editor isintended for contributors who develop content as a significant part of their roles but are nottechnical publication professionals.The easyDITA editor incorporates DITA functionality like content references (conref ) andkey reference (keyref ), making it easy to reuse content and incorporate product- or audiencespecific content into a base file. easyDITA also supports the DITA Learning and Trainingspecialization. The developers are working to make more aspects of the DITA functionalitymore intuitive for casual users.Basic drag-and-drop functions support the map editor. Progressive content loading enablesyou to load large maps, even maps that include thousands of topics, in just a few seconds.The easyDITA review allows casual contributors to highlight and add comments to topics.12 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISEJorsek—easyDITA EditorCustomizing the interface is easy, requiring little more than editing the presentation of the topic.Rendering topics using XSLT allows information architects to create a very rich interface for casualauthors. You can also create macros that use toolbar buttons to add a sequence of elements. Forexample, a single button can enable two code phrases, one for English values and the other formetric. The skill set to create the customizations for the casual authors includes DITA, XSLT, WebCSS, and some Java Script.Jorsek is developing a new framework for its easyDITA map editor that will be extended to theauthoring environment. The topic editor is being moved to the Google Web toolkit and will havecross-browser functionality in 2015.Pricing: The easyDITA editor is included with the purchase of the component CMS. A typical cost is 100/month/user or 2,500/month for unlimited users. The cost for a dedicated CMS server for anorganization runs roughly 4,000/month. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com13

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISESDL—LiveContent CreateSDL—LiveContent CreateLiveContent Create is targeted to customers who are interested in creating an easy authoringand editing environment. These include subject-matter experts and casual contributors whowant only to author and store content in the repository as revisions. The content they editmoves to the technical communication professional to be incorporated into final deliverables.LiveContent Create works with the LiveContent Architect component content managementsystem. It is also available as a standalone product, XOPUS, with optional integrations withSharePoint and engineering code repositories thought SDL partners.The Map interface allows contributors to navigate to a topic and check out the topic to theirbrowser. Search is also available. The collaboration platform supports the DITA 1.2 standard,using constraints and Java Script to remove elements that the contributors will not need. Theinformation architect can add instructional text to the templates and configure the tool tipsfor the toolbar. The architect can also create macros that set up a series of elements.LiveContent Create supports a review platform for casual contributors who can subscribeto the stream of comments and add their own comments, as well as add new or changedcontent. Topics with comments can be posted to a social network.14 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISESDL—LiveContent CreateThe professional authors can accept, decline, or comment on the suggested changes. The product canbe used on mobile device for review and comment.The Quality Assistant adds integration with the Acrolinx quality language system. Users cansubscribe to Acrolinx at a special price. They can also check content against translation memory. 2014 Comtech Services, Inc.The Center for Information-Development Management710 Kipling Street Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 303/232-7586 www.infomanagementcenter.com15

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTERPRISESDL—LiveContent CreateUsers can go to the repository to browse for image

According to the DITA Exchange product team, the map viewer is the most frequently accessed UI by SMEs and serves as a popular entryway into topic creation, review, and revision. Technically, the map viewer is not part of the DITA Exchange editor, rather it is part of DITA Exchange’s l

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