WHAT: Implementing Structured Authoring – a Two-Day DITA/XML Intensive
WHERE: San Francisco Bay Area, East Bay (specifics TBA soon)
WHEN: TBA (October or November, 2007)
HOW MUCH: $695.00, payable in advance

This seminar focuses on the process of migrating unstructured FrameMaker files to structured XML — the "how" rather than the "why" of DITA. The trainer has done several real-world DITA implementations for Silicon Valley companies and provides ongoing support to his clients.


Standards-based XML, and in particular DITA (the Darwin Information Typing Architecture), is the solution to the technical communicator's age-old challenge of how to do more with less. Now it is possible to re-use your content, manage it centrally, make it tool-neutral, tune it for specific audiences, more efficiently support translation and localization, and distribute it simultaneously in multiple formats — all while reducing costs.

By implementing structured authoring with DITA, technical communicators can dramatically reduce their companies' costs and improve their own marketability. Developed at IBM and now a cross-industry OASIS standard for XML content, DITA is no longer just for the likes of Sun, Cisco, and HP — you can use it too, and you should learn how before it's too late.

Your instructor is uniquely qualified to teach you how to convert your everyday, unstructured FrameMaker documents into structured, DITA-compliant XML content. He is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) who consulted to the Adobe team that developed the company's new DITA-based FrameMaker/XML content-development system, then trained their Seattle-based writing and production staff. He now works with leading Silicon Valley companies to set up their own XML/DITA-based authoring systems. His insights into the most efficient ways to migrate to (and from) standard XML metadata (suitable for management by any database) will make you productive quickly.

During this two-day intensive, you will have your own workstation and rely on real-world examples to:

• automate migration of "flat" unstructured FrameMaker content to structured XML/DITA content,

• write to the "personality" of each DITA/XML topic type,

• modify an existing FrameMaker EDD,

• modify the DITA DTD by creating ("specializing") a new element to meet the needs of your industry,

• create XSLT (content templates) to extract and transform your XML output, both for presentation and for content.

You'll come away with new skills you can use, examples of your work to use as models, a comprehensive workbook, and a deeper understanding of structured FrameMaker, XML, and DITA.

For more information or to register, email or call Andrew Davis at 1-866-591-2968.