Structured authoring with XML and DITA has introduced a new way for technical writers to understand, create, and update content. David Trousdale and Tom Voltz of Lasselle-Ramsay will give an overview and practical introduction to authoring using XMetaL as the authoring tool to perform everyday technical writing tasks. It will emphasize how authoring in a structured environment differs from an unstructured approach.

1. Prepared by © 2010 Lasselle-Ramsay
Presented by
Just Enough XMetaL
David Trousdale,
Senior Content & Learning Consultant

2. A Day in the Life of a Tech Writer
DRATS! SHIPPING
TOMORROW AND
MARKETING JUST
CHANGED THE PRODUCT
NAME AGAIN?!?!
ARRRRRGHHH!! NOW
THEY WANT ONLINE
HELP? THAT WASN’T
IN THE DOC PLAN!
8 AM
12 Noon

3. Just Enough XMetaL
• XMetaL + DITA
– Building Content
– Organizing Content
– Managing Content
• Tools and Workflow
• Challenges Revisited
• Conclusion

4. Tour de XMetaL: Basic Window Panes
Resource
Manager
Document
View
Attribute
Inspector
Element
List

5. DITA Building Blocks: Topics and Maps
• Topics – Containers for Content; Content Units
– Task
– Concept
– Reference
– Generic Topic
• Maps – Collections of Topics; Content Organizers
– Ditamap (Generic)
– Bookmap

6. Topics: Units of Content

7. Content Building Blocks: Task Topic,
Normal View

8. Content Building Blocks: Task Topic,
Tags-on
Elements
• Task
• Title
• Short
description
• Task body
• Step
• Step result
• Command

9. Content Building Blocks: Concept Topic,
Tags-on
Elements
• Concept
• Title
• Concept
body
• Paragraph
• Table
• Un-num-
bered list
• Image

10. Content Building Blocks: Reference
Topic, Tags-on
Elements
• Reference
• Title
• Short
description
• Prologue
• Reference
body
• Simple table

11. Content Repository

12. Organizing Content: Maps

13. Organizing Content: Ditamap

14. Organizing Content: DITA bookmap
DITA bookmap
in XMetaL’s
Resource
Manager pane
• Front matter
• Chapters
• Sections
• Back matter
• Index

15. Organizing Content
• Traditional document:
integrated and linear
• DITA map or bookmap:
modular and non-linear

16. Element List

17. Element List

18. Attribute Inspector

19. Attribute Inspector

20. Reuse and Referencing Content
Reused
unnumbered
list
• Conref
• Maintained
cross
reference

21. Editing and Authoring
• Selecting tags &
text
• Finding and
replacing
• Spell check
• Thesaurus
• Tracking changes
• XMetaL Reviewer
• Validation
• Inserting elements
• Inserting
comments

22. Tools and Workflow
About task
(background)
Before you start
task (preliminaries)
Starting Task
(procedure)
Error with Task
(troubleshooting)
Task Image
(graphic)
Content
Elements
Transformation
Templates
Printed
User’s Guide
PDF
User’s Guide
Quick
Guide
Online
Help
Content
Repository
Structured

23. Conclusion
 Why am I doing this?
 What do I need to do this?
 How do I do this? WHAT DO I
DO NEXT?

24. Contact
David Trousdale
Lasselle Ramsay, Inc.
david.trousdale@lr.com
(650) 224-4559
www.LR.com