Prepared by © 2010 Lasselle-Ramsay

Presented by

Just Enough XMetaLDavid Trousdale,

Senior Content & Learning Consultant

Just Enough XMetaLDavid Trousdale,

Senior Content & Learning Consultant

A Day in the Life of a Tech WriterA 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

Just Enough XMetaLJust Enough XMetaL

• XMetaL + DITA– Building Content

– Organizing Content

– Managing Content

• Tools and Workflow• Challenges Revisited• Conclusion

Tour de XMetaL: Basic Window PanesTour de XMetaL: Basic Window Panes

Resource Manager

Document View

Attribute Inspector

Element List

DITA Building Blocks: Topics and MapsDITA 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

Topics: Units of ContentTopics: Units of Content

Content Building Blocks: Task Topic, Normal ViewContent Building Blocks: Task Topic, Normal View

Content Building Blocks: Task Topic, Tags-onContent Building Blocks: Task Topic, Tags-on

Elements• Task• Title• Short

description• Task body• Step• Step result• Command

Content Building Blocks: Concept Topic, Tags-onContent Building Blocks: Concept Topic, Tags-on

Elements• Concept• Title• Concept

body• Paragraph• Table• Un-num-

bered list• Image

Content Building Blocks: Reference Topic, Tags-onContent Building Blocks: Reference Topic, Tags-on

Elements• Reference• Title• Short

description• Prologue• Reference

body• Simple table

Content RepositoryContent Repository

Organizing Content: MapsOrganizing Content: Maps

Organizing Content: DitamapOrganizing Content: Ditamap

Organizing Content: DITA bookmapOrganizing Content: DITA bookmap

DITA bookmap in XMetaL’s Resource Manager pane• Front matter• Chapters• Sections• Back matter• Index

Organizing ContentOrganizing Content

• Traditional document: integrated and linear

• DITA map or bookmap: modular and non-linear

Element ListElement List

Element ListElement List

Attribute InspectorAttribute Inspector

Attribute InspectorAttribute Inspector

Reuse and Referencing ContentReuse and Referencing Content

Reused unnumbered list• Conref• Maintained

cross reference

Editing and AuthoringEditing and Authoring

• Selecting tags & text

• Finding and replacing

• Spell check• Thesaurus• Tracking changes• XMetaL Reviewer• Validation• Inserting elements• Inserting

comments

Tools and WorkflowTools and Workflow

About task(background)

Before you start task (preliminaries)

Starting Task(procedure)

Error with Task(troubleshooting)

Task Image(graphic)

ContentElements

Transformation Templates

PrintedUser’s Guide

PDF User’s Guide

Quick Guide

Online Help

Content Repository

Structured

ConclusionConclusion

Why am I doing this?

What do I need to do this? How do I do this? WHAT DO I

DO NEXT?

ContactContact

David Trousdale

Lasselle Ramsay, Inc.

david.trousdale@lr.com

(650) 224-4559

www.LR.com