In this webcast recording, guest presenter Peter Lubbers gives a fast-paced overview of HTML5 with a focus on how it affects the tech comm field. He covers what exactly HTML5 is, why you should care, and how you can develop with HTML5. The session covers which browsers support which features, and how you can make the new features work in older browsers so you can start using HTML5 today.
Tools
Webcast: HTML5 and its impact on technical communication
February 16th, 2012 by ScriptoriumTech
FrameMaker, DITA, xrefs: I could tell you, but…
July 8th, 2011 by Simon Bate
Modifying FrameMaker cross-reference formats: it’s basic and one of the cool things about FrameMaker. But not if you’re editing DITA files using FrameMaker 9 or 10.
Early ExtendScript Experiences
May 4th, 2011 by Simon Bate
FrameScript has long been our go-to tool for FrameMaker automation.
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Webhelp for DITA
February 11th, 2011 by Simon Bate
A few weeks ago my esteemed colleague, David Kelly, published a blog post about his DITA Open Toolkit (OT) plugin that simplifies the customization of PDF output. In the post, David mentioned that I would soon be writing about a plugin to provide HTML-based web help. I found a bit of time to write about Scriptorium Help, so here is that post.
Conquering the Mark of the Web (DITA OT version)
December 22nd, 2010 by Simon Bate
Whew! Now I know how St. George felt after slaying the dragon. I’ve defeated the Mark of the Web beast and have lived to tell about it.
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Webcast: XSL techniques for XML-to-XML transformations
October 6th, 2010 by Simon Bate
In this webcast, Simon Bate leads viewers through the key steps in using XSL (extensible stylesheet language) to perform XML-to-XML conversions, a process that differs from more traditional XML-to-PDF and XML-to-HTML conversions.
How to succeed in ePub building with really trying
September 23rd, 2010 by Ryan Fulcher
Webcast: XMetaL 6 overview
April 21st, 2010 by Simon Bate
JustSystems XMetaL 6.0 adds a handful of new features for DITA users. The most interesting addition is a tripane Help output format (which JustSystems calls “WebHelp”). The main focus of this webcast is on customizing the appearance of WebHelp. The topics include: modifying navigation panes, changing fonts, and adding footers and headers. (more…)
Webcast: DITA-FMx demonstration
March 16th, 2010 by ScriptoriumTech
This webcast demonstrates using the DITA-FMx plugin with FrameMaker 9 to author, edit, and create output from DITA content. Topics covered during the demo include creating DITA topics using different options and templates and generating a book from the map and then saving to a PDF file. (more…)
Webcast: DITA features in oXygen XML editor
February 17th, 2010 by Simon Bate
This webcast offers an overview of the oXygen XML editor and demonstrates DITA-specific features, including inserting cross-references and conrefs, working with map files, applying conditions, and generating output. (more…)
Webcast: DITA features in MadCap Flare
January 19th, 2010 by Sarah O'Keefe
This webcast demonstrates how MadCap Flare supports DITA constructs, including mapfiles, conrefs, and relationship tables. The demo also covers exporting existing Flare projects to DITA. (more…)
Removing XML whitespace in structured FrameMaker documents
January 15th, 2010 by Simon Bate
An ongoing frustration with using structured FrameMaker to generate great PDF files from DITA or other XML files is that structured FrameMaker does not ignore whitespace, resulting in excess spaces in paragraphs and table cells and unnecessary space between paragraphs. These spaces are annoying and time consuming to remove. This paper describes an XSL transform that removes whitespace from XML documents. You can incorporate the transform into a FrameMaker structured application to remove whitespace automatically.
Configuring fonts in FOP and the DITA Open Toolkit
December 31st, 2009 by ScriptoriumTech
by David Kelly
The DITA Open Toolkit includes an installation of FOP, a tool used to convert DITA content to PDF. A user must configure both FOP and the Open Toolkit to use any other fonts beyond a few basic defaults. This paper supplements the Apache instructions for configuring FOP and provides additional information for integration of FOP with the Open Toolkit.
FrameMaker 8 and DITA
December 31st, 2009 by ScriptoriumTech
FrameMaker 8 provides support for creating, editing, and publishing DITA 1.0 content. You can use FrameMaker to author and publish DITA content as high-quality print and PDF output, or you can create content elsewhere and use FrameMaker strictly for publishing print and PDF output. This document describes FrameMaker’s DITA support and provides guidance on how you might best integrate DITA and FrameMaker.
Download the PDF file 
(5 MB, 55 pages).
Publishing XML content with XSL
January 19th, 2008 by Sarah O'Keefe
Originally published in STC Intercom, January 2008
Getting your content into XML might be difficult enough, but once it’s there, how do you turn it into something you can deliver? The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a free and effective tool that can transform your XML content into HTML.
Download the PDF (350 K)
Integrating XML and FrameMaker
December 31st, 2007 by ScriptoriumTech
| NOTE: | This white paper is based on FrameMaker 7. |
FrameMaker provides solid support for XML-based authoring workflows. Its PDF and print output capabilities are stellar. Because FrameMaker combines authoring and publishing in a single application, configuring XML support can be quite challenging.
It sounds too good to be true: store information in an application-independent, platform-independent format and then render that information through the software of your choice. XML does, in theory, deliver on this promise, but implementation is rarely as straightforward as you might hope.
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