Re: What is FrameMaker+SGML?

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:51 AM 1/20/00 -0500, Michael Martinez wrote:
>What does FrameMaker+SGML do for me? If I'm going to be publishing
>documentation to the web, should I get it. What are the advantages and
>disadvantages?
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FM+SGML has all the capabilities of ordinary FrameMaker PLUS the capability
to author structured documents, where the structure must conform to a
pre-defined "content model", as is the case with SGML, HTML, and XML.

Unlike SGML, HTML, and XML, however, "format rules" created in an FM+SGML
Element Definition Document (EDD) determine the formatting applied to each
paragraph or text string within a paragraph of a structured document created
with FM+SGML. Thus, when you insert a paragraph or text string into a
document, the correct formatting, based on the format rule for the
applicable context, is automatically applied. Any attempt to override the
EDD-specified formatting can be eliminated by reimporting the EDD into the
document with removal of format overrides turned on. This action will remove
every single format override, including ad hoc formatting of text strings. 

Guided editing with FM+SGML uses an "Element Catalog" and an interactive
"Structure View". The Element Catalog shows you which structural elements
can be legally inserted at any given cursor location, and the Structure View
shows the structural details in the vicinity of the cursor location.

Perhaps the most important feature of structured documents is the ability to
parse a document into its individual structural components so that each such
component can be separately stored in (and retrieved from) a database
repository. 

Another huge advantage of structured documents is the availability of
metadata, in the form of element attributes. Metadata (data about data) can
do many things, including:

- Provide formatting options
- Improve information retrieval
- Improve the capability to re-use and re-purpose information
- Improve the management of information (e.g., revisiion tracking, change
  control))
     ====================
     | Nullius in Verba |
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Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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