RE: Structure FrameMaker reference books

["BJA" <bashley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

It all depends on your need.

If I wanted to use available elements, then the FM User Guide would be fine
but I want to create an EDD from the ground up and to me at least, the
Developer's guide has holes. I find it assumes, in the main, that the reader
wants to create an EDD from an existing DTD. I don't.

I want to fully understand the process from XML to using an EDD and none of
the FM books give this overview (not that I could see after many hours of
reading). The one small section on creating an EDD without a DTD assumes too
much and simply provides a bucket load of building blocks without putting
them into context or giving a definitive reference (some examples would have
been nice).

But you have been fortunate enough to have it all put into context by Shlomo
which is a good head start. I'm afraid I do not have that luxury.

I have some programming skills and in recent times have also learnt HTML,
JavaScript and VBA out of books. I also quite comfortably understand the
concept of structured authoring (having also played around with FM+SGML some
five years ago) so I usually have no problem in connecting all the dots. But
this time...

Maybe I'm just getting old. :)

Cheers.

Bruce Ashley
Senior Technical Writer



-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Evans [mailto:mark2evans@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 February 2005 1:12 PM
To: 'Jim Light'; 'BJA'; 'Framers (Omsys) (E-mail)'; 'FramerUsers List
(E-mail)'
Subject: RE: Structure FrameMaker reference books


I also took a class (from Shlomo Perets www.microtype.com), which was
very helpful for getting a start on the process of moving to structured
FrameMaker.

I disagree that the materials that Adobe provides are inadequate. The
guide for transitioning to structure is 600 pages long. Okay, it has
lots of typos and other small mistakes, but fundamentally, I think it's
good. What it doesn't give you is a discussion of different strategies
to employ when marking up your documents. You can get some of this from
XML books, but they tend to cover the use of specific elements with
stringent DTDs. With FrameMaker, many people use a "generic" mark-up
strategy with multiple levels of nested section and heading elements.
This is great for moving information around in the book, but the
structure may not be as stringently enforced by the DTD.

Mark Evans
Velocity11

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Jim Light
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 6:17 AM
To: 'BJA'; Framers (Omsys) (E-mail); FramerUsers List (E-mail)
Subject: RE: Structure FrameMaker reference books


Bruce,
I couldn't find any FrameMaker-specific books except the Complete
Reference by Osborne Press, which is about the whole product, and not
just structured authoring. So I took a course
(http://www.txstruct.com/).

If you find a good book on structured authoring in general, post it to
the list.

__________________________________
Jim Light
Information Development
NetIQ Corp.
3553 N. First St.
San Jose, Ca 95134
(408) 856-1883

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-framers@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of BJA
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:05 PM
To: Framers (Omsys) (E-mail); FramerUsers List (E-mail)
Subject: Structure FrameMaker reference books

Hi.

We've recently upgraded to FM 7.1 and now have the time to explore the
world of structured authoring. As such, I am looking for some good
reference sources as I find (typically) that the Adobe one's leave a lot
to be desired.

Any referrals would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,

Cheers.

Bruce Ashley
Senior Technical Writer





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