Adobe framemaker sgml

Instead of style-based, paragraph-oriented word processing and desktop publishing, XML provides a foundation for structured authoring. XML describes content according to elements that are organized in a hierarchical tree. In word-processing environments such as unstructured FrameMaker , the relationship among the various document components is apparent through formatting on the page.

The document file, however, does not capture these relationships because a word processor document is made up of a string of paragraphs. For example, unstructured FrameMaker does not capture the subordination of a Body paragraph style to its preceding Heading1 style. Structured authoring, however, does capture the hierarchical relationships among the document components.

DITA provides a set of elements and attributes and a pre-definied structure designed specifically for technical documentation. DITA is topic-oriented. Each topic can be a piece of content that can be reused in multiple contexts. DITA can also be extended to allow for the definition of information types.

DITA is topic-based. It provides three basic topic types, but it allows for specialization of these topic types for individual needs. Each XML file can be a topic or a collection of topics. DocBook is also an open standard, designed for technical articles and documentation. DocBook provides a DTD for writing technical books and articles, with a structure that such forms imply. DocBook is hierarchical by nature and has to be developed for true single-sourcing.

The content is not independent of its context. DocBook provides an XML include file that contains all the other files. It can be extended for other output forms with some development work.

Introduction In an unstructured authoring workflow, you create relatively free-flow narrative-based documents. For example, you can decide to enforce the following content rules: A topic must always start with a title.

A paragraph must follow a title. A table must have a heading row. A graphic must have a caption. Benefits Enforces a consistent organization of information You can create a Structured Application to ensure that a bulleted list must contain at least two items. Automatically validates the organization of information FrameMaker provides visual cues to indicate when the structure of a document is broken.

Figure 1. Figure 2. XML View. Figure 3. A document that conforms to the structure of a DTD is called valid. XHTML 1. DITA 1. DocBook DocBook is also an open standard, designed for technical articles and documentation. Following are some distinguishing DocBook features: DocBook is book or chapter oriented.

DocBook has a fixed but a large set of elements and attributes. Author structured content Learn how you can author content in structured Adobe FrameMaker. To create structured documentation in a basic structured authoring environment, you need only two components: an EDD and a document template. The document template is simply a FrameMaker document where the actual authoring occurs. This document contains the definitions of the structure i.

Once the elements are imported into a document template, you can author using that structure in that document. Or, more often, structure developers will provide a blank FrameMaker document to authors that they can copy to make individual documents hence the term document template.

Note that in this situation, the author does not need the EDD, just a document template with the appropriate elements imported into it. You can even import elements from one Frame doc to another. However, you are adding conversion components to FrameMaker's section of the workflow. This is handled by the Structured Application. A structured applciation is not an application per se, rather it is a set of files and settings designed to import and export a certain set of structures in and out of FrameMaker.

The central point of structured applications in FrameMaker is the structapps. This file contains the relevant information for all of the structured applications that FrameMaker has access to.

Each application has a separate entry. This defines the name of the application, the locations of the related files, processing settings, entity locations and a list of doctypes. Doctypes are the elements in that structure that are valid as root level elements in a structure. The rest of the particular structured application consists of the related files.

Some of these files include:. Template - This is a document template as described in basic authoring. However, you can import these files using the information in the structured application as a filter.

When you import one of these files into FrameMaker, the data is checked against the definition in the specified DTD file. If you are using FrameMaker 7.

This gives a chance for the data to be preprocesses by the XSL engine in FrameMaker to make any modifications. The structure and data is then inserted into a copy of the specified document template as defined by the elements saved with that template.

This adds any formatting specified in the element definitions. In the above process, you can see that the EDD is not referenced at all. You must create the EDD in order to create the element definitions that are saved into the document template. If you change the EDD, it will have no affect on the above process unless you import the definitions into the document template. At the end of the structapps. Additionally, if a structured application does not specify a setting, the corresponding setting from the Defaults section is used.

The goal of such a process is that there would be no loss of data in this process, that XML imported to Frame will export from Frame in tact and Frame docs exported to XML will be the same when re-imported.

This can be a tricky prospect that takes careful development of your structured application. If a customer is interested in SGML or XML roundtripping, they need to be prepared to become a structured applciation developer or hire one - there is no good solution 'out of the box'.

However, there are ways to get around this with FrameMaker 7. Legal Notices Online Privacy Policy. What is SGML? What is XML? What is the real differences between all of them? Why are they useful? Structured applications - what they are and what they are made of A structured applciation is not an application per se, rather it is a set of files and settings designed to import and export a certain set of structures in and out of FrameMaker.

FrameMaker only recognizes a single strucapps. Some of these files include: Template - This is a document template as described in basic authoring. Notes: In the above process, you can see that the EDD is not referenced at all.