Structured Framemaker, FDK and XML Blog

For those looking for a leg up in structured Framemaker, Scriptorum’s DocFrame (with a free XML DTD for download) looks like a great starting point and can be customized further:

Many FrameMaker users need structured authoring and a standards-based single-sourcing solution. Configuring FrameMaker for structured authoring has required too much time and too much money—until now.

The DocFrame environment offers a cost-effective solution. The structured authoring framework, created by Scriptorium Publishing, provides FrameMaker structure, Extensible Markup Language (XML) import and export, and transformation of the XML into HTML, HTML Help, and JavaHelp through Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) scripts. You can install the DocFrame files and begin creating structured content in minutes, not months.

It’s easy to customize the printed output from DocFrame. If you know how to modify paragraph tags, character tags, master pages, and other template elements in unstructured FrameMaker, you can control the look and feel of DocFrame structured content.

The DocFrame package can serve as a foundation for further customization. The documentation explains how to modify and extend the structure to suit your requirements.

The package contains thorough documentation and Scriptorium’s popular FrameMaker training workbooks.

 

• JavaHelp output—From DocFrame XML output, you can now generate JavaHelp 2 helpsets along with HTML and HTML Help files.
• Modular Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) files—Because the transformations to online formats share several functions, we’ve streamlined and modularized the transformation stylesheets.
• Specification of file names in output—Use the new FileName attribute to control the names of HTML output files.
• Compatibility with new features in FrameMaker 7.1—You can use DocFrame 2.0 with both FrameMaker 7.0 and 7.1. The DocFrame solution now supports the new conditional text handling in FrameMaker 7.1 files exported to XML, and it processes cross-book linking.
• Expanded, in-depth documentation—The Developer’s Guide (table of contents in PDF format, 82K) now has 45 percent more content, with special emphasis on XSL concepts. The Author’s Guide (table of contents in PDF format, 45K) is almost 30 pages longer and offers thorough procedures on creating XML output from FrameMaker files and transforming that content into HTML, HTML Help, and JavaHelp.