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Illuminations

 
The newsletter of Scriptorium Publishing

Volume 11
Issue 8

August 2008

 



 

In this issue:

Another ACE in the Office

Old White Papers, New Tricks

Just Two Webinars Remaining

Conferences

The XML Strategist Looks Ahead

Upcoming Web-Based Training

 


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Another ACE in the Office

  Congratulations are in order for Terry Smith. After intense study and a lifetime of working with FrameMaker, she is now an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in FrameMaker 8.
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Old White Papers, New Tricks

 

Scriptorium's white papers have offered a lot of knowledge on technical documentation, structured authoring, and the tools that make it happen, but the exchange of information has always been a one way street—until now.

Scriptorium has released five of its white papers in HTML, complete with ratings and a place for user comments:

Friend or foe? Web 2.0 in technical communication

Structured authoring and XML

Managing implementation of structured authoring

Assessing DITA as a foundation for XML implementation

Integrating XML and FrameMaker

We look forward to your input.

   

Just Two Webinars Remaining

 

Only two free webinars are left in the free webinar series Best Practices for Structured Authoring and Publishing. These events are jointly sponsored by Scriptorium Publishing and JustSystems. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge of the DITA Open Toolkit.

 
An Overview of the DITA Open Toolkit
August 26, 2008, 11 a.m. Eastern time
presented by Simon Bate
  Attend this webinar if you need to get a better understanding of the DITA Open Toolkit (DITA OT), how to use it, and how it works. You will learn about the components in the DITA OT and their function. You will also learn how to install and run the DITA OT and how it relates to XMetaL.
 
Key Elements on Customizing and Troubleshooting Output
September 23, 2008, 11 a.m. Eastern time
presented by Simon Bate
 

Attend this webinar if you need to customize the output from the DITA Open Toolkit (DITA OT). The DITA OT includes components that are designed to be customized for HTML and PDF output. You will learn how to make modifications to these components. You will also learn how to read and understand other toolkit components that create much more complex output.

Register with Just Systems.

You can watch a recording (registration required) of the August 18th webinar, "From Desktop Publishing to Structured Authoring," presented by Sarah O'Keefe.

   

Conferences

 

Fall conference season is right around the corner, starting with DocTrain East in October and tcworld conference and tekom-Trade Fair in November.

This year, DocTrain East will be held in Burlington, Massachusetts, from October 29–November 1. Simon Bate will offer a preconference workshop on XMetaL and DITA and give a presentation on Comparing DITA Support in XMetaL and FrameMaker. If you would like to talk about documentation, tools, and get some free chocolate, visit Matt Arnold and Simon at Scriptorium's booth in the exhibit hall.

The tcworld conference and tekom-Trade Fair will be in Wiesbaden, Germany, November 5–7. Sarah O'Keefe is presenting on the implications of Web 2.0 for technical communicators and is hosting an introduction to XSL workshop. Matt and Sarah will be at Scriptorium's booth in the exhibit hall, eager to speak with you and give out chocolate.

If you would like to join us in Germany, Scriptorium could save you a lot of money. Contact Matt Arnold at mca@scriptorium.com to get a special 20% discount for first-time attendees from non–German-speaking countries. That's up to €160 off!

   

The XML Strategist Looks Ahead

 

2008 marks the 10-year anniversary of XML. A lot has changed in a decade, but what comes next? Will we see the rise of better authoring tools? Can XML ever produce decent print?

Take a look into the future with Sarah O'Keefe's latest article from the July issue of Intercom.

XML, Growing Up Fast (PDF, 600 KB)

Intercom is a publication of the Society for Technical Communication.

   

Upcoming Web-Based Training

 

We have posted our class schedules through December.

If you're new to FrameMaker or need a refresher, Scriptorium's web-based classes will get you on your way to using the unstructured and structured interfaces:

It's hard to talk about structured authoring without mentioning XML, XSL, or DITA. Scriptorium's web-based classes cover what you need to know about those acronyms and how they apply to a publishing workflow:

For information about private on-site or web-based training, see our training options page. If you have any questions, contact training@scriptorium.com or call 919-481-2701.

   

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Last modified August 27, 2008 .