Technical Communication Suite

FrameMaker: Making comments stand out

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:44:15 +0530

Consider this scenario: you're working in a FrameMaker document that uses a lot of conditional tags, including the conditional tag defined for comments and editorial notes. If you need to work on incorporating comments, you can display all the conditional content in the document with the condition indicators visible. However, browsing your way through the multi-colored text to look for comments may be difficult.

DITA specialization in FrameMaker 9

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:39:24 +0530

DITA Specialization lets you define new information classifications that can be structural or a new domain specification. Structural specialization in DITA lets you define new topic or map structures derived from base topics and maps, such as concept, task, or reference whereas domain specialization in DITA lets you define markup for a specific information domain or subject area, such as programming or hardware.

Click here for step by step instructions on how to create specialized DITA DTDs, derive EDDs for use in FrameMaker, create a complete structured application, and use the specialized DITA DTDs to author content in FrameMaker.

Automating style checks using SDL AuthorAssistant

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:48:35 +0530

SDL AuthorAssistant is a quality assurance tool for documentation. AuthorAssistant checks documents for corporate writing styles and standards as well as standard spelling and grammar. You can automate most of your style guide rule checks and linguistic checks using AuthorAssistant.

Suite, and a step beyond...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:21:07 +0530

A privilege that I had in recent months was working as a technical writer on Adobe Technical Communication Suite. I had the opportunity to preview breakthroughs and features that would boost the productivity of technical communicators all over the world. Now, when Technical Communication Suite 2 has finally begun shipping, I am convinced that it comes closest to being the 'integrated documentation environment' that all of us have been waiting for.

TCS 2 puts great emphasis on integration. Along with Adobe Captivate 4, FrameMaker 9, RoboHelp 8 and Acrobat Professional Extended 9, it includes Adobe Photoshop CS4 in recognition of the fact that it isn't just words that technical communicators deal in. And instead of being disjoint pieces of a puzzle, these components talk with one another as constituents of a platform. In particular, I am excited about the enhancements in FM-RH integration that enable you to author content once in FM and output it seamlessly in multiple formats using RH.

Another new workflow that I find very useful makes iterative shared review cycles less painful. You can now generate tagged PDFs from your FM files specifically for review, and once the reviewers are through with their bit of the carnage, you can import the Acrobat PDF comments back into the source FM document and decide what to do with them. This workflow has translated into hours of effort savings for me, as I hope it will for you.

Also worth more than an honorable mention is the new Adobe AIR Help format that enables true Web 2.0-age documentation. Users can now comment on online Help content in real time, suggesting enhancements, highlighting bugs, or simply adding a tip or two. Thus, instead of being static content that is 'updated' once in a while, documentation becomes a living, growing body of information, supported by the weight of an entire community. The documentation for TCS 2 itself is delivered as Adobe AIR Help. So you can go ahead right away and check out the power of this new format.

That is, of course, not all. More than anything else, I find TCS 2 notable for the way it brings together the leading content formats on the Web. There is plenty of dope to help you add interactivity, color and motion to your technical communications. Read more about the top new features of Adobe TCS 2 here.

Now that TCS 2 has reached you, the technical communicators that it was designed for, we look forward to suggestions and experiences. And yes, do keep coming to this blog as we share tidbits and tips to help you make the most of the flexibility that this suite has to offer.

Happy writing, then!

Technical Communication Suite 2.0

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:06:12 +0530

Here’s announcing the release of the much awaited Adobe Technical Communication Suite (TCS) 2.0. Its unique combination of products provide a complete end-to-end solution to authoring, reviewing, managing, and publishing content across multiple channels for multiple purposes and outputs. All the primary authroing products of TCS 2.0 namely FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and Captivate have been majorly enhanced with a number of exciting features to simplify and enrich the authoring and publishing process. Also, TCS 2.0 suite has a new addition, Adobe Photoshop CS4, a product that’s been an industry standard for digital imaging.

Going forwards we hope to bring you more than just a primer on all the new features and what’s really exciting about them.

In the meantime for information on the TCS 2.0 suite check out http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/.

You can also check out the individual point products that make up TCS 2.0.

Adobe FrameMaker 9

http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/9.0/Using/

Adobe RoboHelp 8

http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/RoboHelp/8.0/RoboHTML/

Adobe Captivate 4

http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Captivate/4.0/Using/

Adobe Photoshop CS4

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatproextended/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/3D/index.html

Adobe Presenter 7

http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Presenter/7.0/index.html

Watch this space for more!