All print materials and course samples are provided to attendees.

Follow up support on topics covered is available for 60 days.

Please contact us for a list of available dates.

This course is 2 days in duration.

Testimonial

Bernard's ability to not only understand deep technical issues, but explain them in terms that anyone would understand is second to none. He has solid reasoning skills and often thinks outside of the box in order to solve complex problems. Whether addressing business users or an entire IT department, his strong interpersonal skills give him the ability to work in any environment and be credible in that environment. If you are looking for someone to help you ensure the success of your project, I can wholeheartedly and without hesitation give Bernard my highest recommendation!

Bret Freeman, Business Development Manager EMEA, JustSystems, Inc.

XMetaL and DITA for Authors

Course-at-a-glance: This two–day course is developed for people who need to produce content based upon the DITA specification with XMetaL Author. Learn about writing content in a fully structured and easy–to–use environment optimized for producing valid XML and production of multiple outputs for print and online delivery. Acquire hands–on experience with publishing support, including concept, task, and reference topics, DITA maps and relationship tables.

Prerequisite: You must have a solid working familiarity with your operating system.

Objectives: Upon successful completion attendees will be able to:

Understand the XMetaL model and its DITA processing and publishing features
Create valid DITA concept, task, and reference topics as stand–alone units of information
Build DITA maps to organize and link topics to develop a navigation system (such as a TOC)
Understand each of the commonly–used DITA elements for all topic types
Leverage features for simplifying structured authoring, including multiple document views, the Element List, and the Attribute Inspector
Understand the relationship between siblings, parents, children, ancestors and descendants
Insert content using elements which are moved, deleted, merged or split as required
Insert, modify and delete content in table heading, cells, headers and footers and merge cells
Work with unordered, ordered and definition lists
Import and position graphics
Work with cross–references including links to locations such as topics, websites or email
Set up conditional text, make content conditional, and publish conditional documents
Know when to use the 3 methods of content reuse in DITA: topic reuse, conrefs, and conditional text
Create PDF and help documents for distribution using the DITA Open Toolkit
Troubleshoot validation and publishing problems

Further Learning: Topic based writing

Delivery: The following delivery is available:

Self study using our training materials and online tutorials
Instructor–led, group–paced, online–delivery learning model with structured hands–on activities and assignments
Customized classroom training at your location

Fees: Course pricing is as follows:

Self study materials and video tutorials: $395/copy (multiple copy rates available)
Instructor–led, online–delivery: $795/participant (group rates available)
Customized classroom training at your location: $1500/day for up to 8 participants plus travel expenses