XMetaL for Authors

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:

• 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:

• Instructor–led, online–delivery: $1495/participant (group rates available)

• Customized classroom training at your location: $1995/day for up to 8 participants plus travel expenses