learn dita on your own - stc summit 2014 presentation
DESCRIPTION
In a series of articles on the continuing growth in the use of DITA across the States, DITAWriter Keith Schengili-Roberts stated that “job postings seeking DITA experience continue to grow while FrameMaker usage continues to decline.” Clearly, knowing DITA can be a very important asset in a technical writer’s portfolio. But many writers cannot afford to take time out of their schedules to attend a two-day training course in another city and, understandably, their employers will not pay for training not applicable to their current roles. But it is possible to learn DITA on your own, if you know where to start. This presentation provides the tools and links that writers need to learn DITA.TRANSCRIPT
Learn DITA on Your Own
Nathalie Laroche
www.extremetechwriting.com
@nathalielaroche
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Agenda
• DITA crash course• Tools• Create the World’s Smallest DITA Project• Plan your training• Get connected• Prepare a portfolio
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
DITA crash course
• Great article by Chris Benz:http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/524/what-is-dita-and-why-should-you-care
• Five-minute presentation:http://www.ditausers.org/training/DITATopics/
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
DITA crash course: Summary
• Oasis standard• Designed to support topic-based writing• Based on XML• Two types of DITA documents:
Topics: This is where you write your content. There are three types of topics: concept, task, and reference
Maps: They assemble the topics in hierarchies for publishing various output formats. If you’re familiar with FrameMaker, you could see the map as the book file and the topics as the individual files.
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Very simple DITA file
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Tools
• Two main tools: DITA Editor to write your content: Notepad++ used for
the World’s Smallest DITA Project Rendering engine to convert the content into formats
such as PDF and HTML: DITA Open Toolkit: Open source publishing tool that converts DITA content into
various output formats such as PDF, XHTML, Eclipse Help, HTML Help, etc.
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Visual editor (oXygen)
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
DITA tools
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Create the World’s Smallest DITA Project
• See http://www.extremetechwriting.com/learn-dita-on-your-own/
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Plan your training
1. Find a real project that you want to do in DITA
2. Buy a book
3. Determine a schedule and commit to it
4. Make a list of skills that you need to learn
5. Invest in a tool such as oXygen Editor (Optional)
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Get connected
• DITA Users Yahoo Group• LinkedIn Groups:
DITA Awareness Group The Content Wrangler
• Twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/nathalielaroche/lists/all-about-dita
• Blogs: DITAWriter Official DITA XML site I’d Rather Be Writing
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Prepare a portfolio
• Add DITA to your LinkedIn profile• Upload your source content to GitHut• Blog about DITA
@nathalielaroche Learn DITA on Your Own #STC14
Thank you!
• For the procedures discussed in this presentation, see my blog at the following URL:
http://www.extremetechwriting.com/learn-dita-on-your-own/