TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: moving into xml-based writing From:Gary Schnabl <gSchnabl -at- LivernoisYards -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:24:18 -0400
Becky Edmondson wrote:
> Anyone have any experience or useful thoughts about how to add XML skills to
> your portfolio when you are a contractor? Being of a geeky mindset, I'm
> pretty sure I'd enjoy XML, but I haven't a clue where to start. What should
> you learn, and in what order? How geeky do you need to be--must you be able
> to write XSL transforms, for instance? Do you need to take formal classes,
> or can you learn enough by just hacking up some XML-based docs on your own?
>
> I dunno, maybe this won't really bring in any real money. About 75% of my
> clients still want deliverables as Word docs. I hate Word, but being able to
> wrangle it is practically a lifetime employment guarantee.
>
> --Becky
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
FrameMaker has some fairly decent documentation regarding XML, although
the older FrameMaker versions use the older DTD-based DocBook prior to
DocBook 5. Still, I adapted DocBook 5's DTD and produced an EED
(formatting) file for my older FrameMaker 7.
It isn't hard to transform some paragraph and character-styled DOC files
using conversion tables to XML-structured FrameMaker or to create your
own structured FrameMaker templates. Just dig in and do it...
Gary
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
