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FrameMaker 8 software provides
context-sensitive guided editing with
the Element Catalog, the Structure
View window, and the FrameMaker
continuous validation feature. The
Element Catalog quickly shows you
which elements are valid while you
develop your information and navi-
gate the structure of your document.
The Structure View window is tightly
integrated with the WYSIWYG view,
and displays any validity errors as
they occur in real time.
You can define your own
FrameMaker structured applica-
tions, which means that FrameMaker
automatically picks the right DTD or
XML Schema, template, and settings
when you open an XML document.
FrameMaker software’s parsing
engine examines the XML at import
to determine whether it is well-
formed and to validate the code against the appropriate DTD or XML Schema. After
authoring and tagging tasks are complete, you can save standards-compliant XML for fur-
ther processing.
FrameMaker supports XML namespaces, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and the Unicode
character set. Namespaces are commonly used as a prefix to XML element names, particu-
larly when content is combined from multiple sources. FrameMaker software can export
standards-compliant CSS files for use with a broad variety of media.
Adobe provides several resources to aid users who are not familiar with structured author-
ing. Choose Help>Complete FrameMaker Help to access the complete set of FrameMaker
resources. For example, the XML Cookbook gives users a “jump start” at designing and
implementing a structured authoring system. The XML Cookbook includes a detailed set of
procedures and examples to guide users through all aspects of authoring and publishing,
including structured template creation and XML import and export. Adobe also provides a
white paper, Migrating from Unstructured to Structured FrameMaker, to guide organiza-
tions that wish to migrate from an unstructured, template-based workflow to a structured,
XML-based workflow.
FrameMaker software includes a set of sample applications for several common types of
documents and several standard DTDs. Organizations can use these sample applications
“out of the box,” or use them as a starting point for customization. Four sample applica-
tions for standards-compliant structured authoring are integrated into FrameMaker:
DITA 1.0, DocBook 4.1, xDocBook 4.1.2, and XHTML. DocBook 4.1 and xDocBook 4.1.2
Example structured document that conforms to DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), an industry-
standard topic-based information model.
