4. • The challenges that led to
our collaboration
• How we expanded use of DITA
and solved business goals
• Feedback
• What’s next
• Q & A
What we’ll discuss today
P
7. • 7,000 Citrites
• Multiple languages and time zones
• Varied English proficiency
Lots of employees
M
8. • Engineers
• Designers
• Product Managers
• Documentation specialists
• Anyone who took an English class
at some time during their life
Lots of “editors”
M
11. • Proven authoring and publishing platform
• Leveraging DITA/DocBook from other teams
• Leveraging Word/PPT content ad-hoc
Goal
• Expand adoption in order to:
• Improve quality / consistency across organization
• Make it easier for us to consume content
• Share expertise
Expand DITA
P
12. • Demo’d authoring and publishing
process
• Focused on awesomeness of DITA
• Multiple outputs
• Reuse
• Automatic styling
• CTO Office, Readiness, Support…
Attempt 1: The DITA Roadshow
P
13. 1. Convince them they have a problem
2. Convince them DITA is the solution
Results
• Perception of complexity: “We don’t have time to learn this.”
• Not bought into problem: “That doesn’t help me.”
Approach
P
18. Mike
1. Provide Word doc
Patrick
2. Configure DITA4Publishers
3. Cleanup DITA
4. Produce HTML
5. Wrap in navigation framework
6. Produce downloadable PDF
Initial process
Mike
7. Proofread output
Patrick
8. Incorporate edits and
regenerate
P
19. Mike
1. Add new / review / edit existing content in DITA
2. Notify Education when a new build is needed
Patrick
3. Generate and post new versions as needed
Current process
P
20. • Default DITA is overwhelming
• Constraints simplify authoring and training
• Browser-based tools make setup a breeze
Transferring DITA authoring duties
P
27. • A big win for both PD and Education
• Both teams excited to collaborate
• A positive step toward expanding DITA
• PD happy to have a writing guide
• Documentation and Localization teams happy to have access
to a UI-specific style guide
The good…
M
28. • Cumbersome review and update process
• Authoring in DITA too complex for new users
• Courseware framework, while effective, not designed for this
The not so good…
M
29. • Reach out to other content groups from the start
• Get buy-in early
• Engage your DITA developer ASAP
• Learn DITA yourself
What Mike learned
M
30. • Understand content issues, but discuss business goals
• Position DITA in terms of:
• Future-proof your content
• Increase usability of your deliverables
• Increase reach of your message
• Simplify authoring through constraints
• Listen for key phrases:
• “It’d be better if we could put it online.”
• “Will this work on my phone?”
• “We’ll need to change formats for the new system.”
• Realize DITA may not be enough
What Patrick learned
P
32. • Increase engagement by including video/multi-media
• Integrate with company-wide design standards
• Consolidate guides from other teams
Future Enhancements
P
39. • Content strategy for customer-facing UI
• Hands-on writing and editing
• MA, English (National University); BA, English (SDSU)
• Citrix since 2010
Mike Maass
40. • Content strategy for Citrix Education training
• Four years into DITA implementation
• MA, BA, English (University of Central Florida)
• Citrix since 2005
Patrick Quinlan
41. • QA plugin: https://sourceforge.net/projects/qa-plugin-dot/
• Constraints plugin: https://sourceforge.net/projects/
dnconstraints/
• jQuery Mobile plugin: https://sourceforge.net/projects/jqmdot/
• Learn more about all of these at Ditanauts.org
Tools mentioned in presentation
42. • Leverage the DITA4Publishers project by Eliot Kimber
• Requires understanding ant and XSLT
• Map Word styles to DITA tags
• The simpler the word doc, the better.
• Specify input and mappings in build file
Process: Word to DITA
43. • Word style: heading 1
• Uses the text as the title
• Creates a concept topic
• Inserts a conbody
• Concept is referenced from a chapter
• Uses the text as the chapter title
Example Style Map
46. Cleanup process:
• Review word2dita output
• Remove <tab/> and <br/> elements
• Retag as appropriate
• Time consuming, but one-time effort
Building output:
• Leveraged minimally-modified XHTML output
• Wrapped in framework
• Adds TOC, search, navigation
Review, edit repeat:
• Changes documented in Word
• Edits made in DITA
Cleanup process
