DITA Open Toolkit User Guide (this document) is the definitive source of information about DITA Open Toolkit. It is also a product of the architecture and the recommended best practices, having been written entirely in DITA XML and produced using the principles and procedures described in the document.
DITA Open Toolkit User Guide package
- XHTML, HTML Help, Eclipse help, and PDF versions of the published document
- The DITA source files for the document
- Two sets of sample files: garage and grocery shopping
- Seven PHP-based debugging, editing, and reporting tools
The complete package is available at http://www.vrcommunications.com/resources.htm. All package components except the DITA source files are available at http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/SourceForgeFiles/doc/user_guide.html.
An audience is a target group of users.
This document was written for both beginning and advanced users currently implementing or planning to implement DITA and DITA Open Toolkit to produce structured XML documents to be published through any of the supported channels.
Target audience categories and types for this document are:
Prerequisites
Before you use this document you should be familiar with your operating system environment (Windows, Linux/UNIX, or Mac OS) and the authoring tool you will use to create DITA files. We recommend using a DITA-aware editor. You may need to consult the documentation that came with your operating system and authoring tool as you use DITA and DITA Open Toolkit.
Before you use DITA Open Toolkit, be sure your operating environment meets the system requirements described in System requirements and supported applications.
How and why this document was produced
This document was produced as a collaborative effort by the two principals of VR Communications, Inc. (www.vrcommunications.com), Anna van Raaphorst and Richard H. (Dick) Johnson.
Anna van Raaphorst has worked for over 20 years helping organizations of all sizes with their information architecture, technical and marketing communications, and training needs. She is a frequent speaker on structured authoring and DITA tools and techniques. Anna is principal and content specialist at VR Communications, Inc.
Dick Johnson, with over 20 years of experience doing software design and development, is principal and software technology specialist for VR Communications. He has served as principal software engineer and team leader, user consultant, user group speaker, and technical writer in a number of software and scientific organizations.
- We have significant interest and prior involvement with structured writing, content management, scripting, and programming.
- It gave us a way to gain knowledge and experience in DITA and DITA Open Toolkit quickly.
- We wanted to help the DITA community by documenting and promoting DITA and the Toolkit.
- It was an opportunity for us to use our individual skill sets in a collaborative effort.
For more information about how we wrote the document, suggestions, guidelines, tips, and techniques, see the individual DITAblogs (notes on the production of this document) that are part of each chapter. For example, for our suggestions about troubleshooting the build process, see DITAblogs (troubleshooting).
