Dita News & Articles

 Vasont Systems’ (news, site) latest iteration of their content management system is up for grabs. Vasont 12.2 focuses on helping out the writer using Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and custom Document Type Definitions (DTDs).

As the 2009 conference season winds down, start booking those 2010 seats, starting with Intelligent Content 2010 which takes place at Palm Springs.

It must have been some party at JustSystems (news, site)  when they celebrated the tenth birthday of XMetaL because we haven’t really heard a lot from them, until now. They have just announced the launch of XMetaL Author Enterprise and Reviewer 6.0.

Anyone familiar with JustSystems’ XMetaL will be familiar with earlier versions of both products, which combined, give users collaborative XML authoring and powerful document reviewing tools.

However, they haven’t just upgraded the two products; they have also integrated them in a move that provides authors with the tools to inititate and manage reviews, as well as specialized editing commands that enable authors act as soon as problems are flagged.

SDL's (news, site) Global Authoring Survey notes the rise in structured authoring with users employing the XML format to store data and make content available to help streamline production.

Montreal-based Ixiasoft (news, site) has just announced the general availability of the new version of its DITA content management system. Version 2.6 comes with several enhancements to v2.1 released in October 2008, when Ixiasoft added two new important features: the CMS Project Manager and the DITA Map Editor.

This time around, they have focused on improving search and search results interface, as well as strengthening the relationship map editor and overall CMS usability.

With all the aplomb of a wet Monday in November, SDL (news, site) (which refers to itself in a recent press release as the ominous sounding “The Group”) announced quite casually this week that it has made lots of money in the first half of this year. Net interim cash of £32.9 (US$ 56) million to be precise.

Seems everyone’s adding a DITA authoring tool to their content management systems these days. The latest one -- for today at least -- comes with the release of v5.3 of Author-it’s (news, site ) web content management system.

It comes with the promise of bringing consistency to your content and documentation and all for a fraction of the cost of implementing other tools that require costly migration and systems integration.

It's just about a given that the businesses that are going to come out the other end of this downturn stronger than they went in are those that adapt.

A case in point is the announcement by Quark (news, site) that its XML authoring tool can now be integrated with EMC’s (news, site) enterprise content management system, Documentum, giving Documentum users the ability to develop intelligent and reusable XML content without having to bring in technical authors.

By integrating Quark XML Author with Documentum users will not only be able to create XML content, but validate existing content, manage links between XML documents and access it using XQuery and XPath standards.

The cat’s outta the bag—we’ve got a birthday in the house!

Yesterday JustSystems (news, site), provider of XML and information management technologies, announced that their flagship product has been around for ten whole years.

XMetal is a powerful solution for structured content authoring and collaboration. It can be used as a stand-alone solution or as an integrated application with various content management and publishing systems including EMC's Documentum, IBM's FileNet and Microsoft's SharePoint. Using industry standards including Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), XMetaL enables content creators to create, collaborate, and reuse information that can be repurposed into the languages and formats customers need.

With a little bit going on for everyone, XMetaL boasts user-friendliness and ease of use for the technically challenged as well as powerful features for tech fanboys and fangirls.

"XMetaL has been one of the industry's top choices for the last ten years because customers can easily achieve a measurable return on investment as a result of their XMetaL implementation," said Aaron Deitcher, vice president of North America and EMEA for JustSystems.

Cut yourself a slice of cake, break out the bubbly, and learn more about XMetal here. 

Call it rubber-necking or whatever you want, but when one company buys another company in this business we want to know the details.

Such is the case with the announcement that Pennsylvania based Really Strategies (news, site) has just bought out DocZone (news, site), a Dutch-based SaaS XML content management provider under -- you guessed it -- undisclosed terms.

Ready for more Enterprise Content Management acquistion news? SDL (news, site) has acquired XyEnterprise (news, site) for consideration of US$ 14.7m. The acquistion of XyEnterprise will add deeper xml and component content management capabilities to their global information management solutions.

Just because DITA authoring tools are coming onto the market at the speed of a runaway train, does not necessarily mean that A) companies understand what it is they are actually using, or B) they do not want to understand it.

And it is this segment of the market that the latest publication from Toronto-based content management consultancy the Rockley Group (TRG) is targeting with DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers.

While the authors (Anne Rockley, Steve Manning and Charles Cooper) never claim that the 148-page overview of DITA will make an expert out of you, they do say that it will help answer the $40 million question: Is DITA for you or your company?

Just to put it in perspective: DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) standard that breaks content into small bundles of information that can be used and re-used at will through company- or group- specific information.

An XML-based architecture, it was introduced in 2001. In 2005, it was ratified as an OASIS (news, site) standard and is becoming increasingly popular in the creation of all kinds of documents.

Initial reviews of the book appear to be good, but then they would because they appear on the publisher’s website.

But then that shouldn’t put potential readers off. A quick search across the Web shows just how confusing the subject can be, and anything that can untangle the mess of ‘explanations’ out there should be worth a look.

Download or buy it from publisher on Lulu.com, or flip through a free chapter online before you actually buy.

For MadCap (news, site), it looks like the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) initiative is still a go. The company, a software provider with a serious thing for integrated applications of the content management variety, first announced its support of DITA late last year.

This week, MadCap unveiled proof of that support in the form of updated versions of two of their offerings: MadCap Flare 5.0 and MadCap Blaze 2.0. According to the company, the newest versions of Flare and Blaze are” the first authoring software products to support transformation and publishing from the DITA standard—without requiring Java development or third-party toolkits…”

Let’s take a look, shall we?

"We have to know about our customers better because by 2012, it's likely that 75% of the content we interact with will be delivered to us based on what is known about us." says Whit Andrews, Vice President of Enterprise Search at Gartner.

The latest version of SDL Trisoft – Trisoft 3.7 - has just been released, and if the UK-based vendor of this Component Content Management (CCM) system has got it right, then this solution will dramatically increase the speed and quality of targeted technical writing.

Responding to the need of companies to provide customized content to users in their own language and over the web, Trisoft 3.7 has a number of new feature.

With out-of-the-box DITA functionality, this solution gives companies the ability to handle thousands of variations in technical content that can be integrated dynamically and according to customer needs.