DITA Boot Camp with JoAnn Hackos: Discount for STC Members

Non-STC-Montreal Event | Posted June 10th, 2008

DITA Boot Camp is an in-depth five-day workshop presented by JoAnn Hackos in Quebec City, September 29–October 3, 2008.

STC members are entitled to a 10% discount on the registration fee.

In the DITA Boot Camp program you’ll get the core values of:

Structured Authoring
Information Modeling
Minimalism
Business process change
DITA details and implementation

What is DITA all about?

By structuring a task in DITA, learn the structure inherent in the core DITA specialized information types: task, concept, and reference.

What do I learn about Structured Authoring?

Structured authoring is the essential ingredient in Information Modeling. Learn how to create an Information Model for your organization.

Learn:

the core requirements of an Information Model
the business value of structured writing
about an information architecture team
the DITA information Types and Content Units
a sample Information Model to help you create your own

What does Minimalism have to do with DITA?

Learn why eliminating empty text and focusing on what users really need to know is a critical first step toward structured authoring. You can’t create structured topics out of text that nobody wants and no one ever reads.

Learn:

to evaluate when minimalist strategies should be used
the minimalist agenda
the four basic principles of minimalism
why minimalist information is read by 90% of users
how major corporations have implemented minimalism in their technical information

What if I don’t know XML?

If you’re unfamiliar with the basics of HTML and XML, attend a special evening session on Tuesday night.

Learn:

the basic XML concepts and terminology
how XSLT and style sheets transform XML tagged text into formatted deliverables

What about DITA details?

Move from structured authoring and minimalism to the details of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). DITA is the OASIS standard for topic-based information development. Learn why it is fast becoming the standard for technical communication worldwide.

Learn to:

build a business case for moving to DITA
plan a topic-based project using annotated topic lists
create a DITA map to organize your topics into deliverables for PDF, HTML, and help systems
set up relationship tables
handle conditional processing and content reuse through conrefs
process a DITA map using the DITA Open Toolkit

Materials Needed

Bring a laptop computer, sample documentation to complete exercises with, and download the latest preview copy of Arbortext Editor.

For more information and to register visit the workshop web site at
http://www.comtech-serv.com/workshops/.

To obtain the 10% discount for STC members, contact Lovonya Thomas at Comtech Services (1-303-232-7586).

STC Montreal