00:00:06Oxygen provides a built-in Markdown editor that allows you to convert Markdown syntax
00:00:11to HTML or DITA and it includes a preview
panel to help you visualize the final output.
00:00:18Aside from the plain text syntax that is common
amongst most Markdown applications, the Markdown
00:00:24editor in Oxygen also integrates many other
powerful features that content authors are
00:00:29accustomed to using for other types of documents.
00:00:34Some of these additional unique features include:
00:00:38- Additional toolbar and contextual menu actions
00:00:41- Automatic validation to help keep the syntax valid
00:00:45- Dedicated syntax highlighting to make Markdown
00:00:48documents even easier to read and edit
00:00:52- Unique features for creating Markdown documents
00:00:55directly in DITA maps and converting Markdown
documents to DITA topics
00:00:59- Specialized syntax rules to combine popular
syntax features from several specifications.
00:01:07This demonstration will get you accustomed
with the interface of the Markdown editor
00:01:12and teach you how to use Markdown files in
conjunction with DITA projects.
00:01:17We have already set-up a DITA project that includes a section about common car maintenance tasks.
00:01:24For the purpose of this demonstration, we'll
assume that one of our Subject Matter Experts
00:01:28contributed a document about changing the
brake pads in your car.
00:01:33This document is written in Markdown format.
00:01:36By default, the editor is split in two sections:
00:01:40The left pane is a text editor that is refined
to accept Markdown documents.
00:01:45Notice the syntax highlight feature to make Markdown documents even easier to read and edit.
00:01:51The toolbar menu contains a series of the
most commonly used actions and they are intended
00:01:56to be helpful to users who are not accustomed
with the Markdown syntax.
00:02:01The right pane is a WYSIWYG preview pane that
shows a visual representation of how changes
00:02:08made in the left-side text editor will be
converted to HTML or DITA output.
00:02:14The changes you make in the text editor are
parsed continually and they are immediately
00:02:19visible in the Preview pane.
00:02:21There are also two tabs available in the Preview
pane, one for visualizing DITA output ... and
00:02:28one for visualizing HTML output.
00:02:34Notice the contextual menu which offers access to several useful actions, such as Exporting to DITA.
00:02:49Now... let's start editing the Markdown file
...
00:02:52We already noticed that the file contains
a couple of spelling errors,
00:02:57which were highlighted by the automatic spell
checker.
00:03:01Next ... we'll add an extra row in the table.
00:03:04Notice that every change we make in the Markdown editing area is immediately rendered in the preview area.
00:03:13And now we'll add an image in the first part
of the document.
00:03:16We'll use the Insert Image action from the
toolbar to browse for the brake assembly diagram image.
00:03:34Now we are happy with the current form of
the document, so we'll add it to our Ditamap.
00:03:42oXygen is able to handle a mix of DITA and
Markdown documents aggregated in the Ditamap.
00:03:48Since this task requires solid mechanical
knowledge, we'll profile this newly added
00:03:53file for an expert audience.
00:03:59Now we want to publish our DITA map to PDF, so we'll apply an out-of-the-box transformation scenario.
00:04:13And this is how the PDF output looks like.
00:04:20If your project's specific requirements exceed
the Markdown's capabilities and you want to
00:04:24use DITA-specific mechanisms such as content
reuse, you can easily convert the Markdown
00:04:30files to DITA using this action from the contextual
menu.
00:04:38And this concludes our demonstration.
00:04:40Thanks for watching!