xml editor

[nant]

Newbie here.

Trying to learn how to work with XML Author to create DITA based documentation.

Is there a simple step by step process on how to create an empty document?

What should I create first?

A project?

What kind of project?

What next?

A simple primer article would really help here.

[Radu]

Hi,

We do not have a specific template for creating a DITA project but we'll consider adding one.

Basically a DITA project on disk consists of a DITA Map file (which references a sequence of DITA topics) and DITA topics which can be of different types (usually "topic", "task", "concept" and "reference").

Such files can be created by using the New... toolbar action and by quick searching for the word "DITA".

We have some DITA samples in the Oxygen samples project.
For example you can try to open in Oxygen this DITA Map:

OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/samples/dita/flowers/flowers.ditamap

You will have the possibility either to open it in the DITA Maps Manager (and see it in a TOC manner) or in the main editor and see how its XML structure looks like.

We also have a video demonstration section on our web site:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/videos.html

and my recommendation for getting started would be these 2 videos:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/demo/DITA_Maps_Manager.html

and:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/demo/DITA_Editing.html

You can see an answer (which has some interesting links) to a similar question here:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/forum/topic3329.html

The part from our user manual (also created using DITA) describing DITA editing can be found here:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/index.html?q=/doc/ug-oxygen/topics/author-dita.html

Regards,
Radu