Enhanced XML text view authoring

[Micaela Monroe]

Hi there,
My team is using a cCMS and as a result, I have advanced users that are starting to use oXygen web for the first time. Some advanced users find working in text mode easier in the desktop oXygen Author application. They find that the text mode in oXygen web doesn't have some of the features they love. Specifically:
- Element and attribute autocomplete suggestions
- Automated end-tag insertion (a version of this works, but you have to start typing the end tag for autocomplete to take place)
I'd love for the advanced users to completely adopt the web version of oXygen, but I'd also like for them to have access to the features they value in oXygen XML Author.
Thanks!
Micaela

[cristi_talau]

Hello,
Thanks for your feedback. I added a feature request to autocomplete the end-tag of an element.
Regarding auto-completing element names, they are supported now for a DTD schema. Do you use some other type of schema? Do you use DITA or something else?

That being said, our focus is to make the Author mode as easy to use as possible. It would be important for us to understand which tasks are hard to do in Author mode and easier in text mode. This way we may be able to improve the design of the Author page.
Best,
Cristian

[Micaela Monroe]

Hi Cristian,

Yes, we use DITA but we're not seeing the element suggestions available when using text mode in the web version. Do we need to do anything to turn that functionality on?

Here's the autocomplete suggestions in oXygen XML:

image.png

With the out of the box config, we type the open tag ourselves without the element suggestion in oXygen web:

image.png

Our writers prefer to use the text view to edit bookmaps, or to troubleshoot. I've heard that the bookmap author view is a bit cluttered and it's just faster to add elements and attributes in text mode. Writers also have trouble pasting content into the application in author mode and find it easier to use text mode than to go through the process of selecting the Paste as text option. People also just use the text view because it's their personal preference.

Thanks!
Micaela

[Micaela Monroe]

Also I just realized I posted this in the wrong category of the forum - sorry about that!

[cristi_talau]

Hello,
Do you use XML Schema for your DITA topics - you should be able to see that from the first few lines of the XML file. Tag completion works only for DTD. If you are using DTD, we might need to troubleshoot the problem further.

Regarding the text-page preference, your feedback is very useful for us. We have some outstanding issues for bookmap editing (e.g. ability to search by topic title).
Regarding the paste as text action, first I wanted to confirm first that you wanted to say "Paste as Text" and not "Paste as XML". Also, I think that, going to "Right click" > "Paste special" > "Paste as Text" is comparable in complexity with "More..." > "Edit as XML" > "Paste" > "Switch back to Author mode" (of course muscle memory can make the second approach feel shorter). I was wondering if you have some cases in which the "Paste as Text" action does not meet your expectations - maybe such cases make the users to prefer the text page.

Best,
Cristian

[Micaela Monroe]

Hi there,
My team uses DTDs, though I'm working with a trial version of oXygen web in the short term (I don't have access to the cCMS quite yet). I'm playing around with the flower content which uses DTDs, for example:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
Also, the paste as text works totally fine. I know some people just prefer to use the text view so they don't have to do the right-clicking. It's another instance of personal preference. I think authors could overcome it by getting used to the muscle memory of the right-click, just like you say.
Thanks,
Micaela

[cristi_talau]

Hello,
Regarding the tag completion, I just realised that in Web Author you have to press Ctrl+Space for the proposals to come up while in Oxygen XML Author they appear automatically. Does it work work for you if you press Ctrl+Space?
Best,
Cristian

[Micaela Monroe]

That works, thanks very much!