[oXygen-user] Going from FrameMaker to oXygen
Frank Dissinger
frank.dissinger at cgs-oris.com
Wed Jan 11 10:25:47 CST 2023
Hi Radu,
Thank you also for this reply (on the DITA Users List).
Regards,
Frank
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Am 07.12.2022 um 08:10 schrieb Radu Coravu via groups.io:
>
> Hi Frank,
>
>
> Here are some answers to your remarks, if you need more help about how
> Oxygen works you can contact us directly:
>
>
>> * It seems that a DITA map loads all the referenced submaps and
>> displays all of these maps in a single window panel (as if this
>> was a single file). In FM I see only the references and open the
>> submaps as separate files by double-clicking on them.
>>
> In Oxygen a DITA Map can be opened both in the DITA Maps Manager view
> and in the main editing area where it can be edited in either the
> Author or the Text editing modes.
>
> I will assume you are referring to opening a DITA Map in the Author
> visual editing mode. In the Oxygen Preferences->"DITA / Maps" page you
> have a checkbox named "Expand references to other maps when opening a
> map in the Author mode".
>
>> * I feel lost in these maps. There are lots of big fonts, frames,
>> colored backgrounds, icons... Can I customize the appearance? For
>> example, by defining CSS-like styles for the DITA elements
>> displayed on the screen?
>>
> Yes, sure. The visual editing is CSS based. We have a CSS inspector
> view which can be used to debug what CSS styles apply to render a
> certain element in a certain way:
>
> https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/25.0/ug-editor/topics/author-css-inspector-view.html
>
> and you can contribute your own CSS for customizing the editing aspects:
>
> https://blog.oxygenxml.com/topics/customizeDITACSS.html
>
>> * The Outline view is a bit similar to FM's Structure View. But I
>> am used to setting the cursor into the Structure View to
>> precisely define the point where to insert an element. This does
>> not work in oXygen.
>>
> Different applications have different features. Oxygen has a tooltip
> window showing the context which appears when moving the caret in the
> content, it also has various tags display modes which may be useful to
> properly place the cursor. Maybe you can use those instead of the Outline.
>>
>> * I'd like to see text and images without any tags in one window
>> panel and the DITA structure with elements and attributes in a
>> separate panel. I know I can switch off tags and use the Outline
>> view, but I am not sure if this really gives me full control over
>> everything...
>>
> The Oxygen Outline is mostly intended to show the structure of the
> content and allow you to select elements.
>>
>> * How does oXygen visualize conditionalized content
>> (included/excluded via a ditaval file)?
>>
> Here's a link to the Oxygen user guide:
>
> https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/25.0/ug-editor/topics/dita-profiling-conditional-text.html
>
> with some videos/webinars referenced at the end.
>
>> * Can I define a fixed page size in oXygen? I'd like to set a page
>> width (height is not important) to make sure that images fit on
>> the page and that table columns are not too narrow (in PDF
>> deliverables). Setting an image resolution is also important.
>>
> By default Oxygen shows a US-letter outline around an edited DITA
> topic. But this does not impose maximum width constraints, in a way in
> this regard Oxygen behaves more like a web browser, not like a PDF
> renderer.
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Radu
>
> Radu Coravu
> Oxygen XML Editor
>
>
> On 12/6/22 18:42, Frank Dissinger wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>> Are there any passionate long-term structured FrameMaker users who
>> have changed to oXygen as a DITA editor? Has anybody tried to set up
>> the oXygen authoring environment as close as possible to FrameMaker's
>> WYSIWYG view? Or at least in a way that makes the switch as painless
>> as possible for a FrameMaker user?
>>
>>
>> I've been using FrameMaker V11+DITA-FMx as a DITA editor for many
>> years -- until recently also as a PDF transformation engine, which I
>> have now replaced with MiramoPDF. I have used oXygen for a few years
>> only and mostly as a transformation engine. With FM I am stuck with
>> an old DITA implementation and the DITA-FMx plug-in is not developed
>> any further. This is why I would like to use oXygen as a DITA editor
>> instead. But I find it very hard to make the switch: The way DITA
>> maps, topics, tags, structures... are presented is so different and I
>> haven't the time to learn oXygen properly and in full detail. It's
>> such a powerful tool with tons of features. So I thought there may be
>> someone who can help me getting started -- at least with setting up
>> the user interface and authoring environment.
>>
>>
>> A few examples of things I am struggling with right away when I look
>> at how oXygen presents my DITA files:
>>
>> * It seems that a DITA map loads all the referenced submaps and
>> displays all of these maps in a single window panel (as if this
>> was a single file). In FM I see only the references and open the
>> submaps as separate files by double-clicking on them.
>> * I feel lost in these maps. There are lots of big fonts, frames,
>> colored backgrounds, icons... Can I customize the appearance? For
>> example, by defining CSS-like styles for the DITA elements
>> displayed on the screen?
>> * The Outline view is a bit similar to FM's Structure View. But I
>> am used to setting the cursor into the Structure View to
>> precisely define the point where to insert an element. This does
>> not work in oXygen.
>> * I'd like to see text and images without any tags in one window
>> panel and the DITA structure with elements and attributes in a
>> separate panel. I know I can switch off tags and use the Outline
>> view, but I am not sure if this really gives me full control over
>> everything...
>> * How does oXygen visualize conditionalized content
>> (included/excluded via a ditaval file)?
>> * Can I define a fixed page size in oXygen? I'd like to set a page
>> width (height is not important) to make sure that images fit on
>> the page and that table columns are not too narrow (in PDF
>> deliverables). Setting an image resolution is also important.
>> * ...
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>> Frank
>>
>> _._,_
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
*Frank Dissinger*
Documentation Manager
....................................................................
*CGS Publishing Technologies International GmbH*
*Email *frank.dissinger at cgs-oris.com | *Web* www.cgs-oris.com
<http://www.cgs-oris.com/>
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*Phone* +49 6182 9626-27 | *Fax* +49 6182 9626-99
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