Upcoming Dates
This class is scheduled on demand but we offer a publicly available, lite version of this class that is focused on Learning DITA. See our Public Calendar for specific delivery dates.
In this workshop your team will develop a core set of structured authoring best practices, style guidelines, and have identified information patterns that are unique to your organizational content based on your desired customer experience.
An intense, exercise-driven workshop, our mentoring approach will develop the skills to analyze content, do architecture analysis, and to convert/develop content in your staff.
Not only will your team learn the basics of DITA, but they will walk away with a project partially completed. They will gain a solid understanding about how your corporate content best fits into the DITA model. Through the exercises, your team will gain the in-house expertise that is repeatable and consistently applied across all team members because they have worked together to construct the consensus-built agreements about how content should be treated.
We all know that content changes as you go after new markets, add new products, or have new output requirements. This workshop gives your staff the confidence to integrate these new requirements into the existing implementation because of this first experience at developing the content model and then applying in concert with an experienced professional.
With us, you learn to create, not simply do.
This workshop is only scheduled on-demand when requested.
This is one of our most popular deliveries, second only to the Affinity Groups. Managers who experience this workshop come back again and again as they travel throughout their careers.
Agenda
Instructor-led training.
On-site
3-5 days
On-line
12-20 hours
Training sessions are broken down into 1-hour classes taught by a live instructor. Each session is paired with practical exercises and homework assignments. Students can share their desktops, allowing instructors to look over their virtual shoulders just as easily as we would their real ones. All students are expected to have their own headset and connection to the web-conferencing software.
Regularly scheduled, limited-impact online training sessions allow students to maintain their work-life balance. Sessions can be scheduled regularly on a daily or weekly basis, providing both convenience and flexibility. Students don't have to put their daily workload on hold in order to meet learning goals.
Because training is spread out over a longer period of time, learning and retention is higher overall. We have found that online, discussion-based, training provides lasting results that carry over more effectively than a week-long, in-person classes that are often quickly forgotten.
Topics may include
- Review of DITA concepts, common elements, and attributes
- Identifying Topic Types (in practice)
- Discussion and consensus
- Converting content to DITA
- Writing good topics
- "Focus on" Modules (In-depth modules to promote consistent authoring of good DITA topics)
- Reuse (strategies, types, best practices)
- Referencing (xref, conref, key/keyref, warehouse topics, architectures)
- Graphics
- Linking
- Maps
(Optional) Special Topics for Arbortext Users
- Arbortext's DITA-enabled user interface
- Using the Resource Manager
- Working with Maps
- Working with Referenceable content (Keys, Graphics, Conrefs, Links, etc)
(Optional) Special Topics for Arbortext Windchill Users
- Workspaces overview
- Accessing workspaces
- Fundamentals
- Best Practices
- Updating graphics
- Search strategies
I love the pace [of the online DITA Workshop]. This has been a good learning experience for me. The content is presented in an easy to understand way. And Liz has been very patient with me. Thank you all for your help!!
Workshop Instructor
Liz Fraley, Single-Sourcing Solutions, is a serial entrepreneur. She’s founded two companies, sits on the boards of three non-profits, and is constantly coming up with new ways to share knowledge in the technical communications and content industries. She has worked in high-tech and government sectors, at companies of all different sizes (from startups to huge enterprises). She advocates approaches that directly improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and interoperability. If you ask her, she’ll say she’s happiest when those around her are successful.
Want to bring this workshop to your staff?
This workshop is always connected to your staff, your organization, and your customers because it is built on top of your content in collaboration with you. With us, your team will stop resisting, stop sabotaging. Instead, they'll be eager to create DITA content.
Key concepts
arbortext content manager (windchill), dita, dita keys, topic based writing
Filed under
Single-Sourcing Exclusive, Workshops