Doxygen to FrameMaker or ?

[LDSchneider]

Hello FrameMaker users,

I need to get Doxygen output (API docs) into a professional-looking format.

1. Is FrameMaker the right tool for this, or is there something better to use?

2. If FrameMaker is the right tool, should I go with structured or non-structured FM?

3. What Doxygen output format is the best to begin working with? (RTF, XML, PDF?!?, ...)

4. Is there an alternative to Doxygen output? (Maybe that's a better first question since it's higher-level...)

Any recommendations, tips, pointers, etc. would be most welcome, since at the moment Word is my default option (ew). I have some preliminary ideas and guesses, but I'd appreciate advice from someone who has actual experience with Doxygen output.

--Laura

P.S.  I'm a career tech writer and quite familiar (15+ years) with unstructured FrameMaker, and love it for tech docs. I've used most of the other tools, too (25+ years).

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So are you authoring in Doxygen already? 

[LDSchneider]

No, the Doxygen is output from C/C++ code. Sorry, I forgot to mention that.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So what output do you need to produce? IIRC, most API help ends up running in a docs-like-code experience being output through some static site generator.

[LDSchneider]

At the moment, we just need traditional print-style PDF files. Doxygen's are terrible, as ever, and we need something that looks like a standard, professional printable reference manual.

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

I guess you could use RTF to import into FM and then tweak with tags to make it pretty. Most suggestions when I did a google of "create PDFs from Doxygen" talk about going to PDF via Latex.

[LDSchneider · Accepted solution]

Thanks, Jeff_Coatsworth, that's what I was seeing, too. I'm leaning toward RTF to FM; the LaTex to PDF route seems like it's a bit... Crude? Maybe that's just my impression from years-ago experience. Thanks for your time! 🙂

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

Hi Laura, I am not familiar with Doxygen, but if it can output XML, I would suggest looking at the XML to Structured FrameMaker route. This should be more reliable and require less clean up than going from RTF to unstructured FrameMaker. I would be glad to look at your files via a web meeting to give you some ideas. There would be no cost for this. Please contact me offlist if you are interested. Thanks. -Rick rick at frameexpert dot com

[LDSchneider]

Thanks, Rick! I'd be happy to learn more about this option. Thank you so much, I'll be in touch.