Generating a Book from DITA Map

[Alex_Masycheff]

Hi All,

In the DITA-FMx plugin developed by Leximation, there's a feature called Generate Book from Map. It allows me to create a FrameMaker book from a DITA map or bookmap and then do whatever I can do with any FrameMaker book, including create a PDF.

Is there anything similar in the native Adobe's DITA plugin? How can I get to a book from a DITA map/bookmap?

Thanks in advance!

[Guest]

Hi Alex--

It's not a straight forward process, but it's doable.

You don't say what version of DITA or FrameMaker you are using, but you mention the "Adobe DITA plug-in," which hasn't been a plugin for quite a while. I only have experience with FM10 and DITA 1.2. This is what I must do to create a book to print.

For me I have one "book level" ditamap that has several submaps in it. Each submap corresponds to a chapter. The book level ditamap lacks the front matter, ToC, and IX. Those get added later.

1. From my ditamap I must choose File > Save Ditamap As..

2. In the Save as type field I choose Composite Document 10 (.fm).

With the composite .fm file, insert it into a FrameMaker book file, add any front matter (copyright, etc), add/create your ToC and IX, update/generate, and then print as you normally would.

-Lief

[Alex_Masycheff]

Hi Lief,

Thanks a lot! You are correct, I'm using FrameMaker 10. What you are writing makes a perfect sense to me. With the Adobe plugin, more interim steps are required, but at least now I understand the process.

I'd like to ask you one more thing if you don't mind: is there any way to apply .ditaval files to a DITA map when generating FM files or a book? In the DITA-FMx plugin, there's a feature that let me do this very easily. Is there anything in the Adobe's plugin?

Again, many thanks,

Alex

[Guest]

Yes, you can use a ditaval file. When you choose Composite Document 10 from the Save As dialog, there is an option that you can select that says "Prompt for DitaVal file". Select it, and click Save. You'll be prompted for your ditaval file.

[Alex_Masycheff]

Thanks, Lief!

But I've just realized something. If I have to save each submap (which represents a single chapter) as a Composite document and then assemble Composite documents into an FM book, this means that I can't add a relationship table to the entire master map because the entire map is actually an FM book. And it's not possible to add a reltable to an FM book.

Is it correct or I'm missing something?

Thanks!

Alex

[Guest]

We ran into the same problem. Here's how we solved it. We have a main ditamap that contains several submaps. The submaps represent chapters. The main ditamap represents all of the chapters and is essentially all of the internals of a book except the front and back matter. So instead of trying to use a ditamap to recreate each chapter and save each of those as a composite, we just save the main ditamap (which has the reltables) as the composite file. We add that one composite file to our book. This is how our ditamap and the FrameMaker book are structured.

main_ditamap

--chp1.ditamap

--chp2.ditamap

--chp3.ditamap

etc.

fm_book.book

--front_cover.fm

--legal.fm

--fm_bookTOC.fm

--main_ditamap.fm  << this is produced from the above main_ditamap which has the reltables

--fm_bookIX.fm

--back_cover.fm

Does that make sense?

[Alex_Masycheff]

Aha! Lief, that's makes a perfect sense.

Thank you very much!

Alex