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Capt_Janeway
Known Participant
July 12, 2011
Question

How do I change the text for the prereq element to "Before you begin"

  • July 12, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1649 views

Hi,

I am creating structured docs in DITA (eventually to be published online using RoboHelp), and I want to make, for example, the following changes:

- Change prereq element label text to "Before you begin"

- Add a label to the context element that says "About this topic"

- Change the steps element label text to "Procedure"

- Remove the "Additional Information" label for the step info element.

You get the idea. Can someone at least point me in the right direction? Will I need to create an EDD? Modify the existing one? Something else altogether? Can you point me to the chapter in the Help that covers how to do this?

Thanks!!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
July 12, 2011

Hi Capt...

I'm not aware of anything in the documentation that would cover this.

First you'll need to clone the structure application to create an application(s) of your own. You should always create your own rather than modifying the default apps so that you can always go back and use the default apps when yours breaks (it will break, I guarantee it). Here's some information on cloning the default apps ..

http://docs.leximation.com/dita-fmx/1.1/?ditafmx_cloningtapps.html

Note that this was written for DITA-FMx so the paths and filenames won't be what you're looking for, but it should give you the general idea of which files to look for.

Some of the labels you're looking to change may be in the template and some may be in the EDD as an element prefix (off hand I can't say).

However, the real question is .. which version of FM are you using? If FM8 or FM9, this is a reasonable task. If FM10, you're in for quite a chore since the apps are far more complex (if you're using DITA 1.2.)

...scott

Scott Prentice

Leximation, Inc.

www.leximation.com

C
Capt_JanewayAuthor
Known Participant
July 13, 2011

Using Frame 10.....

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
July 13, 2011

DITA 1.2


Well, then you'll need to spend some time carefully analyzing the structure and relationship of the app files. They accurately mirror the structure of the DITA 1.2 DTD files but use text insets, variables, and conditional tagging to import modules and maintain the different general rules for different topic types. I can't even begin to explain what to do. The only documentation on this is provided as notes in the EDD files. The fundamental idea is the same as before ..

1) create a clone of the app(s) you want to modify so you have your own custom apps (be sure to test the validity of the cloned apps before making *any* changes)

2) make your modifications to your custom apps

Someone should fully document this process .. it was complicated for DITA 1.1, but it's really really hard for DITA 1.2.

...scott

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