Strong DITA integration into FM Technical Communication Suite

[_Peter_Robisch_]

My motivation to vote for a strong DITA integration is that I can imagine the FM Technical Communication Suite as an very appropriate tool to support the DITA Learning and Training Content Specialization in a smart way.
That's important as on April 1, 2008 the DITA Technical Committee has approved Design Proposal 12058 for inclusion of the DITA specialization for learning and training content in the formal design plan for DITA 1.2.

My long-term vision for the FM Technical Communication Suite is, for example,

* write your quiz is FM and use it in Adobe Captivate

My short-term vision the for the FM Technical Communication Suite is
* improve the usability of the DITA plugin for technical writers

Looking forward to a user-to-user discussion about which smart DITA integration into the FM Technical Communication Suite.

[_Peter_Robisch_]

b Smart Language Identification

GOAL
FM DITA plugin uses the xml attribute for language identification
to set

Proposal
The language identification attribute is
xml:lang
see
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006#sec-lang-tag

A scretch of an implementation:

Change the entry for the attribute xml:lang in the related EDDs from
Name: xml:lang String Optional
to
Name: xml:lang Choice Optional
Choices: en-US | de-DE
Default: en-US

Note: en-US means language(englisch)-country(USA)
A smart integration would
* language-country codes for all combinations supported by FM

* May be the drop-down list of
ParagraphFormatting/PropertiesFont/Language
can view the lanuage-country codes, too

* TextFormatRules similar to this one are necessary
If
Specification Concept[xml:lang="de-DE"]
ParagraphFormatting
PropertiesFont
Language
Deutsch

Well, my current workaround is I add a version of the above TextFormatRule to all elements which are specificied in the 'info-types' variable of the topic.edd

Any smarter workarounds known?

[_Peter_Robisch_]

b improve format rules of <ul> in <linkinfo><br /><br />b Issue<br /> While there is an indention use by linkinfo, <br /> using an ul item does not have such an idention<br /><br />(I keeps this here for bug tracking.)<br /><br />BTW would it be nice if Adobe would open a plattform the DITA related edd are under source control and bugtracker informs about the tought behind the changes.

[_Peter_Robisch_]

b Better text editing support in the structured view

b Issue
Of course for writing structure documents the structured view is the main feature one will use. FM currently only display the first characters of an text entry. You type further, but you want see the written text in the structured view. You always have to bring in front the normal text view to see the written text.

This limitation of FM is one which strongly minimizes the usability. IMHO this limitation does not make sense any more as computer nowadays typically are more powerful and screens are much broader today.

b Proposal

In the old days of computer programing 80 characters was the optimal column width. So I propose to wrap by a width of 80 characters in structure view. (If someone really has a too small screen he might use an option to change the wrapping width. )