Products

Author

• Arbortext S1000D Authoring
• Arbortext ATA Spec 1000BR Authoring

Validate

• S1000D BREX-Schematron Validation

Print

• S1000D Data Module to PDF
• ATA Spec 1000BR Data Module to PDF
• S1000D Data Module to HTML5

Publish

• S1000D Publication Module to PDF
• ATA Spec 1000BR CMP to PDF
• S1000D POH/AFM to PDF

Arbortext S1000D Authoring

When developing S1000D stylesheets for Arbortext Editor, it is sometimes easy to forget the Author and to focus predominantly on the printed output. Yes, it is important to get a good quality PDF file for QA review, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of the Authoring experience.

Arbortext Editor from the Authors Point-of-View

With our S1000D Data Module to PDF stylesheets taking care of the PDF output, we were able to spend the time looking at Arbortext Editor purely from an authoring point-of-view.

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S1000D_Lite at a glance

Support for multiple languages.

Our Arbortext Editor S1000D_Lite stylesheets can be translated into multiple languages.

 

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Arbortext Editor only

In order to create the most cost-effective Arbortext Authoring solution, we decided to standardize on Arbortext Editor. This means you only need a licence of Arbortext Editor and not the more expensive Arbortext Styler.

 

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Arbortext Editor Screen Composition only

Our Arbortext Editor stylesheets are for authoring only and do not include Print (if you require Print, please see next item below). This means the Arbortext Editor stylesheets were much simpler to develop and will require less time to support. The licence cost per user is therefore priced accordingly.

 

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Arbortext Editor print capability

If an Author requires the option to Print, then our additional S1000D Data Module to PDF stylesheets can be plugged into Arbortext Editor to fulfil this Author requirement. Our S1000D Data Module to PDF stylesheets come fully configured and do not require the optional Arbortext Print Composer licence.

Our S1000D Data Module to PDF stylesheets can also be setup as a standalone S1000D Batch Print solution. This would allow the user to batch convert an entire folder of S1000D Data Modules.

This method of separating the Authoring environment from the Print & Publish capability means the S1000D Print, S1000D Batch Print and S1000D Publish processes are all using a single, common set of stylesheets.

Our common stylesheet approach avoids the scenario where different stylesheets create different outputs and introduce issues like:

• The Print for review PDF file does not match the final Published PDF
• Different PDF output methods with different layout rules might have a different number of pages
• A layout fix would have to be implemented in each of the separate stylesheets

 

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S1000D issue, schema and doctype identifier

If your organisation has multiple S1000D projects and each of the projects uses a different S1000D issue, then this has the potential to lead to an S1000D issue mix-up. The S1000D issue, schema and doctype identifier located at the top of the Arbortext Edit View window, means the Author always has somewhere to quickly verify the exact details of the current Data Module.

 

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Screen readable typeset

While the Arial or Helvetica typeset is usually used in the S1000D Published output PDF file, that does not necessarily mean it is the best typeset for on-screen reading. After a bit of research about the different on-screen fonts, we standardised the screen output using the Verdana font, a typeset designed to make on-screen reading easier.

 

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Pastel colour scheme

If an Author is going to spend most of their working day looking at our S1000D_Lite Authoring environment, we felt it was important to review the Arbortext Editor default primary colours and look at something a little more all-day friendly. After a bit of research, we found the Authors were already familiar with the "standard" Arbortext Editor colour scheme, so we decided to stick with the same familiar scheme but toned everything down to use pastel colours.

 

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On screen prompts

Arbortext Editor includes a feature to close elements in the Edit View window to make better use of the screen area. This is a standard Arbortext Editor feature but if an Author is switching between different applications for the different project tasks, it is easy to forget the exact key-combination so in our S1000D_Lite Authoring environment, we have provided some on-screen prompts.

 

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Attribute markers

Later issues of S1000D tend to be more attribute-centric and as such, we have introduced Attribute markers as a visual prompt for the Author. Where the Author sees the "@" symbol preceding some auto-generated text, this is a prompt to let them know the auto-generated text contains attribute value(s).

 

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Attribute sort order

The Modify Attributes dialog has been configured to display all attributes in the same order as they appear in the schema. This means attributes in things like the Data Module Code appear in the DMC order.

 

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Attribute aliases

In later issues of S1000D, many of the attribute values were standardised on a linked 01-99 numbered list. This method separated the attribute from the text value, which meant the attribute text values could be managed by projects in a more structured way. However, this meant the Author is not seeing anything meaningful when populating an attribute.

For example, if the @internalRefTargetType attribute is populated with the value "irtt07" then what does that mean?

By using Attribute aliases, we are able to provide the Author with a more meaningful value of: "irtt07_Paragraph".

 

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Inline Group attributes

Also in later issues of S1000D is the inclusion of Inline Group attributes. These are a common Group of attributes that can be populated in just about any element throughout the Data Module to create an inline change to the following:

• Change
• Applicability
• Security
• Authority

A project will need to decide how to use these Inline Group attributes but in our S1000D_Lite Authoring environment, we have created colour coded markers to ensure these Inline Group attributes are always visible to the Author.

 

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Change highlighting

Our S1000D_Lite Authoring environment will highlight any content marked as "Changed" with a light grey background. This provides a clear visual marker for the Author.

Where the @reasonForUpdateRefIds attribute has been populated, the linked "Reason for update" text will appear in the Inline Change marker.

 

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External references

When referencing out from a Data Module, the required linking structure includes a number of elements and attributes and does not easily fit into the Edit View window.

In our S1000D_Lite Authoring environment, all links out from a Data Module are formatted with a blue background (to indicate an external link) and the full link structure is contained within a set of "block" link marker lines.

This link method makes best use of the available screen area and when the Author is happy with the link structure, they can close the link to make the document flow better.

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Assisted Start-up

Docuneering can provide an Assisted Start-up for this product.

Assisted start-up is a customer-centric blend of product setup support, initial Arbortext familiarisation and a customer specific workshop to ensure you are up and running.

For more information, please...

Get in touch

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