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Arbortext (www.arbortext.com) Epic Editor is perhaps the best and most
widely used commercial XML Editor on the market. It can do everything an XML
Editor should do. I'd guess the main reason your new client is moving
content from EPIC to Frame is because they do not have any other way of
publishing the content (XML editors were designed to create and edit
content, not publish it). So, if they didn't purchase a publishing engine
from Arbortext, they are likely relying on Frame to help deliver the content
once it is ready to be formatted and published.
Learning Arbortext Epic is fairly easy if you are provided training. If not,
most users never really grasp the big picture and fail to utilize the
powerful capabilities the product makes available. They spend their time
trying to make the software allow them to do things that they are used to
doing (formatting, changing the structure of the document, etc.)
If you are working on a structured authoring content management project, you
will only need to learn to "fill in the blanks" and add content to the
documents on which you are working. That's all authors do in an XML
environment. There is no need to format, style text, paginate, build macros,
fight with the tools, etc. Just author content and save the file and you are
done.
More information about Arbortext Epic can be found here:
You should also consider attending one of the structure authoring courses
offered by firms that advertise on TECHWR-L. You will need to understand
what you are in control of and what is controlled by the software, the DTD
and style sheets. It's a BIG paradigm shift from traditional authoring.
Arbortext also offers a variety of instructor led training. I have taken
abut three weeks worth of courses and have found them to be extremely
valuable!
Cheers,
Scott Abel
Content Management Strategist
14001 Mimosa Court
Noblesville, IN 46060 USA
317-774-8623 voice
abelsp -at- netdirect -dot- net
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