The State of Structured Authoring (second edition)

Why and how are technical communicators adopting structured authoring? The State of Structured Authoring uses data from a 2011 survey along with analysis from Scriptorium Publishing to answer this critical question.

The State of Structured Authoring is your essential resource for determining whether structured authoring is right for you.

Download in ePub format for $49.99, or buy the printed version from online booksellers.

The DITA Style Guide: Best Practices for Authors

As more companies implement DITA to streamline the development of technical content, the demand for DITA-literate technical communicators is growing.

The DITA Style Guide: Best Practices for Authors provides comprehensive, practical explanations of DITA elements and attributes. Real-world examples and clear recommendations show you how to create consistent, semantically correct DITA content.

Download in ePub format for $9.99, or buy the printed version (248 pages) from online booksellers.

Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Content

Winner, Award of Excellence, STC Carolina Chapter, December 2009

Technical Writing 101 details the skills you need as a technical writer to create both printed and online content. This valuable reference describes the entire development process—planning, writing, visual design, editing, indexing, and production. You also get tips on how to write information that is more easily translated into other languages.

This updated third edition features new information on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard for structured authoring, and it explains the impact of Web 2.0 technologies—blogs, wikis, and forums—on technical communication.

Download now in ePub or PDF format for $9.99, or buy the printed version (328 pages) from online booksellers. Also available in a Kindle edition.

The Compass: Essential Reading about XML, DITA, and Web 2.0 (second edition)

This book is a compilation of our white papers available at scriptorium.com. The papers introduce you to critical tools and technologies, including structured authoring, Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and the DITA Open Toolkit, and user-generated content (blogs, wikis, and fourms).

Buy from online booksellers. 220 pages.

The unstructured interface of FrameMaker 8 is ideal for publishing complex documents. Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8 helps you implement automated workflows that let technical communicators focus on creating content instead of struggling with tedious formatting tasks.

The book also includes a long list of FrameMaker resources and information about add-on software that can further boost your productivity. Written by veteran FrameMaker users, Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8 is the must-have reference for anyone using the unstructured interface of FrameMaker 8.

Order now, $49.99 $29.99. 736 pages.

Written by long-time FrameMaker users Sarah O’Keefe and Sheila Loring, Publishing Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7 shows you how to master the many powerful features of FrameMaker 7. This comprehensive guide explains the basics, such as creating a new document, and advanced topics, such as converting to XML. The book also covers both the structured and unstructured interfaces and explains new features, such as WebDAV.

Formerly published as FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference, Publishing Fundamentals has nearly identical pagination as The Complete Reference. Readers can easily find the same information in either book.

Download now, $39.99 $14.99. 878 pages.