Resources to learn xml-based publishing

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Permalink Reply by Alain Pierrot on September 5, 2008 at 12:59pm

Difficult to give advice from scratch without more specific information about your organisation (size, skills, subcontracting, ...) and what you publish (type, volume, time to market).
I have been involved in structured edition since SGML times, first with reference (dictionaries, encyclopedias), then with how-to, travel...
For the last six years, as an independant consultant, I have helped different (small to medium) publishing units introducing XML workflow in their process, down to semi-automatic lay-out (with XMLMind's XMLEditor mainly and Adobe InDesign) with very different organisations according to the individual situations (liturgy brochures, museum catalogs, scientific reviews/books, university press...).
I'd be glad to share my experience in these matters and help you and your team switch to the new way of thinking, which is the real challenge.

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Permalink Reply by David Henley on September 11, 2008 at 3:55am

Hi Alain,
if there was one thing they agreed on at LBF this year it was that XML was the way of the future. No matter what happened with epub, pdf or whatever, a few publishers said that they were going to make their workflow all XML based.

Do you need this XML Mind program or does InDesign have everything you need?

Do you know of any books or websites as we've found Adobe's information a little lacking for time-pressed techies.

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Permalink Reply by Alain Pierrot on September 13, 2008 at 10:21am

First, follow Sarah's advice and go through the white papers, before considering tools.

Getting external help to audit your actual process, identify opportunities, in-house skills, and assess the benefits you should expect from XML would be the next step I would recommend.

Define with your consultant a pilot project, with a motivated project leader (ideally an editor — they are usually the most affected by the new workflow) and involve all the actors in the discussion.

Choice of tools should be easier then. And keep in mind at all time Dave's excellent advice: "look for the tools that make life easier for the team"

(Btw, Adobe's InDesign by itself definitely lacks a lot of features to take advantage of XML structured data.)

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Permalink Reply by Brett Stone on September 5, 2008 at 4:45pm

My company is predominately involved in print-based publishing of texts for teaching complex procedures, and we have DVD training material as well. We are, however, venturing toward more web-based and interactive media. I see our first foray into xml publishing having the goal of initially producing both the print rendition, some type of short-run on-demand reprint, and an on-line sampler of our book (presenting the book material in a manner more fitting for the web.)
We are a staff of about 15 people, including editors, design and layout, editorial, and production. Our primary workflow ends with Xpress documents and PDF files for printing, and all the usual Adobe graphics software is used, too. Our current web-based offerings use Flash, Dreamweaver, and some proprietary tools.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah O'Keefe on September 11, 2008 at 3:30pm

We have a pile of white papers on XML, structured authoring, XML implementation, and so on:

link

And, like others, we're consultants and are happy to help out.

But my advice is to start with the white papers. Get an idea of the process of moving to XML-based authoring and take it from there. It's my opinion that change management is by far the most challenging part of the transition, and so a lot of my writing focuses on that issue.

Sarah

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Permalink Reply by Travis Bryant on November 17, 2008 at 12:25am

Thank you for sharing the link to all the white papers. This is a HUGE resource!

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Permalink Reply by Dave Pawson on September 12, 2008 at 10:02am

Firstly stop thinking media and start thinking in terms of sufficient markup that easy transformations could get you the style you need. Don't go xml-print then transform to others, that's wasteful.

Define the process you need, then look for the tools to support that process. Once you're happy with a good process look for the tools that make life easier for the team, they're likely to be the most suitable.

HTH

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Permalink Reply by Richard Pipe on November 13, 2008 at 9:46am

OK, I am a bit behind replying to this in November...
This may be of interest to you in your quest for knowledge on XML workflows and reducing production time.
We have just launched an Online application that simultaneously creates print, Online, eBook, CD-ROM and SCORM formats/packages from a single XML instance- all available instantly. It is designed forOnline collaboration between editors, composers, designers, etc. We developed it working with a text-book major for reusable Content Objects and are launching a full interactive demo site in the next week.
So far we have used it for basic T&R, academic - without equations (that is on the way - as long as you do MathML), and textbooks, with topical localization and regional reprint reflows to lower plate investment being important. Dramatic production cost reduction, shorter time to market and faster monetization of content have been major drivers.
Because it supports multi-output formats at the same time, it is not WYSIWIG, and it is a multi-layer template driven environment, so it will not be everyones "tada". I agree with Sarah here - the real issue is change management - XML and technology is the given. Depending on the publishing sector this is easy to impossible. Dave's point is important. It is really wasteful to go to print and then to other formats.
Our application may show you more about the ability of XML to "deliver it all". If you would like a login, demo or more information please just ask. We would be more than happy to run a book through the system for you if the material is suitable - and as long as it doesn't have equations!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Trippe on February 7, 2009 at 8:03pm

We have a number of white papers at Gilbane.com, and blog about this regularly. Everything is free to download.

There are a couple of good books out there:

A Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML: Harness the Power of ...

XML in a Nutshell, which also has good primers on XSLT and XSL-FO

As others mentioned, consultants can be useful here, as well as the professional services groups of vendors who sell publishing technology.

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