2.0.00 - 14 April 2014

Changes that may affect content migration

New features

Generate Book from Map dialog

A dialog has been added to the Generate Book from Map command. This dialog lets you select the output book file name as well as select a ditaval file to apply to the build. The selected book name persists between builds and remains associated with each DITA map. This dialog also lets you access the Book Build Settings dialog and create/edit the associated book-build INI file.

Keyspace Manager dialog

Lets you specify a root map as the source for a keyspace. The keyspace can optionally be filtered by a ditaval file.

For details, see Keyspace Manager.

Key reference support for xrefs, links and conrefs

The Reference Manager allows you to select a key and a sub-element within the referenced file to specify the keyref for xrefs, links and conrefs.

For details, see Using the Reference Manager.

Conref range support

The Reference Manager lets you specify the end element for a conref range.

For details, see Using the Reference Manager.

Key element reference support

The Insert Key Element Reference command lets you insert an element whose content is defined by content within a key definition.

For details, see Insert Key Element Reference.

Glossary term keyref support

When inserting a key element reference to a glossary entry, by default, the content of the glossary term (glossterm element) is included in the term element.

If you enable Glossary Term Swapping (in the Book Build Options dialog) and your glossary topic provides a glossSurfaceForm element and a glossAlt abbreviation, the first instance of the term in a chapter will use the glossSurfaceForm value and the rest will use the glossAlt value.

Insert Image dialog provides keyref support

The Insert Image dialog provides easy access to image properties and referencing methods.

Coderef support

Non-DITA content references can be created with the coderef element. This is ideal for documentation that uses code samples.

For details, see Using coderefs.

FrameMaker variable support has been enhanced

The Prepare Variables and Rebuild Variables commands have been removed and the Auto-Prepare Variables on Save option has been replaced with a new Convert Variables to fm-var Elements option. The new fm-var element round-trips to DITA as a ph element. This allows you to insert FrameMaker variables at any time and those variables will be rebuilt when the file is opened later.

When opening a file from DITA-FMx 1.1 that used the old ph/@keyref=’fmvar:VARNAME’ markup, it will convert into the new format.

New auto-prolog options

Added “new author” option to support multiple authors of the same document. Also, now provides support for auto-prolog control in maps.

For details, see Auto-Prolog Options.

Automatically adds author and date to draft-comments

When inserting a draft-comment element, the author and date are added to the element.

Provides control of when navtitles are added to maps

Navtitle elements can be added to a map on file open or only on topicref insertion (or not at all). This is controlled in the Map Options dialog.

Set Attributes dialog is available in three sizes

The DITA-FMx Set Attributes dialog/pod can be set to small, medium, and large depending on your needs. If you have enabled the “filtergroups” feature to make use of attribute value checkboxes, the small dialog supports up to 10 checkboxes, medium supports up to 20, and large supports up to 40. Each checkbox option name will now display up to 24 characters.

Additional support for table formatting and layout

Tables can now make use of the outputclass attribute to assign custom ruling and shading to rows and cells. Also, the new Preserve Table Widths option provides better control over the width of tables, and the Indent Table to Parent Element option allows control over table indents (both are found in the Authoring Options dialog).

For details, see Working with Tables.

Added support for imagemaps

The Insert Imagemap Data command (on the Utilities menu) lets you import map data created by a third party application (or by hand) from an XHTML file. This transfers the map data (area, shape, coords, xref) into the DITA imagemap element.

The Test Hotspots command is keyboard-only and accessed via the shortcut Esc,T,H. It draws rectangles on the imagemap image to represent the “rect” hot spots.

The BuildImagemapHotspots book-build INI option generates “hot spot” regions in an image based on the area data provided by an imagemap element. To make use of this option use the BuildImagemapHotspots setting in the BookBuildOverrides section of the book-build INI file. A value of “1” enables the option and a value of “0” disables it.

Structure application updates

New structure applications based on the DITA 1.2 model are provided.

Refer to the DITA-FMx_1.2\common\_info.fm file in the structure application folder for details.

The structure of the default DITA-FMx EDDs have been modified to support the $attribute syntax in the Initial Table Format context rule. This allows the table object element definitions to apply the format stored in the outputclass attribute, without needing to explicitly list all table formats in the template. For details, see Working with Tables.

Note: A “Learning” application is provided (in the Topic folder), but it is not considered to be production-ready. It is provided for testing purposes only and will be updated in a future release.

Bug fixes / minor updates

Added the FmDpiUseOutputclass parameter

By default, when using the “fmdpi” feature, DITA-FMx will now use the outputclass attribute to store the DPI data instead of the otherprops attribute as used in DITA-FMx 1.1. If you want to continue using the otherprops attribute, set the FmDpiUseOutputclass parameter to “0”. This change only affects how files are written; any existing images that use otherprops for this data will still render correctly regardless of the setting.

The FmXrefUseOutputclass parameter now defaults to “1”

By default, when saving an fm-xref, the cross-reference format name is stored in the outputclass attribute instead of the type attribute. This more accurately follows the intent of these attributes.

Allow specification of topic and map ID in New DITA File dialog

When creating a new topic or map, the proposed ID is included in a field that may be edited if you have a requirement for an alternate value.

New File Name Options are now available for maps

When creating a new map, the map file name is automatically generated based on the title, according to the New Map File Name Format option.

Insert File As dialog displays for new files in map

If the insertion point is in a map when creating a new topic file, you are prompted to select the type of element to insert into the map.

Added $T_D and $TOPIC_ID building blocks

The $T_D building block provides a 1 or 2 digit date, and $TOPIC_ID is a replacement for $UNIQUEID.

Added limited support for image/alt text

Image alt text (via the alt element as a child of image) is available for editing in FrameMaker through the Object Properties (Object Attributes) dialog. The alt text is stored as an object attribute of the image’s anchored frame, then written back to a proper alt element on file save.

Added browse button to External Xref dialog

To assist in linking to non-DITA content a browse button has been added.

Provide option to customize the New File shortcut keys

Two new INIOnly ditafmx.ini settings are available to define custom shortcut keys for the New File menu commands. Refer to the documentation on NewMapShortcuts and NewTopicShortcuts.

Update to the ApplyTemplates book-build feature

The ApplyTemplates book-build option now selects all available formats when importing from the template(s) to the generated files. Previously for FM10 and later, some of the formats were not imported.

Added ShowBuildTimes book-build INI option

This option prints the current build time of each step in the book-build process, which can help in debugging. To enable this option, add a ShowBuildTimes=1 entry to the General section. A value of “1” enables the option and a value of “0” disables it.

Added FilterByAttribute book-build INI option

In some cases, the filtering provided by the Filter By Attribute command (FM10 and later) may be preferable to that currently provided by the DITA-FMx mapping of ditavals to conditions. To make use of this filtering option use the FilterByAttribute setting in the BookBuildOverrides section of the book-build INI file.

Set the value of the FilterByAttribute entry to ATTR-EXPRESSION>CONDITION-NAME. Where ATTR-EXPRESSION is the attribute build expression (must exist in the template), and CONDITION-NAME is the name of the condition to apply (also must exist in the template).

When the FilterByAttribute entry is enabled, ditaval filtering is not performed, even if specified.

For additional information, see “Filter by Attribute” in Filtering Content.

Added RetagElements book-build INI option

In an attempt to overcome an elusive FrameMaker formatting bug, this new setting lets you specify a space-delimited list of element names that are “retagged” at the end of the book-build process. This seems to correct the formatting of paragraphs that contain multiple inline elements.

To enable this option, add a RetagElements entry to the BookBuildOverrides section. The value for this entry is a space-delimited list of elements to retag. This problem seems to occur most in <li> and <note> elements, but may happen elsewhere.

Added PostPaginationScript book-build INI options

The standard Script options run before pagination is complete, which may be what’s needed for some scripts, but if you need to run a script after pagination, use this new option. To enable, add the RunPostPaginationScript, PostPaginationScriptName, and PostPaginationScriptArgs entries to the BookBuildOverrides section.

Global structure applications may be used

Structure applications defined in the global structure application definitions file (FM11 and FM12) will now properly be recognized by DITA-FMx.

Authoring options were moved to a new dialog

In an effort to clean up the Options dialog, the settings that were previously in an “Authoring Options” section of the main dialog are now in a sub-dialog accessed via the Authoring Options button.

Additionally, some settings were migrated from the INIOnly section of the ditafmx.ini file to the Authoring Options dialog.

Addressed problems with conref tables and moved table titles

If the “Move table titles” book-build option is enabled, tables that include titles and are included by conref should no longer get deleted.