Content writers love structured XML authoring
with Elkera Utilities for XMetaL Author

Problems with off-the-shelf structured authoring tools

Many enterprises refrain from adopting structured content management strategies because of author resistance to change. Others attempt to introduce change without properly planning for the needs of content writers. They may encounter substantial difficulties in training and supporting writers who find structured authoring tools to be unsatisfactory. These problems can be avoided.

The root cause of these problems is that off-the-shelf XML authoring applications are designed for use with arbitrary XML DTDs or schema with very different designs. They are really just toolkits and do not provide a convenient authoring interface for any particular DTD or schema. Even DTD or schema specific implementations often fail to meet acceptable standards of usability.

General purpose XML authoring applications impose a high tagging overhead that can interfere with the task of creating content. Writers may need to understand complex DTD or schema rules before they can even begin to start work. It can be difficult to train writers who are new to XML authoring. Depending on the design of the DTD or schema, there may be many different ways to validly markup a content object, resulting in inconsistent content markup.

If these issues are not addressed early in the planning stages, the enterprise may encounter high training and support costs, high staff turnover, delays in system roll out and high costs of data conversion or rectification as workarounds are introduced. These problems may completely undermine the effectiveness of the XML based content management and publishing strategy.

To overcome these problems it is necessary to carefully customize the XML authoring interface to the chosen DTD or schema so that structured authoring is a benefit, not a burden to content writers.

Planning for the needs of writers

The Elkera Utilities for XMetaL Author address this problem for content writers using XMetaL Author. They permit development of structured authoring applications that content authors will want to use in place of their word processor. They provide the means to completely re-think structured content management strategies and reduce costs for the lifetime of the system.

XMetaL Author is the leading XML editor, according to an independent report in 2004 Choosing an XML editor. Notwithstanding this acclaim, XMetaL Author still requires extensive customization to the customer's DTD or schema for it to really meet the usability needs of structured content writers.

The Elkera Utilities extend XMetaL Author to enable the development of XML authoring applications that provide exceptional usability for XML content authors. An XMetaL Author customization based on the Elkera Utilities enables customers to reduce training effort, speed up application roll out, minimize support costs and improve the quality and consistency of XML content.

The Elkera Utilities for XMetaL Author allow authors to concentrate on what they know best – content.

Pre-configured XML authoring solutions

Elkera is developing ready to use XMetaL Author configurations for popular, standard DTD's and schema with the Elkera Utilities for XMetaL Author.

A configuration for the Elkera BNML schema is available in the Elkera XML-2-Go Suite for BNML. Support for DITA through a configuration to enhance the XMetaL DITA Edition will be available in a future release.