Yes, I've done EDD files for both the standard and (sadly) the tabular
versions of EAD v.1. It takes a long time to pick up how FM works, and
as with so many of these things you still don't know whether you have
found the best way ...
FM+SGML is remarkably cheap here in the UK - for an educational
institution it is about 130GBP per licence (+ media). I have been
working on it here because it is frequently used as a technical writer's
tool, and many of their requirements are similar to those producing and
maintaining documents like our finding aids.
Good points.
The EDD allows you to refine the EAD DTD - remove all those tags you
never use, set choices in CDATA attributes to control input to local
requirements. As long as it remains a subset of the EAD DTD you will
always generate conformant material while reducing the possibilities of
misusing tags.
Style control is pretty powerful - making for good printed output (a
local requirement) - the printed version can also be saved as PDF, which
makes distributing virtual hardcopy possible, devolving printing costs
etc onto the user.
The interface is flexible, and allows for considerable adjustment.
An extremely knowledgable and helpful set of users.
Bad points
No built in macro language (apart from the UNIX version). This can be
resolved by using a platform specific general macro package (such as
Macro Express). The add on macro language specifically for FM,
Framescript, only exists for the standard product at present, but the
SGML version is "in development".
While the product is almost totally customizable, you need to be a C
programmer to do it.
Graphics and tables work very well but only in the native FM style: if
you have anything else (and the EAD tabular system is about as extreme
an example of pseudo-table as you could hope for) life becomes somewhat
complex.
The styles tend to work better with paragraph sized text flows (this
seems true of most SGML text production tools, as they have been devised
for writing books or manuals). Often handlists are made up of shorter
text units of little more than a line - this really compromises settings
such as widows/orphans or keep with next/previous.
--
Richard Higgins
Durham University Library
Chris Blackall wrote:
>
> Has anyone,
> 1. used the EAD DTD with Adobe Framemaker+SGML 5.5? If so, what were your
> experiences?
> 2. developed a Framemaker application file(EED)based on the EAD DTD?
>
> Before creating a Framemaker application file for the EAD from scratch, can
> anyone point me to an existing one they might be prepared to share? I will
> be using it for a postgraduate research project, not for profit.
> Regards
> __________________________________
> Chris Blackall
> Graduate House
> Australian National University
> Canberra, ACT 0261
> email: [log in to unmask]
> phone: 61 + 2 + 62467428
> ANU ext: 7428
> __________________________________
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