Intelligent Content for DITA XML

The Agile Path for Creating Manuals to Mandated XML Standards and Business Rules

Configurable and Customizable for any XML Schema
Supports Round-trip between Microsoft Word and XML
Creates Metadata
Enhanced Collaboration
Integration Friendly
Increased Accuracy and Consistency
Supports document ownership and control
 
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Interested in seeing it in action? Send us a sample document and we will convert it for free!
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What is icTools for DITA?

icTools for DITA enables authoring and converting content to DITA using Microsoft Word. Technical documentation departments will save time and significantly reduce cost by utilizing Intelligent Content Tools that ensure compliance with style guides, integration with enterprise systems along with extensive co-authoring and editing features.

  • Word to DITA
  • Customized Templates
  • Document Tools for Each Role - icTools includes tools for authors, reviewers, editors, analysts, and publishers to easily contribute to the document workflow.
  • Real-time Collaboration
  • Automation
    • Alt text in the document vs. individual images.
  • Content re-use - Reuse content across multiple source formats / XML stored neutral to publication. Multiple audiences (kindle, laptop, tablet, however content is needed)
  • Publish more accurate and normalized content/reduce the amount of content that needs to be maintained on an ongoing basis
  • High volume, time-sensitive content conversion

What is ICS for DITA?

ICS for Technical Documents is a cloud-based service for automatically adding DITA XML to your technical documents. Simply upload Microsoft Word documents and ICS for Technical Documents delivers both a tagged Word document, and a DITA XML document.

This software is available as an API, can be "White Labeled" and is offered as an on-premises service.

  • Word to DITA
  • Check documents for compliance with style guides or business rules
  • Format documents to official layouts
  • Structure documents to industry-standard XML such as JATS, DITA, S-1000D, LegalDocML, or your own XML Schema
  • Access structured content within Word to automate workflow tasks
  • High volume, time-sensitive content conversion
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Benefits

Configurable and Customizable for any XML Schema. icTools is easily customized for diverse types of documents and schemas including:

  • MILSTD 40051,
  • S1000-D,
  • DITA, and
  • Your organization's business rules.

Supports Round-trip between Microsoft Word and XML. icTools allows importing of XML files into Microsoft Word with preservation of structure.

Creates Metadata. icTools can automatically create metadata files based on content for delivery to other applications or for internal workflows.

Enhanced Collaboration. Authors, editors, technical writers, proofreaders, and others can edit the document in real-time and use track changes with XML!

Integration Friendly. We can integrate with your PLM or CMS systems because we use Word with XML stored in the document!

Increased Accuracy and Consistency. icTools catch errors, suggest improvements, and ensure that the content adheres to specific guidelines and style requirements.

Supports document ownership and control. icTools allow “managed collaboration” within the document. Various parts of the document can be assigned to different users with role-based authority and features.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you give me an overview of this?

Ictect – the intelligent content company – is pleased to offer this cloud-based service for automation of DITA XML for technical documents. You simply upload Microsoft Word documents and our software (Intelligent Content Server) tags them. You receive a tagged Word document, and a DITA XML document.

We are also offering this as an on-premise service that you can run on your own.

What is a tagged Word document?
With Ictect’s patented technology, Microsoft Word is enhanced to maintain tags (or XML structure) in the document. You can open a tagged Word document in Microsoft Word or in Office 365 as an ordinary document. With Ictect’s plug-in Intelligent Content Tools (icTools), you can view and edit document structure in Word.icTools_Journals

 

Who is this service for?

We are offering this service to techpub departments, service providers, solution developers or anyone interested in converting their documents to DITA.

How is it licensed?

There is a setup fee, determined based on the complexity of your documents and your customizations of DITA. Then, there is per-document fee for conversion.

For larger volumes (100,000 pages or more), the setup fee is waived.

For on-premise installations, there is one-time licensing fee for software. In addition, there is fee for software configuration, and an annual maintenance fee.

Who is using it?

Ictect’s patented software (US patent #7,251,777) has the unique “schema-driven auto-tagging” capability. It handles formatting and content variations in the documents, and tags documents to the granular level (for example, deep tagging in concept or tasks). It also highlights any issues encountered in the documents (typically, content that does not conform to the spirit of the style guide). That makes correcting non-conforming documents easy in Microsoft Word.

We work closely with our customers. We update software configuration for specific customers for frequently encountered issues in the documents. This improves the degree of automation. The more you use the software, the higher the degree of automation.

For a full discussion of this, we suggest you sign up for a demonstration with your sample documents.

Tagging technical documents has been a manual process for many years. How does this automate it?

Ictect’s patented software (US patent #7,251,777) has the unique “schema-driven auto-tagging” capability. It handles formatting and content variations in the documents, and tags documents to the granular level (for example, deep tagging in concept or tasks). It also highlights any issues encountered in the documents (typically, content that does not conform to the spirit of the style guide). That makes correcting non-conforming documents easy in Microsoft Word.

We work closely with our customers. We update software configuration for specific customers for frequently encountered issues in the documents. This improves the degree of automation. The more you use the software, the higher the degree of automation.

For a full discussion of this, we suggest you sign up for a demonstration with your sample documents.

What types of documents does it handle?
Intelligent Content Server handles unstructured documents as well as styled documents.
Do you require specific styles to be applied to the documents?

All that you have to do is to apply styles to the headings of Concepts, References and Tasks. This document preparation step takes just a couple minutes for a typical 50 page document. After this, all the tagging is automated by Intelligent Content Server.

Can you handle customizations to DITA?
Yes, as part of setup, we configure the software to deliver you DITA with your customizations.
How long does it take to setup?

There are two primary factors that determine the setup time:

  • The complexity of your documents (how consistent they are, how conforming they are to the style guide, etc.).
  • The degree of customization your organization has for DITA

Depending upon these, the setup time may be days to weeks.

What is the turn-around time?
Once the software is configured, tagging a document takes less than a minute!
How do I convert documents that have complex issues?

Intelligent Content Server will highlight issues encountered in the documents in the tagged Word document. You can make corrections and re-submit the document. Or, you can use Ictect’s Microsoft Word plug-in icTools for editing content and structure.

Is this for legacy document conversion or for ongoing publications?
This service is for both types of documents.
Can you convert PDF documents as well?
You can use a good PDF to Word converter before submitting documents. Some clean-up will be necessary. If you would like, Ictect can provide a quote to do this.
Is there an API available?
Yes, we invite solution developers to embed this in their solutions. This is a cloud-based system, and can be integrated in your cloud-based offering. Currently, our system is based on Microsoft Azure cloud.