DOCUMENT CONVERSION SERVICES
Softline International (SII) operates one of the industry's largest
document and data conversion service bureaus. In the past year, SII
converted over a million pages to a variety of formats.
SII's service bureau has a reputation as being a least-cost provider
that can offer a timely turnaround with 100% accuracy. Here are some of
the formats SII has converted over the last 20 years:
* Conversions to FrameMaker from:
- BookMaster
- Word
- WordPerfect
- Interleaf
- Venture Publisher
* Conversion to SGML (DocBook, IBMIDDoc, EPCS, and Custom DTDs) from:
- BookMaster
- FrameMaker
- Word
- WordPerfect
- Interleaf
- Ventura Publisher
- HTML
- WinHelp
* Conversion to XML (XDocBook, DITA, EPCS, and Custom DTDs) from:
- BookMaster
- FrameMaker
- Word
- WordPerfect
- Interleaf
- Ventura Publisher
- HTML
- WinHelp
- SGML
* BookMaster to InterLeaf
* FrameMaker to HTML
* SGML to HTML (DocBook, IBMIDDoc, EPCS, and Custom DTDs)
WHY USE SII'S SERVICE BUREAU
There are several advantages to using Softline as your document
conversion specialist:
* More cost-effective than doing the conversion in-house.
The true cost of converting a single page of document includes
labor, computing time, training, and licensing fees, as well as the
intangible cost of time for start-up and staff learning curve. Since
SII has the expertise and tools already in place, your cost and time
are drastically reduced.
* Faster turnaround time
SII has the staff and infrastructure already in place, so there is
only a minimal setup time involved. Most of our professional staff
have over 10 years of document converting and editing experience.
Our service bureau has the capability to convert over ten thousand
pages per day.
* Fixed cost
Once you receive a price quote from SII, the rate is guaranteed.
* Accuracy and schedule are guaranteed
SII has the reputation of delivering accurate documents while
honoring your delivery schedule.
* Technical advice and support
SII has worked with many industry-standard and custom DTDs and we are
able to provide technical advice once you get your documents back.
DITA CONVERSION
There are many companies and tools currently available for DITA
conversion. SII's solution offers the highest quality output with
minimum post-processing. The following list compares SII's solution to
those of other vendors:
* Automated conversion
SII does not employ the "conversion table" technique used by other
vendors. Our internally developed tools provide a faster and more
automated method of converting files.
* Preserving your naming convention
An important result of conversion is that all of the XML and graphic
files meet your naming conventions. SII offers a number of
algorithms for generating file names or you can specify your own.
* File segmenting
SII can segment your input files into multiple DITA files based on
your requirements.
* Conditional text
SII converts all of your conditional text to the appropriate DITA
attributes. Our software automatically generates one or more DITAVAL
files, which record the original conditional text settings of your
input documents. Condition names are automatically converted to
match the DITA standard.
* Automatic DITA Map
Our software uses your FrameMaker book files to generate one or more
(depending on your use of conditional text) DITA Maps, as well as
markup to indicate which headings are to appear in the TOC.
* DITA index markup
Our software can analyze and convert the most complex index markers
in FrameMaker and Word documents. It also automatically relocates
any index markup not allowed in DITA (such as headings).
* Hypertext markup
SII's solution converts hypertext markup to the appropriate DITA
tags. Currently, other vendors would simply drop the markup.
* Lexical analyzer for improved quality.
Based on Softline's grammar checker, the lexical analyzer will scan
your documents to ensure that the markups agree with the actual
syntax of the content. For example:
- Paragraphs that start with words such as, "Note:", "Warning:", and
"Caution:" are automatically converted to specialized elements.
For example, a paragraph starting with the word "Note:" is
converted to a <noteelement (with the leading word "Note:"
removed from the content, if needed.)
- Words within sentences are converted to the appropriate phrase
level markup. For example, XML markup "click <b>OK<./b>" would be
replaced with "click <uicontrol>OK</uicontrol>".
- Entire sections are identified for special processing. For
example, a heading with the phrase "See Also" followed by
predominately cross references, is converted to a related links
element instead of conventional markup.
SII's lexical analyzer currently makes over 50,000 checks to
identify the best markup for a particular document. The analyzer can
also be set up with your own dictionary to perform any special
markup.
* Variables
All variables are converted to DITA conrefs and a book wide DITA
variable definition file is created. The software automatically
corrects the variable names to agree with the DITA standard.
* Text Insets
The software distinguishes various type of text insets and converts
them to appropriate DITA output. For example, contents that
represents one or more topics are converted to separate files.
Whereas, text insets that represent less than a topic of data are
merged into a master common text DITA file. In both cases, conrefs
are inserted in the referencing files.
* Hierarchical IDs
The DITA standard requires that all ID and Href attributes contain
hierarchical IDs. SII's software is the only document conversion
software in the industry that generates hierarchical IDs instead of
unique IDs.
* DITA metadata
The software converts information in your input files (i.e., author,
revision number, etc.) to the appropriate DITA metadata elements.
