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XML AUTHOR/EDITOR FEATURE MATRIX | Tool | Altova XMLSpy Suite | Cladonia Exchanger | Stylus Studio | SyncRO Soft | Adobe FrameMaker | Arbortext Editor | XMetaL Author DITA Edition | Syntext Serna | | Web site | www.altova.com | www.exchanger xml.com | http://stylus studio.com | www.oxygenxml | www.adobe.com/ framemaker | www.ptc.com | www.xmetal.com | www.syntext.com | | IDE | Excellent | Good | Very good | Very good | No | No | No | No | | WYSIWYG | Excellent | No | No | No | Very good | Excellent | Excellent | Very good | | Type of validation (1) | RT, W, OD | RT, OD | RT, OD | RT, OD | RT, W, OD | RT, OD | RT, OD | RT, OD | | Elements in context | Excellent | Very good | Fair* | Very good | Excellent | Very good | Very good | Very good | | Tags-on view | Very good | No | No | No | Very good | Excellent | Excellent | Yes | | Drag/drop structure | Very good | Good | Good* | Very good | Very good | Excellent | Very good | No | | Structure/Tree view | Separate | Separate | Synchronized | Synchronized | Synchronized | Synchronized | Synchronized | Synchronized | | Grid view | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Coming | No | Mp | | Source-code view | Excellent | Good | Good | Excellent | No | Fair | Very good | Fair | | Tag auto-completion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Line indenting | Very Good | Good | Good | Very good | No | No | No | Yes | | XSLT processor | Yes | Xalan, Saxon | Yes | Yes | No | API option | DITA OT | Yes | | Native XML DB | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | | Xpath/Xquery | Very good | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | No | API option | No | Fair | | DITA support | Good | No | Good | Coming | Fair | Very good | Excellent | Very good | | DocBook | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Install base (est.) | 2,300,000 | 40,000 | 1,000,000- | 200,000 | 800,000 | 50,000 | 40,000 | Undisclosed | | Platform | Windows | All (Java) | Windows | All (Java) | Windows | Windows,Solaris | Windows | All (C++) | | Price | $745 | $130 | $450 | $180 | $799 | $695 | $895 | $199 | | Package size | 61MB | 32MB | 78MB | 33MB | 340MB | 206MB | 101MB | 20MB | | Communities online | Forum | Forum | Forum | Forum, mailing list | Multiple forums, lists | Mailing list | Dita-users list | Blog | | Google PageRank | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Notes: RT=real-time, W=warnings, OD=on-demand *In Tree view only |
BROWSER-BASED XML AUTHOR/EDITOR FEATURE MATRIX | Tool | Ektron eWebEditPro + XML | Ephox EditLive! For XML | Xopus | XMAX | | Web site | www.ektron.com | www.ephox.com | www.xopus.com | www.xmetal.com | | Type of validation (1) | RT | RT, W | RT | RT, W, OD | | Elements in context | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | | DITA support | No | Next version | Next version | Yes | | Spell check (1) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Platform | IE, Netscape, Mozilla | All (Java) | IE (Javascript) | IE | | Install base (est.) | 16,000 | 5,000 | 1,000s | 60 | | Price | $599/ten users | $7,950/CPU | $100/user | $495/named user | | Package Size | 25MB | 33MB | 3MB | 60MB | | Google PageRank | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Notes: RT=real-time, W=warnings, OD=on-demand |
CONCLUSION
And the winners are . . . all of you who are thinking of moving your content to XML! Every one of our XML Author Editors and Developer Editors can be downloaded for 30-day trials so you can see for yourself our reasons for selecting them. It's an amazing no-risk deal. The only cost is your time; hands-on experience will be much more informative than this brief article. Start with the one that appeals most, but please do work with the others. Many vendors provide excellent sample files and tutorials that will help you to understand the complete XML content-publishing process. Only after I had studied a few of them did I scratch the surface on how powerful they all are. I don't think you can make your wisest selection without going from XML document to PDF or Web page in most of these eight tools. Yes, content remains king. But without the structure, format, layout, and presentation made possible by XML schemas and style sheets, it's more like an emperor with no clothes.
Other Companies Featured in this Article EMC Documentum www.documentum.com
FatWire Corporation www.fatwire.com
IBM Corporation www.ibm.com
Integrated Technologies, Inc. www.intech.com
Interwoven, Inc. www.interwoven.com
Justsystems www.justsystems.com
Mekon, Ltd. www.mekon.com
Microsoft Corporation www.microsoft.com
Oasis www.oasis.org
SilkRoad Technology, Inc. www.silkroadtech.com
Vignette Corporation www.vignette.com
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