Documentation Center

Publication Manager overview

Publication Manager is a tool that lets you manage publications, baselines, personalization and publication life cycles. Translation management, on the other hand, requires the use of Organize Space.

Publications

Publications are objects that determine how a deliverable is generated. Publications provide the context for how the DITA content from the Repository is assembled for output.

Publications control the following factors:
  • Versions of referenced objects (topics, maps, and images) that are used.
  • Values of variables.
  • Values of conditions that are included or excluded.
  • Output format.

Each publication references a single map or bookmap. This map can reference as many topics and other maps as needed.

The publication also refers to resources, which are variable libraries that contain the values that you want to use for any variable or content references that are found in the publication topics.

Baseline

The baseline lists the specific versions of the topics, images, and variable libraries that are used in a publication. This baseline object is preserved for future use, so that it is always possible to know which version of an object was used for the publication.

A baseline is a snapshot of the versions of objects stored inside the repository. A publication always contains one baseline.

Translating publications

Publication Manager doesn't let you manage translations.

When you want to start translating a publication, notify your localization manager. You can wait until your publication is released in the source language, or you can deliver drops to the translation agency before the publication is released.

The localization manager uses Organize Space to export topics for translation. The localization manager also uses Organize Space to import the translated topics returned from the translation agency.

Personalizing a publication

One of the powerful capabilities of Content Manager is the ability to personalize content so it only appears in a specific context. Two mechanisms are available:
  • Conditional text
  • Variables

Publication Manager lets you control which conditions are published and how variables are resolved.

The lifecycle of a publication

Publications can have multiple versions. A version can be released, which means that no additional changes can be made to the content or the properties for this version. Releasing a publication ensures that the output can always be reproduced exactly. Before a publication can be released, all the object it contains must have a status of the Released type.

When all of the content is released, you may freeze the baseline if you like. This means that all the content for this publication cannot be changed anymore in any way. However you still can change condition settings and output formats. Once you are satisfied with the generated output, you can set the publication as released. After a publication is released, no changes can be made to that version of the publication. If changes must later be made to the deliverable, you need to create another version of the publication.

Publication Manager user interface

In Publication Manager, you can open and edit one publication at a time. The Publication Manager interface has five tabs:
Content
Provides a tree view of the map, topics, and resources (library topics) used in the open publication. You can modify the items in the tree.
Baseline
Contains a list of all of the objects included in the open publication. You can view and modify the version to be included and the status of each object.
Variables
Contains a list of the variables used in the open publication.
Conditions
Contains a list of the conditions used in the open publication. In this tab you can select combinations of conditions to create a publishing context.
Output
Provides a list of the output formats and the publication status of the outputs. You can also modify the output formats defined for the publication.

Each output format has a set of properties defining its behavior and capabilities. Differences in the behavior and capabilities include the stylesheet to be used during publishing as well as the styleprocessor . The system administrator can set these properties for each output format.