What is an EDD, and do you need to care?

In a nutshell, a FrameMaker EDD (an Element Definition Document) contains the content model used for a structured FrameMaker document. An EDD contains what you would find in an SGML DTD (Document Type Definition) or in an XML Schema, but also contains formatting information specific to Adobe FrameMaker.

Here are some common types of FrameMaker users, along with how much they need to know about (or care about) EDDs.

Unstructured FrameMaker users

If you’re happy using a paragraph-based authoring system, you may not need to know about EDDs at all. But if you are looking to improve your content creation efficiency, here is a list of some things that structured authoring can improve:

• standardize your content with an enforceable content model
• reduce localization/translation expense
• increase content reuse
• manage content across a team with a component content management system like AEM Guides

Structured FrameMaker authors

Strictly speaking, authors of FrameMaker structured content don’t need to have a deep understanding of an EDD and its rules. However, understanding an EDD (and how it works) can point you toward becoming a structured FrameMaker template designer or manager.

Structured FrameMaker Template Designer

If you are responsible for maintaining or modifying a structured FrameMaker authoring environment, you almost certainly will benefit from an understanding of an EDD and how it works.

When starting from scratch and creating your own custom content model, it’s helpful to rough out the base elements and the order in which they can occur in your system. You’ll need to define each of the elements in your system, along with attributes and their values. These are things you learn to do in the Tech Comm Tools EDD Development course or class, using the Tech Comm Tools Structured EDD Development workbook.

If you are leveraging an existing system (either custom or an industry standard like DITA) then you likely already have the hardest part of the EDD developed. However, you will still probably be asked to customize the formatting used in the authoring of content or in the publishing of content to PDF and/or HTML5.