Tópico for Learning Web Standards

Semantic markup

Creating and applying a semantic markup to document is part of any good solution to keep collections manageable and flexible. Using semantic markup along with CSS brings the possibility to change the look of an entire document collection with just one line in a stylesheet.

You will experiment with semantic markup in these tutorials:

• Edit your topic content
• Add style to your table
• Add a new semantic tag

CSS Stylesheets

CSS stylesheets prescribe what your published topic will look on the page with fonts, colors, margins, decorations, backgrounds, borders and all those visual attribute.

You will experiment with stylesheets in these tutorials:

• Change the background color
• Change headings font style
• Hide elements for printing
• Work with styles and stylesheets

XSLT Templates

XSL Templates are the key to transform one document type into another. With templates, you can import data from many sources and process them into one cohesive publication. XSL Templates make your custom markup exportable to any other XML vocabulary it might fit in.

You will experiment with templates markup in these tutorials:

• Work with templates
• Add a selected links list
• Add page numbers

Topic oriented authoring

Searching for topic oriented authoring these days will typically display many links about DITA in the search results. Although it does not support structured authoring "à la" DITA, Tópico provides users without the advanced needs DITA was designed to meet with a simple system that is adequate for personal publishing scenarios.

While this tutorial is arranging topic in a map and this one briefly describes the concept of a topic, no tutorial touches authoring more structured topics like concepts, tasks and references.

Interested to learn more about topic oriented authoring and DITA? Here are some good references:

• DITA topics
• DITA - The mechanics of a single sourcing project
• Design patterns for information architecture with DITA map domains

Advanced publishing concepts

Content generation, reuse and filtering are advanced publishing concepts that are part of modern publication systems. You might not build the next Amazon.com with it, but Tópico makes it fun and easy to experiment with these techniques.

You will experiment with advanced publishing concepts in these tutorials:

• Add external links icons
• Add page numbers
• Include content
• Filter content

Scripting

Scripting is still needed to make content interactive, like the menu system in Tópico. There is currently no tutorial on scripting in this user guide, but here are a few good links to start with:

• Unobtrusive Javascript
• Unobtrusive DHTML, and the power of unordered lists
• Site Point Stylish Scripting: DHTML & CSS Blog

Since the above components have defaults in each publishing package, users can focus on one subject matter and experiment freely, then click the Publish button to see the final result.