This is a list of the “other” tools that are not DITA-optimized XML editors, or DITA-capable Component Content Management Systems (CCMSes), or DITA Platforms (coming soon). It’s a motley collection of tools, many of them customized specifically for use with DITA.
All prices are in $US except where noted. Prices listed are current as of November 29, 2024.
| Product | Company | Category | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antenna House Formatter | Antenna House | DITA Output/ Formatting | Various pricing options available, from Standalone ($1,250) to Server-based ($5,000 single processor, $4,000 per additional processor). |
| “Formatter is the most powerful automated PDF publishing software and the only one of its kind. It is known for XSL-FO formatting in the documentation industry used for XML, DITA, and S1000D. Over the years, Formatter has been expanded with the capability to transform HTML into properly formatted documents with CSS stylesheets. Now users have more options for producing PDFs and can choose to format documents with XSL-FO or CSS!” | |||
| Antenna House Formatter Lite | Antenna House | DITA Output/ Formatting | Various pricing options available, from Standalone ($400) to Server-based ($2,000 single processor, $1,600 per additional processor). |
| “Formatter Lite is a lower priced version for those customers who produce smaller documents (under 300 pages) and don’t need all the advanced features of the standard version. Lite offers the same GUI, speed, interfaces and graphic support but for less than one-third of the price. The Standalone and Server versions of Lite fits many of today’s production requirements.” | |||
| Apache Ant | Apache | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “Apache Ant is a Java library and command-line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other. The main known usage of Ant is the build of Java applications. Ant supplies a number of built-in tasks allowing to compile, assemble, test and run Java applications. Ant can also be used effectively to build non Java applications, for instance C or C++ applications. More generally, Ant can be used to pilot any type of process which can be described in terms of targets and tasks.” | |||
| Apache FOP | Apache | DITA Output/ Formatting | Free, Open Source |
| “Apache FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is a print formatter driven by XSL formatting objects (XSL-FO) and an output independent formatter. It is a Java application that reads a formatting object (FO) tree and renders the resulting pages to a specified output. Output formats currently supported include PDF, PS, PCL, AFP, XML (area tree representation), Print, AWT and PNG, and to a lesser extent, RTF and TXT. The primary output target is PDF.” | |||
| Congility IdXML | Contiem | DITA Output/ Formatting | Personal License: $2,250. Server Licence $6,300. |
| “Congility IdXML: Flexible layout of structured content. IdXML (InDesign XML) is a DITA Open Toolkit plugin enabling DITA content to be mapped to an arbitrary XML structure and intelligently imported into Adobe InDesign.” | |||
| DITA Bootstrap | infotexture | DITA Output/ Processing | Free, Open Source |
| “A plug-in for DITA Open Toolkit that extends the default HTML5 output with a basic Bootstrap template.” | |||
| DITA Compare | DeltaXML | DITA Utility | Not listed; contact for more information. |
| “Compare three or more DITA files and process the change. Not just a DITA diff tool. DITA Merge is an enterprise solution for finding and processing changes between three or more DITA documents. Output differences to a number of pre-defined outputs, including our HTML side-by-side view or output to a DITA file and process diffs within your editors however you wish, wherever you need.” | |||
| DeltaXML DITA Merge | DeltaXML | DITA Utility | Not listed; contact for more information. |
| “Compare, merge, and manage content and data with fully tailorable solutions. Automate and customise your workflows, reduce manual effort, and manage complex changes more efficiently with our powerful comparison and merge solutions.” | |||
| DITA for Publishers | W. Eliot Kimber | DITA Output/ Formatting | Free, Open Source |
| “Provides general-purpose DITA map, topic, and domain specializations for the Publishing industry, as well as supporting processors (e.g., DITA Open Toolkit plugins) including EPUB and MOBI generation, HTML5 generation, and others.” | |||
| DITA Generator (DITA-OT PDF plug-in) | Jarno Elovirta | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “DITA Generator is a Python program that generates DITA shell DTDs, DITA topic specialization stubs, and DITA-OT plug-in stubs.” | |||
| DITA Open Toolkit | DITA Open Toolkit | DITA Output/ Processing | Free, Open Source |
| “Open source. Free as a bird. While the DITA standard is owned and developed by OASIS, the DITA Open Toolkit project is governed separately. DITA Open Toolkit is a vendor-independent, open-source implementation of the DITA standard, released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. The toolkit supports all versions of the OASIS DITA specification, including 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.” | |||
| DITA-OT Gradle Plugin | Eero Helenius | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “A Gradle plugin for publishing DITA documents with DITA Open Toolkit.” | |||
| DITA RDF | Colin Maudry | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “The objective of this project is to develop an ontology to describe DITA XML objects and to publish tools to generate RDF triples based on that ontology. In the end, it enables the publication of the metadata of a DITA documentation set to the Semantic Web and consequently its linking with other data types (product, people, sales, non-DITA document metadata, etc.).” | |||
| DITA Schematron | Jarno Elovirta | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “ISO Schematron schema for DITA 1.1 and 1.2 that handles cases that DTDs or XML Schemas cannot control.” | |||
| DITA to DITA Plugin | Jelovirt | DITA Output/ Processing | Free, Open Source |
| “The org.dita.normalize plugin extends the DITA Open Toolkit with a dita transformation type that generates normalized topics and maps from DITA input. The normalized output includes the results of the DITA Open Toolkit pre-processing operations, which resolve map references, keys, content references, code references and push metadata back and forth between maps and topics.” | |||
| DITA to WordPress Import Tool | Mike Little | DITA Utility | Free |
| “This ‘plugin’ is a DITA to WordPress importer. Specifically it is a WordPress import module which will take the two-pane ‘Web Help’ output from the DITA Open Toolkit and import the hierarchy of XHTML pages into WordPress. It will import images too, though not as WordPress attachments.” | |||
| DITA2Go | Omni Systems | DITA Conversion Tool | Free |
| “DITA2Go is a Windows software tool that converts DITA content to these and other formats: HTML and XML (XHTML, Flat XML, DITA, and DocBook), Microsoft Word RTF (for Word 6, 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, and 2010), On-line Help: Microsoft HTML Help, Eclipse Help, JavaHelp, Oracle Help for Java, WinHelp, OmniHelp, a browser-based Open Source cross-platform Help system (hosted on SourceForge).” | |||
| DITA2Wiki | Volo | DITA Output/ Processing | Free, Open Source |
| “DITA2wiki is a toolkit that enables you to publish DITA content (maps and topics) to a wiki.” | |||
| DITA-FMx | Leximation | FrameMaker Plug-in | Individual license: $235, site license (up to 25 users) $3525 |
| “DITA-FMx is a set of plugins and structure applications that provide enhanced authoring and publishing of DITA XML files in FrameMaker. DITA-FMx is a complete DITA authoring and publishing solution. DITA-FMx 2.0 supports the DITA 1.2 specification and FrameMaker versions 7.2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.” | |||
| ditanauts DITA OT Constraint Plugin | ditanauts.org | DITA Utility | Free |
| “This constraint plugin for the DITA Open Toolkit limits the elements and attributes available to authors. It serves as an example for how to create a constraint plugin and simplify authoring.” | |||
| GitHub | Colin Maudry | DITA Utility | Free, Open Source |
| “The DIM project is an implementation of an intelligent style guide that not only describes the rules the content should follow but can also enforce those rules. Another goal is to be auto-discoverable, style guide topics being annotated with meta information that allows this.” | |||
| Heartsome Translation Studio | Heartsome (GitHub) | DITA Localization | Free Open Source |
| “Heartsome TMX Editor 8.0 is a powerful TM maintenance tool for all CAT software. It provides many useful and practical functions besides common editing features, allowing you to perform TM maintenance tasks easily, simply and all with one tool.” | |||
| Heartsome Translation Studio | Heartsome (GitHub) | DITA Localization | Free, Open Source |
| “Heartsome Translation Studio 8.0 is the latest version of Heartsome’s CAT software series. This version features many revolutionary improvements compared to previous versions, especially with regard to ease of use and file format support.” |
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| Migrate | Stilo International | DITA Conversion Tools | Not published. Please contact contact@stilo.com for more information. |
| “Migrate is a well-established cloud service that enables technical authoring teams to convert content to DITA XML from source formats including HTML, Word, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, InDesign, DocBook, Flare, AuthorIt, MindTouch, Excel, XML and SGML. Migrate stands out as a versatile, cost-effective, and efficient solution for XML content conversion. Its personalized approach, advanced technology, user-friendly tools, industry adaptability, compliance, and security measures make it a trusted choice for organizations aiming to streamline content conversion while maintaining quality and control.” | |||
| Pandoc Plugin for DITA-OT | Jason Fox | Free, Open Source | |
| “This is a DITA-OT Plug-in to extend the available input formats for DITA-OT. Non DITA input sources can be pre-processed using Pandoc to create create valid DITA source. Files written in multiple input formats can be directly added to a *.ditamap and processed as if they had been written in DITA.” | |||
| QA Plugin for DITA-OT | ditanauts.org | DITA Utility | Free |
| “This DITA Open Toolkit plugin identifies errors in DITA tagging, element nesting, language standards, and common syntax errors, many of which are based on the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. A quality assurance report is created as a single HTML file containing links to each project topic file and a stylized DITA Open Toolkit build log.” | |||
| RenderX XEP Engine | RenderX | DITA Output/ Formatting | XEP Desktop: $400. XEP Server: $4,750.00 per CPU. |
| “At the heart of each RenderX publishing solution is RenderX XEP Engine. XEP is built around the mature, high-quality formatting kernel developed by RenderX and which has passed many years of deployment in a wide range of environments. XEP is continually improved in the quality of formatting, standards’ conformance, support for advanced features and in compliance to strict requirements to the formatted output of print-ready materials.” | |||
| Swordfish Translation Editor | Maxprograms | DITA Localization | See their price list for more information. |
| “Swordfish is an advanced open standards-based CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tool designed for demanding professional translators. It is an essential tool for professional translators and translation agencies who want to streamline their translation processes and deliver high-quality translations more efficiently. Swordfish supports the exchange of TMX (Translation Memory eXchange), the vendor-neutral open XML standard for the exchange of Translation Memory (TM) data created by Computer Aided Translation (CAT) and localization tools, originally published by LISA (Localisation Industry Standards Association).” | |||
| TopLeaf | Contiem | DITA Output/ Formatting | Not published. Please contact them for more information. |
| “TopLeaf is a next-generation XML publishing system that combines a rendering engine with a stylesheet development toolkit to create complex, highly styled outputs — a fully-integrated, template-driven, PDF/EPUB composition tool that is perfect for automated environments, including server-based applications integrated with content management systems.” | |||
| Trados Studio | Trados | DITA Localization | See the Trados Shop for more information. |
| “Trados Studio 2024 builds on four decades of innovation by offering you access to cutting-edge AI for faster, higher-quality translations. Coupled with enhanced accessibility features and improved cloud capabilities for working in the office or on the go, Studio 2024 empowers translation professionals to deliver better translations, emphasizing inclusivity and innovation.” | |||
| WebWorks ePublisher | WebWorks | DITA Output/ Formatting | Subscription packages available: Express is $325/year; Designer is $875/year. |
| “The Answer to DITA Publishing: ePublisher has been working with DITA for years and is the premier publishing solution available for the DITA platform. By working with ePublisher and DITA, you’ll get: out-of-the-box DITA publishing, automatic styles, customizable publishing power, reverb HTML responsive output and collaboration management.” | |||
| XMLmind DITA Converter | XMLmind | DITA Output/ Conversion | Free, Open Source |
| “Out of the box, XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac for short) allows to convert the most complex DITA 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 documents to production-quality XHTML 1.0, XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01, XHTML 5, Web Help, HTML Help, Eclipse Help, EPUB 2, EPUB 3, PDF, PostScript®, RTF (can be opened in Word 2000+), WordprocessingML (can be opened in Word 2003+), Office Open XML (.docx, can be opened in Word 2007+), OpenDocument (.odt, can be opened in OpenOffice/LibreOffice 2+).” | |||
| XTM | XTM International | DITA Localization | Contact them for more information. |
| “The translation management system of choice for enterprises. Take control of your global content with our enterprise translation management systems. Centralize all your assets, automate localization workflows, and ensure efficiency at every step. Not a translation expert? No problem—our team of specialists is here to help you maximize the value of your solution. | |||
Caveat: I consider this a work in progress, as I am sure there are people out there who have run into tools and tool categories I haven’t even thought of. If so, please let me know in the forum below!