🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Riley...

I think you should start by getting ComTech's "Introduction to DITA" book ..

 <http://www.comtech-serv.com/dita2.shtml>

It's not Frame-specific but should give you a solid understanding of the DITA basics.

If you want to ask DITA+Frame-specific questions, you should post them to the framemaker-dita Yahoo group.

Nitty-gritty DITA structure questions should go to the dita-users Yahoo list. It *is* OK to ask seemingly naive questions there .. the people on that list are very helpful and knowledgeable. If you do have a question about "proper" structure or use, that is the place to go. Also .. read the archives of this list, you'll learn lots.

A good way to get started is by looking at other DITA-sourced documentation .. caveat being, you may be looking at DITA that's not really "proper" .. but it's better than nothing. There are some sample files with the DITA Open Toolkit .. and I've recently added a page to ditamap.com where I'm collecting samples of DITA-sourced docs on the web. Some of these docs actually include the source ..

 <http://ditamap.com/ditadocs.php>

Also .. since you're in the area, you might consider attending our monthly Silicon Valley DITA interest group (SVDIG) meetings. Next month is a presentation all about the shortdesc element! :)

 <http://svdig.ditamap.com/>

Cheers!

...scott