Corel Ventura 10 review

To start taking advantage of XML, you just need to import an XML file and Ventura will prompt you to select an appropriate mapping file, or create one with the separate XML Mapping Editor. Essentially, the task boils down to importing your XML file or schema, then your publication's stylesheet, and mapping each XML element to the appropriate Ventura tag. As well as simple tag-to-tag mapping, you can specify rules that depend on each XML element's attributes and position in the document tree, and set structural tags that associate elements with frame, page or table tags.

So far so good, but what about when the XML file has loaded? Based on rivals such as FrameMaker, I was expecting to be able to apply XML tags within Ventura and view and navigate the XML-based document tree, but there's nothing. Far worse, while you can reformat your document's tags, you can't apply new tags or edit the text. Eventually, I found a way round it by importing the XML to the text cursor, but then the link to the original XML is broken. No problem, you may think - just export the edited text. But here's the rub: while Ventura 10 offers XML import, it doesn't provide XML export.

It's a fundamental limitation and a big disappointment. Tag-based automatic layout can go a long way, but it's rare that you won't have to fine-tune a layout or correct a typo. Plus, without XML export, Ventura can only act as an end destination for your XML, not as part of an ongoing XML workflow. In other words, without XML round-tripping, you have to choose between embedding or editing. Having said this, it certainly doesn't mean that Ventura's XML import is useless. Once you've set up your mapping, the style-free XML is automatically converted to a fully formatted high-impact document, ready for electronic or paper-based publishing. It's a perfect example of the benefits of Ventura's tag-based approach in action.

Ventura 10's XML support is typical of the application as a whole. After so long, Corel's developers could certainly have done more, but they've done enough to show that there's still plenty of life left in the old stager. Ultimately, though, Ventura 10 stands out because of the strengths it has always had. Most DTP apps tend to take either a hands-off, relatively low-impact approach like FrameMaker or a hands-on, high-impact approach like InDesign. Ventura is the only publishing package that offers the best of both worlds, with long-document specialities like footnoting, indexing, scripting, conditional processing and equation editing. And these are alongside design-intensive specialities like hanging punctuation, fractal fills, text-on-a-path, bitmap filters and node editing.

Version 10 doesn't do enough to recapture the mainstream, but, for those prepared to master it, Ventura offers the most powerful all-round publishing solution available. It always has.

Author: Tom Arah