[November 08, 2001] "OpenTag is a format to encode data (mostly text) extracted from an original file of any format. Its purpose is to allow the extraction of a document, processing the text in a standard common format, and then, if needed, merging the text back into its original format. OpenTag is XML compliant."

[November 09, 2001] "OpenTag is a format developed for a task often encountered in localization: the extraction of translatable text with the capability of merging back the localized data in the original format. OpenTag was originally developed by the R&D group at ILE Corporation, in Boulder, Colorado. People from various other companies also participated to its development. Today, several tool sets, developed for in-house or commercial use, are taking advantage of the format... OpenTag works the following way: A filter (an application that extract and merge text) extracts the localizable text from an input file in a given format, creating two output files: The OpenTag document and a reference file. [1] The OpenTag document (.OTF) contains the translatable text items in a common structure regardless what was the original format of the input file. [2] The reference file, usually called 'Skeleton' file (.SKL) is a copy of the original file with a mechanism of placeholders to put back the text into its original format. The way the reference file is built is not specify by the OpenTag specifications, it's up to the creator of the filter tool to create whatever is appropriated. For instance, extracting data from a compiled DLL will require a different approach than extracting the same text from an RC file... After the extracted text has been processed for whatever purpose it was extracted (translation, spell-checking, etc.) you can use the filter to merge back the text items into the reference file. The same principle applies to any type of files: documents, Web-related file, database tables, and so forth. You only need to have a filter to perform the extraction and the merging. All your other tools can work using OpenTag as input and output, making development much easier."

1998 description. OpenTag is described by the designers as a "standard Extraction/Abstraction Text Format for Translation and NLP Tools. . . The OpenTag format is a single common mark-up format to encode text extracted from documents of varying and arbitrary formats. By abstracting a file's heterogeneous formatting information into OpenTag markup, you can produce homogeneously tagged text files, regardless of the original file format. The goal of OpenTag is to be XML/SGML compliant. The markup rules of an OpenTag file follow the XML/SGML rules."

References:

• OpenTag Home Page
• OpenTag format description
• OpenTag Format Specifications. Version 1.2, Nov-23-1998. Last edit: Jan-07-2001. [cache]
• OpenTag XML DTD. Version 1.2, Nov-23-1998. Last edit: Feb-13-2001. FPI: "-//ILE//DTD OpenTag//EN" [cache]
• OpenTag XML Schema definition [cache]
• Links 1998:
  • OpenTag Initiative - Main Entry 1997
  • Structure of OpenTag DTD
  • [November 21, 1997] - Announcement for OpenTag Version 1.0
  • [October 24, 1997] - Update of the OpenTag format specifications, and announcement for the OpenTag Development Kit