Feline Musings

Benefits of DITA

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  •  The ability to define company-specific and even group-specific information architectures enables DITA to support content reuse and reduce information redundancy.
  • By drawing upon a supply of these pre-written, self-contained topics, writers can produce a greater overall volume of content. The time required to recreate material each time it is needed in other documents is minimized. When a DITA topic is required in a new publication, the writer inserts a pointer to the archived original thus eliminating cut-copy-paste and editing to fit context.
  • The DITA model provides metadata and attributes that can be used to associate or filter the content of DITA topics with applications such as content management systems, search engines, processing filters, and so on.
  • DITA builds on well-accepted sets of tags and can be used with standard XML tools.
  • Usage of extensive metadata makes it easier to find topics. The DITA model for metadata supports the standard categories for the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. In addition, the DITA metadata enables many different content management approaches to be applied to its content.
  • Most elements in the topic DTD contain a set of universal attributes that enable the elements to be used as selectors, filters, content referencing infrastructure, and multi-language support.
  • The core elements in DITA’s topic DTD borrow from HTML and XHTML, using familiar element names like p, ol, ul, and dl within an HTML-like topic structure. In fact, DITA topics can be written, like HTML for rendering directly in a browser.
  • The XML processing model is widely supported by a number of vendors. The class-based extension mechanism in DITA translates well to the design features of the XSLT and CSS style sheet languages defined by the World Wide Web Consortium and supported in many transformation tools, editors, and browsers. DITA topics can be processed by a spectrum of tools ranging from shareware to custom tailored products, on almost any operating platform.

DITA and other authoring tools

DITA is quickly becoming the XML standard for technical writers. New XML editing tools are available that allow you to more easily write DITA content without dealing with code.

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  •  The XPress Author for MicroSoft Word , is an authoring tool that empowers writers to create structured XML content by providing a “guided authoring” environment inside the familiar MS Word interface. XPress Author, created by Microsoft partner, In.Vision Research
  • DITA-FMx is the Adobe FrameMaker 8 plug-in that enables use of the DITA Open Toolkit. FrameMaker 8 extends the structured authoring functionality of FrameMaker to enable authors to work efficiently with DITA. On the output side, FrameMaker lets you build a FrameMaker book from a DITA map to generate PDF and online help
  • Structured FrameMaker files can be added as live links in RoboHelp. RoboHelp will pick the style information from Structured FrameMaker files and enable the style mapping. In Adobe RoboHelp 7, DITA FrameMaker files will be considered as Structured FrameMaker files. At this point in time, there is no special handling for DITA files in RoboHelp.
  • MadCaps Flare has an XML-based architecture and is the most technologically advanced help authoring tool available. DITA support is scheduled for an upcoming version of Flare. Currently there is no way to import XML files into Flare. DITA support would presumably provide the ability to import DITA as well as export DITA.

Challenges in using DITA

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  •  DITA is a great architecture for organizations with large amount of reusable content and a well-defined strategy to use this content. The author needs to rethink the document structure and content planning instead of producing topics with one particular manual, product, or end user in mind.
  • It is advisable to use DITA with a content management system to assure validity of content and prevent invalid content from being checked into the repository.
  • DITA without constraints allows inconsistent writing styles of multiple authors. Hence, predefined styles and writing guidelines along with a robust authoring tool are required.
  • When you decide to adopt DITA, your organization must be prepared to provide appropriate training and support as their writers make the transition to XML and functional programming concepts like XSLT, and XQuery.
  • Another area of concern is whether DITA can match the feature-set of traditional Help Authoring Tools, particularly those involving DHTML. A DITA-based authoring tool does not provide a means for including DHTML effects, including pop-ups and expansion links. However, DITA can be used to create professional-looking Help files with the core functionality of Help files: tables of contents, indexes, links, graphics, and multimedia.
  • With a little bit of post-processing, context-sensitive Help from DITA source is also possible. With some minor changes to the DITA standard (and to the DITA Open Toolkit), context-hooks could be stored within the DITA files, and window definitions and secondary window link functionality could be provided. This would strengthen DITA’s position as a viable Help authoring environment.

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