DITA
Imagine creating a user's manual from scratch only to find out that much of the content had already been produced. The precious time and effort you'd spent reinventing the wheel could have been saved if you had access to the right software and platform in the first place.
Interchangeable, reusable content is fully supported and facilitated by a phenomenon that is having a significant impact on the entire field of technical publishing as well as technical translation. DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-supported (Extensible Markup Language) system by which content is rendered interchangeable between different documents via applicable software and databases. [This is made possible in part through “inheritance” (as it applies to computer science) which I will describe in a later post]. DITA supports such information models as topic-based authoring and single source publishing. The objective is to save time and money and to ensure accuracy through the “modularization” of information. Technical content is concise and can typically be broken down into sections that stand alone as distinct chunks of information. These chunks can be easily reused in future works.
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| A DITA map demonstrating a pattern of specialization |
Topic-based authoring involves breaking down “modules”
of information from whole documents into “topics” that can be produced,
supported, and reused for inclusion in new documents. A topic could be variously described (through a "DITA map") as a reference item, a task, a concept, or an example. Topics in one document
are tagged according to their content and can be accessed for use in future
documents. For example, a new user’s manual for an upgraded product can reuse content from an older version. The same description for a particular part can be used for different products which include the same part.
Single source publishing involves the reuse of
content for different documents and formats (e.g. content from a user’s
manual can be reused for a webpage or developed into part of an audio
presentation).
Part One of a mandatory overview of DITA
As an OASIS-supported (Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards) information hierarchy, DITA is
widely accepted, supported by many users, and developed by many developers. Authoring
through DITA is supported by such XML editors and processors as Quark XML
editor and Adobe FrameMaker.
DITA allows the process of technical translation to be facilitated through the control of the number of topics to be translated and the time
and cost involved. The complexity and expense of developing such an
XML-supported platform may make DITA less accessible for small organizations. However, smaller entities may be able to access a DITA platform by partnering with other entities while taking advantage of the continual advances in DITA-related software and hardware.
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