DITA

DITA stands for Darwin Information Typing Architecture and refers to a specific XML schema or structure for creating content. Think of it as a template for filling out the essential parts of help. I don't currently use DITA, but in the past I compared DITA with Jekyll and other tools, and explored some of the shortcomings of DITA's information architecture.

The following content is in the dita category:

What is a DITA Content Management System (CMS)? guest post by John Baker | Jan 27, 2020

Markdown or reStructuredText or DITA? Choosing the right format for tech docs | Oct 28, 2016

Xeditor, a CMS editor for XML content | Mar 30, 2016

Lightweight DITA article in Technical Communication Journal | Feb 23, 2016

Is the only way to plug into a documentation CCMS through DITA/XML? | Feb 12, 2016

The problem with adopting bleeding-edge tools | Jan 10, 2016

LearningDITA.com: A new online learning resource for DITA by Scriptorium | Jul 28, 2015

Listen to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast with me as a guest | Jul 8, 2015

How to design documentation for non-linear reading behavior | May 15, 2015

Recording and slides from "Jekyll vs. DITA: Bridging the Gap Between Tech Comm and the Web" presentation | May 14, 2015

Upcoming presentation: Jekyll versus DITA: Bridging the Gap between Tech Comm and the Web | May 10, 2015

Final analysis between DITA and Jekyll | Apr 15, 2015

Producing PDFs in DITA versus Jekyll | Apr 14, 2015

Reviewing content in DITA versus Jekyll | Apr 13, 2015

Creating links in DITA versus Jekyll | Apr 6, 2015

Building a table of contents with DITA versus Jekyll | Apr 2, 2015

Creating re-usable chunks (conref) in Jekyll versus DITA | Apr 1, 2015

Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA | Mar 26, 2015

Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA | Mar 23, 2015

10 reasons for moving away from DITA | Jan 28, 2015

Top 10 posts, podcasts, tweets of 2014 -- and what it all means | Jan 5, 2015

Various Site updates: Added third column with dynamic sidebar, and more | Dec 29, 2014

DITA: Glossary terms and acronyms | Dec 4, 2014

Dynamic content filtering with OxygenXML's webhelp output | Nov 19, 2014

Add a mini-TOC to your OxygenXML webhelp topics | Nov 13, 2014

Flat file systems versus database models for help | Nov 5, 2014

The Author Experience -- Interview with Rick Yagodich | Nov 5, 2014

Simplifying DITA authoring by using a Markdown to HTML to DITA workflow | Oct 29, 2014

API Doc presentation slides and recording (San Francisco STC chapter) | Oct 16, 2014

Import DITA's XHTML Output into WordPress | Oct 14, 2014

Why developers will never adopt DITA | Sep 30, 2014

Two major Confluence problems: poor content re-use and lack of wiki markup | Sep 24, 2014

Using collapsible sections to bring tasks and concepts together (DITA) | Sep 22, 2014

Adding code comments through a sliding jQuery Sidr panel (DITA) | Sep 16, 2014

Using WordPress natively for single source publishing and conditional content | Sep 8, 2014

Challenges in using WordPress for publishing DITA content | Sep 2, 2014

Author in DITA, publish with WordPress | Aug 19, 2014

Woes of conditional text and topichead elements (DITA best practices) | Aug 10, 2014

Benefits of tool diversity, part II | Aug 7, 2014

Is tool fragmentation in tech comm a good thing? | Aug 5, 2014

Reviewing draft DITA content with subject matter experts: 6 essential points | Jul 31, 2014

My DITA quick reference guide (QRG) | Jul 30, 2014

Writing documentation in an interactive world: Some thoughts on using easyDITA and OxygenXML | Jul 25, 2014

Content Re-use is so much better with DITA (and esp. with OxygenXML) | Jun 29, 2014

What does DITA-structured help look like? | May 15, 2014

Complex tools versus simple tools | May 10, 2014

DITA: Nested subheadings and the concept element | May 8, 2014

DITA: Limitations with the chunk="to-content" attribute in relationship tables | May 2, 2014

DITA hierarchical links, related links, short descriptions, and one-folder organization | May 1, 2014

DITA: Why DITA, metadata, working in code and author views, and relationship tables | Apr 25, 2014

DITA: Folder hierarchy, conref, mapref, and more | Apr 22, 2014

My DITA journey begins | Apr 16, 2014

Dita Von Teese to give keynote at DITA North America 2014 Conference | Apr 1, 2014

DITA's output does not require separation of tasks from concepts | Jan 5, 2014

The appeal of DITA | Jan 4, 2014

Three Books on DITA | Aug 15, 2009

WordPress Tip: Merging Worlds: DITA and WordPress | Feb 8, 2009