Chapter 6. Author for DITA

Table of Contents

Creating DITA maps and topics
Editing DITA Maps
Creating a map
Create a topic and add it to a map
Organize topics in a map
Create a bookmap
Create relationships between topics
Create an index entry
Editing actions
Advanced operations
Inserting a Topic Reference
Inserting a Topic Heading
Inserting a Topic Group
Edit properties
Transforming DITA Maps
Available Output Formats
Configuring a DITA transformation
Customizing the DITA scenario
The Parameters tab
The Filters tab
The Advanced tab
The Output tab
The FO Processor tab
Set a font for PDF output generated with Apache FOP
Running a DITA Map ANT transformation
DITA OT customization support
Support for transformation customizations
Using your own DITA OT toolkit from <oXygen/>
Using your custom build file
Customizing the <oXygen/> Ant tool
Upgrading to a new version of DITA OT
Increasing the memory for the Ant process
Resolving topic references through an XML catalog
DITA specializations support
Integration of a DITA specialization
Editing DITA Map specializations
Editing DITA Topic specializations
Use a new DITA Open Toolkit in <oXygen/>
Reusing content
Working with content references
Reusable component
Insert a direct content reference

Creating DITA maps and topics

The basic building block for DITA information is the DITA topic. DITA provides the following topic types:

  • Concept. For general, conceptual information such as a description of a product or feature.

  • Task. For procedural information such as how to use a dialog.

  • Reference. For reference information.

You can organize topics into a DITA map or bookmap. A map is a hierarchy of topics. A bookmap supports also book divisions such as chapters and book lists such as indexes. Maps do not contain the content of topics, but only references to them. These are known as topic references. Usually the maps and bookmaps are saved on disk or in a CMS with the extension '.ditamap'.

Maps can also contain relationship tables that establish relationships between the topics contained within the map. Relationship tables are also used to generate links in your published document.

You can use your map or bookmap to generate a deliverable using an output type such as XHTML, PDF, HTML Help or Eclipse Help.