We’ve introduced DITA and covered the basics of authoring topics and building maps on LearningDITA.com. (Many thanks to our 1,400 subscribers and counting!) Now we’re kicking off a new series of more advanced courses with Introduction to reuse in DITA.
For LavaCon Dublin, Sarah O’Keefe and I delivered a case study presentation on some of the roadblocks we have encountered in implementing DITA at ADP. This article summarizes the key points of the presentation. The presentation and this blog do not represent the views of ADP, LLC.
Need to learn DITA but don’t know where to start? Trying to decide whether DITA is the right solution for your company? Looking for an opportunity to build on your basic knowledge of DITA? LearningDITA.com is the perfect resource for you!
Since Scriptorium first announced the availability of LearningDITA.com, we have had more than 1,100 subscribers to our free online DITA courses. To complete the exercises in LearningDITA, we have recommended that students install an XML editor. This has presented a difficulty to some because they cannot or do not want to download and install an editor.
We’re happy to say this limitation now gone.
More than 900 people have signed up for our free DITA courses on LearningDITA.com—thank you! You’ve had a basic introduction to DITA and learned how to write concept, task, reference, and glossary topics. Now you can learn how to collect those topics and establish relationships among them with our newest course: Using maps and bookmaps.
Balancing the standardization of structured content against creative requirements is not just about formatting. When companies choose an XML standard, such as DITA or DocBook, they must evaluate whether to use the default structure or modify it to better fit requirements. The discussion about such changes is a creative process itself. When should a company change default structures?
You have DITA. Now what?
More companies are asking this question as DITA adoption increases. For many of our customers, the first wave of DITA means deciding whether it’s a good fit for their content. The companies that choose to implement DITA find that it increases the overall efficiency of content production with better reuse, automated formatting, and so on.
One of the greatest benefits of using DITA is specialization. However, specialized DITA is more challenging and expensive to implement than standard, out-of-the-box DITA, which is something you should consider before you take the plunge.
When you’re coming up with a metadata strategy for your content, you should start by developing a taxonomy, or a hierarchy used to organize metadata. A taxonomy will help shape your metadata strategy and make implementation of that strategy possible. In this follow-up post to Making metadata in DITA work for you, you’ll learn some tips for creating a taxonomy that will succeed in helping your audience—both internal and external—find what they need.
This year’s tekom/tcworld conference reinforced the ongoing doctrinal chasm between North American technical communication and German technical communication.
I am speaking, of course, of the proper role of DITA in technical communication. If any.
