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What is DITA?

DITA stands for Darwin Information Typing Architecture. It is an open XML standard that is developed and maintained by the OASIS DITA Technical Committee.

What is XML?

XML or Extensible Markup Language is similar to HTML in that there are standard rules that define how it must be formatted, but different in that there are no predefined tags. Instead, XML requires you to define your own tags.

Consider the following example:

<course_catalog>
    <course>
      <name>Information Design</name>
      <department>WRIT</department>
      <number>5112</number>
      <description>This course examines how verbal, visual, and multimedia content can be designed and combined to create meaning, improve comprehension, and make information more usable.</description>  
    </course>
    <course>
      <name>Seminar in Scientific and Technical Communication</name>
      <department>WRIT</department>
      <number>8520</number>
      <description>Topics may include theories, landmark studies, history, gender, ethics. Topics vary. See the Class Schedule.</description>  
    </course>
    <course>
      <name>Writing with Digital Technologies</name>
      <department>WRIT</department>
      <number>4662</number>
      <description>This course explores various digital writing technologies and provides multiple opportunities to assess writing situations and make appropriate decisions about digital form and production.</description>  
    </course>
</course_catalog>

When we say DITA is an XML standard, we mean that it's a specific, standardized set of XML elements, tags, and rules for how to use them.

Read Mozilla's XML Introduction to learn more.

Features

Content Reuse. Content is written in small, tagged chunks to facilitate reuse across multiple documents and formats.

Information Typing. DITA defines different types of information, specifically those that are frequently used by technical communicators.

Tagging facilitates translation and localization. Companies can save money by translating and localizing bits of content once as opposed to every time it appears in a document.

Conditional text. The DITA standard includes support for conditional text, so you specify what appears in different documents and outputs, e.g. exclude short descriptions of basic terms for expert audiences.

What does DITA XML look like?

Below is an example of a concept topic in DITA XML. Concept is one of the three main information types in DITA. Concept topics usually answer the question "what is?"

The root element is concept, and there are child elements title and conbody. 

<concept>
    <title>What is a concept topic?</title>
    <conbody>
        <p>A concept topic is used to provide conceptual information.</p>
        <p>Concept topics often answer questions like "what is a text editor?"</p>
    </conbody>    
</concept>

Using a DITA editor

After using something like markdown, tags in DITA may seem somewhat cumbersome. Fortunately, there are many specialized text editors that not only provide a visual interface but also autocomplete elements and feature easily accessbile reference guides.

For example, Codex allows users to toggle between tag view and rendered text.

Screenshot

Above: Viewing tags in Codex DITA editor

Screenshot

Above: Rendered text in Codex DITA editor

Learning resources

Last update: 2020-07-20