What the heck is DITA?

DITA (pronounced dit-uh) is an acronym for:
Darwin—DITA can evolve to account for your particular authoring needs. (Specialization in DITA jargon.)
Information Typing—DITA was designed for core types of technical content: concept, task, and reference.
Architecture—DITA provides a framework for designing and delivering technical content efficiently.

DITA is powerful. And it's rapidly gaining traction for product documents.  Here's why and how.

• DITA stores content as modular chunks called topics.
• A DITA Map organizes topics for publication in a logical order and hierarchy.  (A DITA Map resembles a table of contents.) You can define DITA maps for outputs such as online help, user guides, system description and FAQ.
• A single topic can be included multiple times in a single DITA map or in multiple DITA maps, and will appear in as many output products.
• DITA is built for reuse and single sourcing.
• DITA is built for efficient product document authoring, update and publishing.

DITA is an OASIS/XML standard for topic-based authoring of well structured content. Out of the box, DITA provides you with a structure amenable to most technical information. And it provides you with a mechanism for extending the structure if needed.

Find out more about DITA today -get the Method M whitepaper: What Managers Need to Know About DITA.

Need to evaluate DITA or jump start implementation?  Check out the DITA immersion workshop and DITA proof-of-concept projects.