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Content re-use
Re-use practices
Re-use guidelines
Re-use guidelines can help simplify the practice of writing for re-use.

Introduction
Information types and topics
Topics are the building blocks of modular documents, and organising topics by semantic information types is one of the architectural features of DITA.
DITA map files
Syntax and mark-up
Language and punctuation
Graphics and figures
Cross-referencing
Cross-references are a means of binding individual topics into a coherent and navigable document.
Content re-use
- Content re-use definition
  Content re-use is a means of improving efficiency by eliminating repetition of phrases, blocks of text, topics, and even collections of topics.
- Re-use and the DITA Maturity Model
  Content re-use is one of the features that you should adopt early in your move from style-based authoring to structured authoring with DITA.
- The content reference (conref) attribute
  The conref feature allows DITA content to be used in any number of different places in a collection. The conref attribute in a referencing topic specifies the source topic and the element within that topic to re-use.
- Re-use practices
  - Writing for re-use
    You should embrace a style or method of writing that produces content suitable for re-use. This method includes an aim to minimise context.
  - Re-use guidelines
    Re-use guidelines can help simplify the practice of writing for re-use.
  - Valid referencing elements
    When using a conref in a topic to transclude text from another topic, the referencing element must be valid DITA XML.
  - The -dita-use-conref-target attribute value
    A special attribute value of -dita-use-conref-target can be used to force the attribute value of the source of a conref to be used in the referencing element.
  - Re-using content from different elements
    When re-using content through the conref feature, the referenced element type must match the referencing element type.
  - Nested content references
    Content references can be nested inside other content references.
- Variables
- Organising re-use topics and elements
- Embedded topics and ditamaps
  The ditamap is a powerful tool for re-using topics in different output publications. Topics can also be re-used using ditabase topics, but you should avoid this technique.
- Advanced conref principles
Metadata, conditional processing, and indexing
The DITA documentation process
DITA authoring concepts
Moving from style-based authoring to a structured authoring methodology such as DITA requires a radically different approach to writing.

Re-use guidelines

Re-use guidelines can help simplify the practice of writing for re-use.

When writing in a DITA environment, at topic level rather than document level, there are a few guidelines you can follow to make re-use easier by adopting the following guidelines.

Avoid the use of previous, next, earlier, and later (such as in More information on the product limitations are discussed later). Those referenced topics may not be included in all collections, or may be included in a different sequence.
Don't use sequential numbers in file names; rather, use descriptive names. (Use ej20_engine_schematic.png rather than fig1.png.)
Avoid including branding in graphics.
Avoid including context within explanatory paragraphs or steps. For example, don't write The EJ20 engine of the Supara Impress is naturally aspirated; rather write The EJ20 engine is naturally aspirated.
Move contextual information to its own paragraph (or context element, for task topics). In the EJ20 example preceding, the information about what models of car use the EJ20, and other information relevant to the association between EJ20 and Supara, could be written into a separate paragraph. When the content needs to be re-used in a differently badged product manual, that context paragraph can be filtered out and the remaining non-contextual content re-used.