Home
Cross-referencing
Cross-references are a means of binding individual topics into a coherent and navigable document.
Types of cross-references
A cross-reference is used in DITA to link or associate one piece of content with another. The cross-reference (xref) element is the primary mechanism for cross-referencing, but other elements also have cross-referencing functions.

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.
- Types of cross-references
  A cross-reference is used in DITA to link or associate one piece of content with another. The cross-reference (xref) element is the primary mechanism for cross-referencing, but other elements also have cross-referencing functions.
- The xref element
  The cross-reference element is used for linking or otherwise cross-referencing text within a topic to other topics, elements within a topic, or resources external to the DITA collection.
- Avoiding in-text cross-references to topics
  Cross-references to other topics should be stored in the relationship table of the ditamap, external to the topic, and not in-line within the text of the topic.
- Cross-referencing topics and external resources
  Cross-references are commonly made to other DITA topics in a collection, and to information resources outside the collection. These external targets can be any type of electronic resource that can be addressed through a URI, including e-mail addresses, documents on a network file server, and Web content.
- Cross-referencing elements in a topic
  Cross-references to elements within topics such as figures and tables allow a reader to easily navigate through a document, whether it is in a page layout format or a hypertext format. The xref element is always used for cross-referencing elements within a topic.
- Links in related-links sections
  When a topic requires cross-references to other topics where those cross-references will always be valid in the context of the topic, they should be contained within a related-links section after the topic body. In all other cases, cross-references should be defined in the relationship table of the ditamap.
- Managing cross-references
- Cross-references in titles
  You should not use cross-reference elements within topic titles.
Content re-use
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.

Types of cross-references

A cross-reference is used in DITA to link or associate one piece of content with another. The cross-reference (xref) element is the primary mechanism for cross-referencing, but other elements also have cross-referencing functions.

In DITA, cross-referencing is more than simple hyperlinking, or references to page numbers or section titles. Topics, paragraphs, sections, steps, figures, tables and many other DITA elements can be cross-referenced, along with resources external to the DITA content such as Web addresses, network files, and e-mail addresses.

Cross-references are implemented primarily through the xref element and its href attribute. Also key to cross-referencing in DITA is the id attribute: only elements with an id attribute can be cross-referenced.

Cross-referencing features can sometimes be found in unexpected places. For example, the lq element includes an href attribute, used for storing the URL of the source of the quotation, if applicable. The source element in a topic's prolog and the link element in the related-links section also have an href attribute to store the URL of the original source of the topic content, if applicable.

Cross-references to different elements are resolved, when the collection is processed (published), in different ways. For example, a cross-reference to a step element may be rendered as the step number in the output.

The DITA syntax for referencing elements within the same topic is #[topicid]/[elementid].

Avoid generic cross-references to simple paragraphs; instead, cross-references should be to the topic as a whole.