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
- Purpose of ditamap files
  DITA map files are used for defining the topics of a publication, specifying the topic sequence, and controlling linking between topics.
  - Publication and collection defined
    A publication (also known as the output or the deliverable) is the document, Web site, eBook, Help system or other product produced when a collection of DITA topics is processed through a publishing program.
  - Anatomy of a ditamap file
    DITA maps files are primarily made up of topicref, topichead, topicgroup and topicmeta elements. DITA map files may also contain relationship tables, made up of rows and cells containing topicref elements.
  - Generated relationship links
    Cross-reference links based on the relationships defined in the hierarchy and reltable sections of the ditamap can be automatically generated and added to the bottom of output topics, in both hypertext and paged media outputs. Most publishing tools support this DITA feature.
- Topic manifest
  Any topics referenced anywhere in the ditamap will be processed into the output publication.
- Topic hierarchy
  In DITA, the sequence and hierarchy of the topics to be published are defined in the ditamap through nested topicref elements.
- Relationship tables
  Relationship tables are used to store linking relationships between topics in a collection in the ditamap, rather than in individual topics. Linking relationships are defined in a table-like structure, with rows in the table determining which topics are linked to which.
- Linking relationships
  DITA encourages the linking relationships to be stored outside the topic content. Links can be generated from topic hierarchies, relationship tables, and related-links section links.
- Inheritance and cascades in ditamaps
  Properties in ditamaps sometimes cascade from parent elements to child elements. Some values in ditamaps also override the equivalent values in referenced topics.
- Embedded (or nested) ditamaps
  The technique of using embedded, or nested, ditamaps can make it easier to manage documents by separating complex collections of topics into a number of smaller, simpler collections.
- DITA map vocabulary
- The bookmap feature
  Bookmaps are a specialisation of the base DITA map information type. Like ditamaps, bookmaps are containers for structure and context metadata, and do not contain any content. Bookmaps are used to describe page layout publishing outputs such as books, articles, manuals and research papers. They contain information structures that are specific to linear publications, such as tables of figures, title pages, chapters, sections and parts.
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
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.

Anatomy of a ditamap file

DITA maps files are primarily made up of topicref, topichead, topicgroup and topicmeta elements. DITA map files may also contain relationship tables, made up of rows and cells containing topicref elements.

The vocabulary of a ditamap file is quite simple. The principal element is the topic reference (topicref), which is simply a link to a topic to be included in the collection. The topicref elements can be nested, allowing you to build a hierarchy of links to topics.

Other elements which you can use to refine the hierarchy are:

topichead: an unlinked heading (or group) in the hierarchy
topicgroup: a way of grouping topicref elements together without affecting the hierarchy (used for applying characteristics to a group of topics at a time)
topicmeta: metadata for the topic that applies specifically to the context of the publication defined by the ditamap

As well as linking to topics, topicref elements can link to other ditamaps, thus permitting the embedding and re-use of ditamaps.

A ditamap file may also contain one or more relationship table (or reltable) sections. A reltable is made up of rows (relrow elements) of cells (relcell elements), usually with a header row (relheader elements). Cells contain topicref elements that link to topics. The relationship between topicref elements within rows and cells determines how generated links will appear in the output.