- Structured authoring documentation stages
The documentation process within a DITA workflow can be separated into stages of building, associating, and publishing.
- Unit testing in a team
A process where multiple authors are working on a large repository of topics can make it difficult to manage the quality and consistency of the content. Unit testing is a technique to identify validation errors earlier in the documentation process.
- Restricting authors and limiting element choices
To make it easier for authors to choose semantic mark-up elements, it is possible to reduce the number of elements available for selection. This restriction can be managed by an authoring tool, or through the constraints mechanism introduced in DITA 1.2.
- File and folder naming conventions
Using an organisation-wide, well-documented file naming and folder structure convention will improve the usability of the authoring process for DITA authors, especially those working in a team.
- Elements for pre-publish review
The draft-comment element allows review and discussion information to be embedded within topic mark-up. The more basic XML comment can also be used for a similar purpose.
- The DITA publishing process
XSL-T and XSL-FO are the technologies that underpin most DITA publishing tools.
- Page numbering in page layout documents
A single page number sequence through an entire page layout document generated from DITA is often preferable to the traditional system of different page number sequences for front matter and back matter.
- Content Management Systems
Although it is possible to create, manage and edit content in DITA without a CMS, it is invariably easier with the aid of a CMS.