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Metadata, conditional processing, and indexing
Condition (or select) attributes
The audience, platform, product, otherprops and rev attributes can be applied to most DITA elements. They are used for conditional processing, and are known as the condition (or select) attributes.

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
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Language and punctuation
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Cross-referencing
Cross-references are a means of binding individual topics into a coherent and navigable document.
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Metadata, conditional processing, and indexing
- Conditional processing concepts
  When DITA content is processed to a reading format, rules to exclude or highlight some of the content can be defined in a ditaval file. This conditional processing requires metadata attributes to be set on DITA elements that may possibly be excluded or highlighted.
- Condition (or select) attributes
  The audience, platform, product, otherprops and rev attributes can be applied to most DITA elements. They are used for conditional processing, and are known as the condition (or select) attributes.
  - Attributes with multiple values
    You can have more than one value for a select attribute. The different values are stored in the one attribute, separated by spaces.
  - Controlled values for attributes
    Controlled values for metadata attributes can be defined in a ditamap, and will apply when authoring topics referenced by the ditamap. These controlled values are defined in the subjectScheme element.
  - Conventions for the otherprops attribute
    By using a convention for recording values in the otherprops attribute, you can extend the amount of metadata stored.
  - The props attribute
    The props attribute is only used for specialising new metadata attributes.
- Filtering and flagging
  Content marked with metadata attributes can be conditionally processed so that the content is filtered (excluded) or flagged (highlighted) in the published output.
- Other metadata
  In addition to the select attributes, DITA content includes many forms of metadata. These metadata elements and attributes are used to manage and organise topics, ditamaps and publications.
- Indexing
  DITA incorporates powerful features for indexing, including multi-level indexing, and see and see-also redirection. Index entries can be applied in the ditamap, in the topic prolog, and inline within the topic content.
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.

Condition (or select) attributes

The audience, platform, product, otherprops and rev attributes can be applied to most DITA elements. They are used for conditional processing, and are known as the condition (or select) attributes.

The metadata attributes used for conditional publishing through filtering and flagging are audience, platform, product, and otherprops. The rev attribute can be used for flagging only, but not for filtering (excluding). These attributes are sometimes collectively referred to as condition attributes, or select attributes.

The attribute values are free-form text, although in DITA 1.2, the subjectScheme feature can be used to define a list of controlled values for different attributes.

Attributes can contain multiple values; these are delimited with a space. Values are case-sensitive.

The audience attribute is designed to identify the intended audience of the content. Examples of possible values include administrator, novice, power, Canada, driver, and engineer.

The platform attribute is designed to identify the operating system or other technology platform that the content is specific to. Examples of possible values include macos, linux, firefox, mobile, 4WD, android and ipad.

The product attribute is designed to identify the product that the content is specific to. Examples of possible values include ej25, lite, pro, SR71, acme, STi, and openoffice.

The otherprops attribute is designed to identify any other metadata category to be used as a basis for filtering or flagging. Examples of otherprops use include to identify markets (eg, healthcare), publications (eg, NewsToday), organisational departments (eg, accountspayable), and outlet (eg, melbourne_retail).