Home
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.
Working with topics

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.
- Content models and information types
  A content model is a framework that represents the structure of the information to be stored. In DITA, a content model is implemented as an information type, or topic type.
- Information types
  A fundamental principle of DITA is information typing, which categorises information according to the nature of the content. The three base DITA information types are concept, task and reference.
- What is a topic?
  A topic in DITA is an independent chunk of information covering a single idea or task, authored as a unit, and stored in its own file. Topics are categorised by information type. DITA's topic-based architecture enables the same topic to be used in different publications.
- Working with topics
  - Stem topics
    Rather than manually creating links from parent topics to child topics, and arranging the links into a formatted table, you should take advantage of the ability to automatically generate links and descriptions to topics subordinate in the hierarchy. A parent stem topic in the DITA source can become an important introductory topic in the deliverable document.
  - Disambiguation topics
    Disambiguation topics help direct readers to the appropriate content where a term or concept is ambiguous and may refer to more than one topic.
  - Avoiding linking in topics
    A topic with an embedded link is bound to the target of that link. If the target topic is not included in the same output, the link is not relevant (and will appear as a broken link in the output). Links should therefore be removed from the topic to the ditamap; the map being the place where context is stored.
  - The difference between processes, procedures and tasks
    A procedure is a synonym for a task, but a process is an upper level series of major steps, with those major steps being procedures or tasks. Tasks are made up of actions or steps.
  - Using sectiondiv and bodydiv Elements
    The sectiondiv and bodydiv elements are used to help authors re-use a group of block elements as a single unit.
- Specialised information types
  Specialised information types provide a topic architecture that closely matches the structure of your content.
- Topic exemplars
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
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.

Working with topics

Topics are the building blocks of DITA, and a methodical approach to topic creation will result in consistent and more effective documents.