# DITA Best Practices : Attributes

Created by Kelly Mankenberg, last modified by Todd Stupnik on Dec 23, 2014

This section provides a high level presentation of attributes you will typically encounter and use when working in Oxygen. Attributes are a primary component of conditional processing, which allows you to filter content that you want or do not want in a particular deliverable. With conditional processing, you create a master topic that contains content variations for different users, products, platforms (our outputs: PDF or webhelp), versions, or other defined conditions.

In DITA, almost every element has a common set of attributes to use for conditional processing, consisting of the following:

Audience | the intended audience of the content
Platform | the platform on which the product is deployed
Product | the product that is the subject of the discussion
Rev | the revision or draft number of the current document
Otherprops | any other attribute you include

NOTE: for more information on using attributes within a DITA map, see Using attributes in a DITA map.

## To Use:

Select the entire element in either the Author or Text view (the Author view appears below).

From the Attributes view, double-click the value column next to the desired attribute (for example: audience). Click a value to select it.

## To Remove an Attribute

Right-click on either the Audience attribute or its Value in the Attribute view and select Remove.

## Further reading:

Section K, Understanding Conditiona Processing, page 257; Introduction to DITA: A User Guide to the Darwin Information Type Architecture, Linton, Bruski.

## Attachments:

Attribute1.png (image/png)
Attribute-Audience.png (image/png)
Attribute-Audience.png (image/png)