DITA Best Practices : Attributes

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:

 Audiencethe intended audience of the content 
 Platformthe platform on which the product is deployed 
 Productthe product that is the subject of the discussion 
 Revthe revision or draft number of the current document 
 Otherpropsany 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)