Reusing Content
DITA allows you to reuse content from other DITA files with a content reference in the
following ways:
- You can select content in a topic, create a reusable component from it and reference the
component in other locations using the actions Create Reusable
Component and Insert Reusable Component. A reusable
component is a file, usually shorter than a topic. You also have the option of replacing the
selection with the component that you are in the process of creating. The created reusable
component file is usually self-contained and it's automatically generated content can be
fine tuned by modifying the resources located in the folder
[OXYGEN_DIR]\frameworks\dita\reuse.
- You can add, edit, and remove a content reference (conref) attribute
to/from an existing element. The actions Add/Edit Content Reference
and Remove Content Reference are available on the contextual menu of
the Author editor and on the DITA menu. When a content reference is added or an existing
content reference is edited, you can select any topic ID or interval of topic IDs (set also
the conrefend field in the dialog for adding/editing the content reference)
from a target DITA topic file.
- You can insert an element with a content reference (conref or
conkeyref ) attribute using one of the actions Insert Content
Reference and Insert Content Key Reference that are
available on the DITA menu, the Author custom actions toolbar and the contextual menu of the
Author editor.
DITA makes the distinction between local content, that is the text and graphics that are
actually present in the element, and referenced content that is referenced by the element but
is located in a different file. To display referenced content, open the
Preferences dialog box and go to .