Working with DITA Maps
Authoring a DITA map is very different from authoring a DITA topic. DITA maps primarily contain tag and attribute content with relatively little text. You use DITA maps to organize a collection of DITA topics and other types of resources into a deliverable document. Instead of containing the content for the deliverable, a DITA map contains references to the topics and other documents that are included in the deliverable. These references are called topic references (topicref).
When you are developing a DITA document, it is often better to start with a DITA map instead of DITA topics. The map is essentially the outline for the document and enables you to develop and rearrange the hierarchy for your document as you author it. DITA topics are intended to be standalone modules that provide information about a single subject. The DITA map is where you take these standalone topics and provide the overall structure for the deliverable as a whole.
Arbortext Editor provides the following features that help you develop DITA maps:
• Resource Manager — The Resource Manager provides two new tabs that help you add new and existing topics to your map
• Column view — Column view is a special Arbortext Editor view that provides both a hierarchical view of a DITA map and a series of rows and columns, similar to a spreadsheet, where you can view and edit the attributes of the tags in the map.
• DITA Map toolbar — This toolbar enables you to rearrange the tags in your DITA map.
This part of the Tutorial introduces you to some basic DITA map concepts and provides more step-by-step exercises to help you become familiar with how Arbortext Editor supports DITA map editing.
For more information, refer to the
DITA Authoring Overview and
Authoring DITA Maps topics in the
Arbortext Editor help.