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Using Check Completeness with DITA Documents
Arbortext Editor extends the regular check completeness feature to provide enhanced completeness checking for DITA documents. When you are authoring a DITA document and choose Tools > Check Completeness or click the Check Completeness toolbar button, a regular completeness check is initially performed on the document. Once the regular completeness check is done, Arbortext Editor performs an enhanced completeness check for DITA-specific issues. Any issues are then reported in the Completeness Check Log. If it takes more than a few seconds to perform the enhanced completeness check, a progress bar is displayed.
Regular completeness checking checks for things that can be validated using the document type associated with the document. Enhanced completeness checking checks for things that are described in the DITA standard, but cannot be validated against the DTD or XML schema. For example, enhanced completeness checking checks for missing files, incorrect or unusual URL formats, unusual format and type attribute values, the use of deprecated elements or attributes, and so forth.
You can perform an enhanced completeness check on either a DITA topic or map. For a DITA topic, the enhanced completeness check is only performed on the topic. For a DITA map, the enhanced completeness check is performed not only on the map but also on any other DITA maps or topics that are referenced from the map, depending on the setting of the ditacheckreferences advanced preference. DITA content referenced from DITA maps that are referenced from the original map is also included in the enhanced completeness check. You can also select part of a DITA map and just have the enhanced completeness check performed on that part of the map. In this case, the regular completeness check is performed on the entire map, but the enhanced completeness check is only performed on the selected part of the map.
When the enhanced completeness check starts, the message Enhanced Completeness Checking started … is displayed in the message area at the bottom of the Arbortext Editor window. As the check proceeds, this message shows the status of the enhanced completeness check. When the check is complete, either the message Enhanced Completeness Checking completed: No errors/warnings or the message Enhanced Completeness Checking finished: See message window for details is displayed. In the latter case, the Completeness Check Log window appears listing any DITA-related warnings or errors that were detected in the document. Each error or warning has a link after the associated message. Double-clicking on the link moves the cursor to the place in the associated document where the error or warning was detected. If the error or warning is about a document that is referenced from a DITA map, that document is opened in a new Arbortext Editor window.
Enhanced completeness checking checks for the following categories of DITA related issues:
DITA Markup Problems — Issues such as use of deprecated markup, invalid attribute values not checked by the document type, use of tags intended for specialization, and so forth
DITA Reference Problems — Issues such as invalid href attribute values, unusual or incorrect format and type attribute values, and so forth
Note that the values against which the format attribute is checked is determined by the setting of the ditaexpectedformats advanced preference.
DITA Key and Key Reference Problems — Issues related to keys and key references such as undefined key references, invalid key definition names, and problems resolving conkeyref references.
The Completeness Check Log window has two menus and a shortcut menu.
The File menu has the following options:
Save — Saves the contents of the message window to an .xml file. If this is the first save since the window has displayed, you are asked to select an output file name.
Save As — Saves the content to an output with a different name.
Save as HTML — Saves the content to an .htm file.
Print — Prints a published version of the message window. This printout will display the information currently set to be displayed by the View menu.
Close — Closes the message window.
The View menu has the following options:
Display — Determines the type of content to display in the message window:
Messages — Displays all information (messages, warnings, and errors).
Warnings — Displays only warnings and errors. This is the default setting.
Errors — Displays only errors.
Font Size — Provides two options for changing the font size in the message window:
Increase — Increases the display font size.
Decrease — Decreases the display font size.
The shortcut menu appears when you click the right mouse button inside the message window. It has the following options:
Copy — Copies the selected region to the clipboard. This option is available only when you click inside a selected region.
Follow Link — If you right-click on a LINK in the message window and select this option, the linked document displays with the cursor positioned at the appropriate location in the source document. This option has no effect if there are no links in the message window.
Collapse/Expand — Collapses or expands the current entry.
Enhanced completeness checking has the following limitations:
For a DITA map, regular completeness checking is only performed on the map, not any DITA topics or maps referenced from the original map.
DITA topics referenced from other topics are not included in the enhanced completeness check.
For DITA maps that contain a large number of topic references, enhanced completeness checking might take longer to complete than regular completeness checking.