Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
DITA, first published in 2005 by the OASIS Open group, is an architecture based on the XML markup language for optimally storing information for presentation in various document formats.
DITA enables re-use of content, by eliminating dependencies between information and publications.
Structured Writing
In 1965, Robert Horm coined the phrase structured writing as part of his concepts for information mapping, his method for analyzing and organizing information. With structured writing, information is organized into 7 main information types: concept, procedure, process, principle, fact, structure, and classification. Structured writing and information mapping allow for content re-use in different formats (print and online help), to maximize the writer’s output and thereby minimize cost.
DITA
Nowadays, DITA is the most common method of organizing content and generating output. The more things have changed in technical communication, the more they stay the same.
DITA is based on many of the same concepts as structured writing. For example, in DITA there are 3 main topic types: concept, task, and reference. These topic types align neatly with structured writing’s information types: concept or principle (concept), procedure (task), and fact (reference).
In structured writing, each piece of information, whether it be a block or a chunk or a topic, must be able to stand on its own, so it can be re-used. In DITA, information can be stored as variables (phrase, sentence, or paragraph) and topics to enable re-use and enable output in different formats such as PDF, HTML5, and CHM.
