DITA

Overview

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a standard commonly used for writing technical documentation.

It describes how topics can be organised effectively into specific information types, and mechanisms for reusing those topics.

Types

Early versions of the DITA specification included three primary types:

• Task: procedural guidelines for achieving a goal, such as a how-to
• Concept: explanatory information, background, and overviews
• Reference: concise, factual material, like an API reference

More recent specifications have more specialised types, including:

• Troubleshooting
• Glossary terms
• Learning overviews

DITA is extensible, and it is possible to create additional types as the problem domain requires.