Finally! A user guide for the popular OASIS DITA standard. If you have been using DITA, or are just joining the DITA community, this book provides you with the information you need to accomplish your goals. The user guide not only presents the basic methodology of DITA and its benefits for creating your information set, but explains step-by-step how to author DITA XML topics, create maps for your deliverables, and work through the production processing tasks. The book includes a thorough explanation of the DITA model and the major elements used to create your topics using the task, concept, and reference information types. The DITA User Guide uses a task-based approach (the user guide is written with DITA) to help you create topic-based output. Here are some of the questions we help you answer:

• How do I create DITA topics?
• How do I assemble DITA topics into DITA maps for output?
• How do I do conditional processing with DITA?
• How do I create my own specializations?
• How do I use the DITA Open Toolkit?

Reviews of Introduction to DITA: A User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture

For any of you who are just starting out with DITA, I can recommend the new "Introduction to DITA" guide available from Comtech Services, Inc. I just got my copy a couple of weeks ago and am very, very pleased. Thanks to the Comtech folks for absolutely "practicing what they preach" when it comes to writing usable documentation !!!
Beth McFadden
Teradata, a Division of NCR

I wonder how many of you are thinking about structuring your content using DITA XML? I just finished reading the first book on DITA. It's called Introduction to DITA, by Jennifer Linton and Kylene Bruski of Comtech Services. I am an old-timer who appreciates a printed book I can take to bed with me. And the step-by-step examples in the book are just the right learning experience for the beginners and intermediate users this book is targeted at. That said, this book has a strange metaphysical quality of being about itself. You are reading a line that describes the steps in a task and you suddenly realize that the very same steps were needed to generate the printed words you are looking at! It's a self-referential reference book. This book is not just about DITA. It is DITA. Talk about practicing what you preach...
Bob Doyle
Editor In Chief, CMS Review

Introduction to DITA blazes a welcome trail into DITA documentation. The authors compile an impressive amount of information into an accessible and helpful user guide.
Journal of the Society for Technical Communication, May 2007

I just got my copy and on first glance this book looks very good. I wanted to purchase one to see how good it is, and I now plan to buy one for each of my writers. The toolkit sections seem a little light on content (windows only, not much in terms of troubleshooting, etc.). But this is the type of information where this email list will always be a better resource. I haven't gotten into it enough to know if it is fantastic, but it is definitely better than any other resource I've seen.
Shawn McKenzie

The cost of the book is US $50 plus shipping costs.
Note:

• Sales tax will be applied to California (7.25%) and Colorado (6.4%)
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• For expedited shipping please call 303-232-7586 to place your book orders where we will ship via your preferred carrier with a valid account number.

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View the Table of Contents

View a sample Chapter

Download the Sample DITA topics from the book Appendix