Some of the most commonly used elements in a concept topic include:
<p> | paragraph |
<ul> | unordered list |
<ol> | ordered list |
<note> | admonition |
These elements were covered in the Introduction to DITA course. This lesson gives a brief review of these elements and shows how to add them to a concept topic.
Practice
- Continue using the file lesson1/l_new_concept_start.dita.
- Inside the <conbody> element, add a <p> element and populate it as shown in the following example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="my_first_concept">
<title>Wild duck species</title>
<conbody>
<p>North American wild ducks belong to one of the following categories:</p>
</conbody>
</concept>The <p> element is for body text. It can be used inside the <conbody> element as well as inside many of the elements that <conbody> contains.Note:
Use the <p> element for any body text that does not need a more specific element tag. As you will see in examples throughout this course, we recommend using the <p> element to tag text inside list items, notes, and table entries. <p> elements are needed for list items that are several paragraphs long, and wrapping single items in the <p> element keeps them all consistent.
The <p> element you just created introduces the next element: an unordered list. - After the <p> element, add a <ul> element and populate it as shown in the following example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="my_first_concept">
<title>Wild duck species</title>
<conbody>
...
<ul>
<li><p>Dabbling ducks</p></li>
<li><p>Diving ducks</p></li>
<li><p>Sea ducks</p></li>
<li><p>Whistling ducks</p></li>
<li><p>Swans and geese</p></li>
</ul>
</conbody>
</concept>The <ul> element is for unordered or bulleted lists.The <ul> element can only contain the <li> element, and it must contain at least one.Each <li> element contains the text for a bulleted entry in the list. In this example, the <li> elements follow the best practice of wrapping a <p> element around the text. - After the <ul> element, add an <ol> element with an introductory <p> element as shown in the following example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="my_first_concept">
<title>Wild duck species</title>
<conbody>
...
<p>The longest species of dabbling ducks in North America are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Northern pintail</p></li>
<li><p>Mallard</p></li>
<li><p>American black duck</p></li>
</ol>
</conbody>
</concept>The <ol> element is for ordered or numbered lists.Like the <ul> element, the <ol> element can only contains <li> elements, and it must contain at least one.In this example, each of the <li> elements follows the best practice of wrapping a <p> element around the text.Note:
Use the <ol> element only to show that the list items should appear in a certain order, not to create step-by-step instructions. For step-by-step instructions, use the task topic instead.
- After the <ol> element, add a <note> element and populate it as shown in the following example:Video: Creating a note in DITA
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="my_first_concept">
<title>Wild duck species</title>
<conbody>
...
<note><p>Although the northern pintail is the longest dabbling duck, the mallard
is generally considered the largest because of its heavier body weight.</p></note>
</conbody>
</concept>The <note> element is used to add admonitions, such as notes, warnings, or cautions, to the concept topic. The <note> element you just created follows the best practice of wrapping a <p> element around the text. - Check your file lesson1/l_new_concept_start.dita against the sample file lesson1/l_new_concept.dita.
Practice
- Open the file lesson1/l_new_concept_exercise_start.dita and use it to convert the following untagged content into DITA:
Source: Content Strategy 101
- Check your file lesson1/l_new_concept_exercise_start.dita against the sample file lesson1/l_new_concept_exercise.dita.