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Adding basic elements to a concept topic

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
  1. Continue using the file lesson1/l_new_concept_start.dita.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

  5. 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.
  6. Check your file lesson1/l_new_concept_start.dita against the sample file lesson1/l_new_concept.dita.
Practice
  1. 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

  2. Check your file lesson1/l_new_concept_exercise_start.dita against the sample file lesson1/l_new_concept_exercise.dita.
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