Creating a new concept topic

Concept topics contain basic DITA elements, such as paragraphs, lists, images, tables, and many others. Most of these elements can be used in the other topic types (task, reference, and glossary), as well. The only exception is the <conbody> element, which is specific to the concept topic type.

At a minimum, the concept topic must contain a <concept> root element (with an id attribute) that contains a <title> element.

After the <title> element and an optional <shortdesc> or <abstract> element, the <conbody> element contains the concept itself.

The <conbody> element has an open content model. This means that the elements contained in <conbody> are not required to follow a strict sequence. As long as an element is allowed inside <conbody>, it can appear in any order. The exceptions are the <section> and <example> elements, which can only be followed by other <section> or <example> elements or a <conbodydiv> element.

Video: Creating a DITA concept

Practice

Make a copy of the file lesson1/l_new_concept_start.dita and open it in your editor.

Note:

If you are using a DITA-aware text editor, make sure you are in text mode, rather than author or visual mode.

You should see this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd"> <concept id="my_first_concept"> <title>xyz</title> </concept>

The first line (which begins with <?xml) is an XML declaration, which is a standard part of all XML files.

The DOCTYPE declaration on the second line identifies this file as a concept topic.

The third line is the opening tag of the <concept> element, which uses the unique ID “my_first_concept”.

The <title> element on the fourth line contains the title of the topic.

The fifth line uses the closing tag </concept> to show where the <concept> element ends.
Inside the <title> element, change the text of the title as shown in the following example.

Note:

When working inside an element, insert the content between the opening and closing tags.

<?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> </concept>
After the <title> element, add a <conbody> element.

Note:

When adding an element after another element, insert the new element after the closing tag of the first element.

<?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> </conbody> </concept>

The <conbody> element will contain all the actual content in the concept.

Contributors

Gretyl Kinsey, Scriptorium