Download the concept_samples.zip zip file now. It contains the sample files for the entire Authoring DITA concepts course. Extract the contents and put them in a directory that you can access easily.
Inside the concept_samples.zip folder, you will find the following folders corresponding to lessons in this course:
lesson1
lesson2
lesson3
lesson4
In each lesson folder, you will find four DITA files:
l_filename_start.dita: The empty sample file you will add content to as you follow along with each lesson.
l_filename.dita: The completed version of the sample file you can use to check your work.
l_filename_exercise_start.dita: The empty file you will add content to as you complete the exercise at the end of each lesson.
l_filename_exercise.dita: The completed version of the exercise file you can use to check your work.
Each lesson will instruct you on which files to use for the exercises. Save your file as you complete each step to avoid losing your work.
Create a local copy of each file to work in as you complete the lessons. That way, if you reach a point where your working file doesn’t match the examples, or is broken for any reason, you can make a fresh copy and resume your work or start over.
In the instructions and examples, we show you the DITA code for each sample file. Most DITA editors have auto-complete or other similar features to guide you through the process of adding elements (for example, if you type the opening tag of an element, most DITA editors will automatically add the closing tag for you). Therefore, you will probably not need to create every piece of code from scratch as you work. Our demo videos were created in oXygen XML Editor and show the differences between working in author view, which presents the DITA content in a user-friendly visual format, and working in text view, which shows the DITA code.