In many ways, specialization is the key feature of the DITA XML standard. Specialization provides a structured mechanism, based on object-oriented programming principles, for extending the DITA schema to different areas. The DITA standard supports and encourages specialization, making it possible to fit the schema to the project, rather than bend the project to fit [...]

About a month ago, we ran an informal survey asking people what publications about DITA would be most useful to them. An author’s guide was at the top of the list. DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers (published through Lulu.com, $25.37 print, $9.95 download), the new book from The Rockley Group, addresses [...]

This is the third installment in A DITA Adventure. The first two installments covered downloading and installing the DITA Open Toolkit and installing the DITA Open Toolkit on Linux. This installment is my first attempt to build content outside the demo package, and it has been a less than happy experience.

The folks at LiveTechDocs.com reviewed Managing Writers and interviewed the author, Richard L. Hamilton. The interview talks about reviewing documentation, since that is the focus of LiveTechDocs.com, and also delves into the future of DocBook.

For more details, check out the interview at: Live Tech Docs Interview.

Thanks to Fabrice Talbot and Jeff Boudier of LiveTechDocs.com for [...]

Part Two in the continuing saga of installing and using the DITA Open Toolkit. Part One (check it out first if you haven’t, yet) followed the initial download and installation of the DITA Open Toolkit, version 1.4. With a few minor caveats, that worked just fine, so I decided to try the same thing on [...]

XML Press is planning several new publications related to DITA. Our DITA Information Needs Survey collected data about what information about DITA you need.
The survey is now closed, and we will post a summary shortly.
If you participated in the survey, we will send you the full results. Thanks to everyone who participated.

This is the first in a series of articles that will follow a regular user setting up and using the DITA Open Toolkit. The plan is to install the toolkit on a Windows system (and possibly later, a Linux system), get it working, generate some representative content, and generate output in various forms. If that [...]

Links updated 21 January 2010
One sign that a book has succeeded is when it changes your perception of the subject. By that definition, Julio Vazquez’s Practical Dita (102 pages, lulu.com, now available on Amazon.com) succeeds. I have to say up front that my opinion of DITA was not enhanced by reading his book. However, the [...]