Topicoriented writing is a disciplined approach to writing that emphasizes modularity and reuse of concise units of information. Dita is best suited for writing modular, topicoriented documents. Docbook is a general purpose schema particularly well suited to books and papers about computer hardware and software though it is by no means limited to these applications. Authoring definition of authoring by the free dictionary. If youre moving to topicbased authoring or considering the move, join me next week at the stc summit in phoenix for my presentation from unstructured documentation to structured topics. Here youll find current best sellers in books, new releases in books, deals in books, kindle ebooks, audible audiobooks, and so much more. In a dita authoring environment, writers create technical content by assembling topicoriented information types or blocks of information that serve particular functions in a document. When readers buy a book they like, they can lend it to others. Run a social media giveaway, gift your books to readers at an event, or send copies to newsletter subscribers. Coauthoring a project is on my schedule for 2014 and im happy to have found your post to refresh myself on the benefits and ways to work around the pitfalls. Ill elaborate on this shortly, but the main contradiction is that minimalist topics by their nature will mix all possible information types together in the same chunk or block of text, whereas in information mapping and topicoriented authoring, you are expected to rigidly and artificially separate information type into different. My persona for topic authoring eyeopening look at my own persona using my job description to write use cases for what well look for in a ditabased workflow for topic authoring in a planning meeting for creating our new topicoriented workflows and processes as agile user stories, we created a persona for what my role could be as a. There is no mention of topics or topicoriented authoring in the books index. Dita experts don day, michael priestley, and gretchen hargis address the topic architecture of dita, tips and techniques, and general dita questions.
Introduction to the darwin information typing architecture. Docbook is a system for writing structured documents using sgml and xml. User confidence and topicbased writing every page is page one. Discussion of the implied changes moving to a topic based writing system from a book based paradigm. The generaltask document type was introduced in dita 1. It also addresses a selection of bugs and feature requests. A set of document types for authoring and organizing topic oriented information in xml. A set of document types for authoring and organizing topicoriented information in xml. Discussion of the implied changes moving to a topicbased writing system from a bookbased paradigm. Sep 28, 2005 the darwin information typing architecture dita is an xmlbased, endtoend architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. Presented at spectrum 2008 in rochester, ny by rob hanna. Topicbased authoring lets you create and reuse content, reduces project schedules, and improves your workflow. What is the difference between structured authoring and.
Like most component level elements in docbook, it can hold block elements optionally followed by one or more sections. Topicoriented authoring for conceptual and task information has its roots in minimalism, an instructional design technique first espoused by john carroll. Jun 30, 2016 authoring through the lens of the printed page is the barrier that many people new to topicbased authoring must overcome. Im glad my coauthor and i have a solid relationship, and i think the structure of our book will help also. Nonfiction book 16 credits per book to qualify for cm authoring credit, the nonfiction book.
She stressed the necessary paradigm shift for writers away from thinking about what they do as writing books to thinking about what they do as writing essential, correct. Runs on windows, mac os x, linux, freebsd and solarix x86. One who writes or constructs an electronic document. It is defined in contrast with bookoriented or narrative content, written in. Online help is topicoriented, procedural or reference information delivered through computer software. Teaching, learning and research in higher education offers a combination of critical perspectives and practical advice that is ideally suited for individuals interested in enhancing their practice through analysis and critique. The format will be a project walkthrough miniworkshop in a. Jun 02, 2008 presented at stc summit in atlanta, ga in may 2009. Topicoriented writing at mcafee linkedin slideshare. Those are important and useful, but topicbased authoring doesnt. Oct 19, 2006 my persona for topic authoring eyeopening look at my own persona using my job description to write use cases for what well look for in a ditabased workflow for topic authoring in a planning meeting for creating our new topicoriented workflows and processes as agile user stories, we created a persona for what my role could be as a. Look at the content in each section divided by headers and determine the. May 29, 2018 topic based authoring is an aspect of structured authoring.
Best creative writing classes, authoring tools, book writing. His book writing courses for beginners are some of. Oasis darwin information typing architecture dita tc faq. Nov 09, 2015 topicbased authoring implementations often focus on learning writing patterns, techniques, and technologies like dita and ccms.
The only mention of topics throughout the entire book is in the generic sense of the dictionary definition. Most online help is designed to give assistance in the use of a software application or operating system, but can also be used to present information on a. Presented at stc summit in atlanta, ga in may 2009. Dita is best suited for writing modular, topic oriented documents. After grounding you in all the types of topics, the next section deals with the architecture of dita content. In order to make your documentation more effective and userfriendly, you should create a topic for each section or each task your readers are looking for. Moving from books to topicoriented writing a report from joann hackos talk at the central texas dita users group meeting january 2006 joann hackos is well known in the technical writing community and is a member of the dita technical committee. The dita wiki knowledge base explains that the topic based authoring has been a mainstay of technical information development since we first began developing help systems. Potentially, you can write a better book that provides more value, wisdom, expertise, fun, accessibility, real life examples, etc. The darwin information typing architecture dita specification defines a set of document types for authoring and organizing topicoriented information, as well as a set of mechanisms for combining, extending, and constraining document types. The format will be a project walkthrough miniworkshop in a regular session slot of 45 minutes. Jan 27, 2006 moving from books to topicoriented writing a report from joann hackos talk at the central texas dita users group meeting january 2006 joann hackos is well known in the technical writing community and is a member of the dita technical committee. Joanns entry point for talking about dita and structured authoring was the transition from writing books to writing topics. It is defined in contrast with book oriented or narrative content, written in the linear structure of written books.
Pdf authoring a phd download full pdf book download. It is defined in contrast with book oriented or narrative content, written in. Welldesigned dita topics can be reused in many contexts, as long as writers are careful to avoid unnecessary transitional text. Topic based authoring is an aspect of structured authoring. It is defined in contrast with book oriented or narrative content, written in the linear structure of written books topic based authoring is popular in the technical publications and documentation arenas, as. Keywords technical communication technical documentation authoring tool content management darwin information typing architecture.
There is no mention of topics or topic oriented authoring in the book s index. Each topic can be a piece of modular writing that can be reused in multiple contexts. If you are looking to move to a structured writing environment such as dita, its the first set of steps towards that goal. Topicbased authoring is an aspect of structured authoring. Authoring a life illustrates how language often plays an important part i. The minimalist approach to information design focuses on identifying the smallest amount of instruction that allows for the successful completion of a task, or that provides basic knowledge. The topic element is a generalpurpose container designed to be semantically neutral with respect to any narrative flow. Topics are most often associated with topicoriented authoring methodologies.
The book will have more credibility if your coauthor possesses expertise you lack. Edit a tree of text mindmap and convert to html website. The topic based approach is more efficient for producing and managing documentation, as compared to the book oriented approach. Docbook, provides all the elements youll need for technical documents of all kinds. It provides a lessstrict content model for task oriented information than was available previously. Although flare is an ideal environment for topicbased authoring, once we start writing, some of us still create text density more appropriate for outofdate paper. The books homepage helps you explore earths biggest bookstore without ever leaving the comfort of your couch. Both agents and publishers love proposals written in michaels formatits thorough and marketingoriented.
More than 40 million people use github to discover, fork, and contribute to over 100 million projects. The topicbased approach is more efficient for producing and managing documentation, as compared to the bookoriented approach. Dita can also be extended to allow for the definition of information types. Topic oriented authoring for conceptual and task information has its roots in minimalism, an instructional design technique first espoused by john carroll. This book is the complete and official documentation of the docbook document type definition dtd and many of its associated tools. Advancing new authoring strategies through virtual collaboration. Jutoh is a commercial wysiwyg editor for epub and mobipocket mobi format files, with import from opendocument, epub html and plain text files. In technical communication, topic based authoring is a modular approach to content creation where content is structured around topics that can be mixed and reused in different contexts. What to consider before agreeing to coauthor a book. The dita wiki knowledge base explains that the topicbased authoring has been a mainstay of technical information development since we first began developing help systems. Topicbased authoring implementations often focus on learning writing patterns, techniques, and technologies like dita and ccms. Disciplined, topicoriented writing oxygen xml editor. The book thoroughly covers topic based authoring, a necessity when working with dita or actually for all tech writers, including such concepts and minimalist writing and content sharing. Authoring through the lens of the printed page is the barrier that many people new to topicbased authoring must overcome.
The minimalist approach to information design focusses on identifying the smallest amount of instruction that allows for the successful completion of a task, or that provides basic knowledge. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating informationtyped modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the web. The darwin information typing architecture dita specification defines a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic oriented information, as well as a set of mechanisms for combining, extending, and constraining document types. May 23, 2014 if youre moving to topicbased authoring or considering the move, join me next week at the stc summit in phoenix for my presentation from unstructured documentation to structured topics. In structured technical writing, each topic, paragraph, sentence, list item, or table entry has a function that is strictly defined. In this topic, well tell you about the basic principles. This tool gives an author the possibility to define a structure that is, a set of rooms, select a set of.
The book will be an excellent introduction for dita novices and is ideal as a first orientation for optimizing your information environment. A step in a set of instructions and an ingredient in a recipe are examples of information types swarts, 2010, p. In figure 21, about application menus identifies the topic and indicates that the topic is informational, not. The topics can then be assembled into help systems or books that require a particular selection and organization of subjects. It provides a lessstrict content model for taskoriented information than was available previously. Some organizations might prefer the generaltask content model over the strict task model, as it can facilitate the migration of legacy content that does not follow the stricttask topic model. The following excerpts clearly demonstrate this fact. This user guide is designed to provide its readers with a taskoriented approach to learning the darwin information typing architecture dita. Because dita separates content from context, multiple architectures of information are possible in dita. Must provide facts and information about planning or planningrelated issues. As dita becomes further entrenched as an ever more popular xml solution to topicbased authoring, a number of xml editors are available to assist content creators.
And as help expands to cover a wider range of products to be consumed on one or more of a vast array of devices, wellstructured, topic based writing becomes ever more. A set of mechanisms for combining and extending document types using a process called specialization. Moving from books to topicoriented writing just write click. The book thoroughly covers topicbased authoring, a necessity when working with dita or actually for all tech writers, including such concepts and minimalist writing and content sharing. And as help expands to cover a wider range of products to be consumed on one or more of a vast array of devices, wellstructured, topicbased writing becomes ever more. Frequently asked questions about the darwin information.