Practice vocabulary for DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and structured writing: topic types, content reuse, and information architecture.
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What are the three primary DITA topic types?
DITA's three base topic types: Concept (understanding), Task (doing), Reference (looking up). This separation forces information architects to categorize content by reader intent — understanding vs. doing vs. finding.
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What is 'content reuse' in DITA and structured writing?
DITA enables single-source publishing: write once, publish many. A 'Logging Configuration' task written once can appear in the Installation Guide, Quick Start Guide, and Admin Manual. Update it once, and it updates everywhere.
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What is a 'DITA map'?
DITA maps are the composition layer. A 'User Guide' map references 20 concept, task, and reference topics and defines their structure. The same topics can be referenced in different maps for different publications.
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What is 'conditional text' in DITA?
Conditional (profiling) text uses DITA attributes like @product or @audience. During publishing, you set conditions: include content where product='enterprise', exclude where product='community'. This enables one topic set to produce product-specific outputs.
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What does 'chunking' mean in DITA output?
DITA's granularity (one topic per file) needs chunking to produce usable output. Web output often combines related topics into one page; PDF output merges everything. Chunking strategy affects SEO, navigation, and reader experience.
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What is 'information typing' in structured writing?
Information typing is the foundation of structured writing. Robert Horn's Information Mapping and DITA both use typing to prevent 'mixed' content — a single page that is part tutorial, part reference, part concept. Typed topics are more reusable and scannable.
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What is 'docs as code' and how does it relate to structured writing?
Docs as code brings engineering rigor to documentation: changelogs, branches, reviews, automated tests (broken link checking, style linting). It enables developer contributions and co-locates docs with the code they describe.
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What is the difference between a 'tutorial' and a 'how-to guide' in the Diátaxis framework?
Diátaxis distinguishes by intent: tutorials build competence through structured learning (the reader may not understand why at each step). How-to guides assume competence and help accomplished users solve real problems. Mixing them creates confusion.