Learn about DITA in a couple of hours

DITA 101, second edition, by Ann Rockley and others is one of the best tool-independent books about DITA. It’s a good primer to learn about DITA in a couple of hours.

Strong context

The book excels in firmly embedding DITA’s technologies and workflows in the larger contect of structured writing and topic-based authoring.

I attribute this to the authors’ years of solid experience in these areas which comes through, especially in the earlier chapters.

“The value of structure in content,” the second chapter, illustrates structured writing with the obvious example of cooking recipes. Then it goes on to show you how to deduce a common structure from three realistically different recipes – which I hadn’t seen done in such a clear and concise way.

“Reuse: Today’s best practice,” the third chapter, takes a high-level perspective. First it acknowledges organizational habits and beliefs that often prevent reuse. Then it presents good business reasons and ROI measures that show why reuse makes sense.

Comprehensive, solid coverage

From the fourth chapter on, Rockley and her co-authors describe DITA and its elements very well from various angles:

• “Topics and maps – the basic building blocks of DITA” expands on the DITA specification with clear comments and helpful examples.
• “A day in the life of a DITA author” is very valuable for writers who are part of a DITA project. Writing DITA topics and maps is fundamentally different from writing manuals, and this chapter highlights the essential changes in the authoring workflow.
• “Planning for DITA” outlines the elements and roles in a DITA implementation project for the project manager. Don’t let the rather brief discussion fool you: Without analyzing content and reuse opportunities, without a content strategy and without covering all the project roles, you expose your DITA project to unnecessary risk.
• “Calculating ROI for your DITA project” has been added for the second edition. It’s by co-author Mark Lewis, based on his earlier white papers: “DITA Metrics: Cost Metrics” and “DITA Metrics: Similarities and Savings for Conrefs and Translation“. It expands on the ROI discussion of chapter 3 and creates minor inconsistencies that weren’t eliminated in the editing process.
• “Metadata” first introduces the topic and its benefits in general and at length. Then it describes the types and usefulness of metadata in DITA. This might seem a little pedestrian, but it’s actually helpful for more conventional writers and for managers. It ensures they fully understand this part of DITA which drives much of its efficiencies and workflows.
• “DITA and technology” explains elements and features to consider when you select a DITA tool, content management system or publishing system. This always tricky to do in a book as much depends on your processes, organization and budget. While the chapter cannot substitute for good consulting, it manages to point out what you get yourself into and what to look out for.
• “The advanced stuff” and “What’s new in DITA 1.2” continue the helpful elucidation of the DITA specification with comments and examples that was begun in the “Topics and maps” chapter.

Mediocre organization

For all its useful contents, the book deserves better, clearer organization!

• Redundancies and minor inconsistencies occur as concepts are defined and discussed in several places. For example, topics are defined on pages 4, 24 and 46. The newly added ROI chapter complements the ROI points in the third chapter, but neither has cross-references to the other.
• The index doesn’t always help you to connect all the occurrences and navigate the text.
• Chapters are not numbered, yet numbering of figures in each chapter starts at 1. It’s not a big problem, because references to figures always refer to the “nearest” number, it’s just irritating.

Formal errors

The book contains several errors which add to the impression of poor production values. They don’t hurt the overall message or comprehensibility, but they are annyoing anyway:

• Mixed up illustrations such as the properties box in Word (page 72) vs. the properties box from the File Manager (73)
• Spelling errors such as “somtimes” (1) and “execeptions” (16)
• Problems with articles such as “a author” (20) and or a system that “has ability to read this metadata” (77)
• Common language mistakes such “its” instead of “it’s” (52)

Lack of competition

Another reason why it’s still one of the best books on the topic is that there simply aren’t many others!

• Practical DITA by Julio Vazquez is the only serious contender, and its practical, in-the-trenches advice complements Rockley’s book very well.
• [More books are pointed out in the comments, thanks everybody! – Added January 11, 2010.]
• DITA Open Toolkit by “editors” Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow is a compilation of Wikipedia articles. Amazon reviewers call other titles produced by the same editing team and publisher a scam.

Of course, several other honorable and worthwhile books include articles or chapters on DITA and/or discuss DITA in context of specific tools.

My recommendation

Despite its shortcomings, the book’s own claim is valid: “If you’re in the process of implementing DITA, expect to do so in the future, or just want to learn more about it without having to wade through technical specifications, this is the book for you.”

I recommend that you read it if you are

• Involved in a project to implement DITA
• Writing or translating documentation in a DITA environment
• Managing technical writers

Your turn

Have you read this book? What’s your opinion? Can you recommend other books or resources about DITA? Feel free to leave a comment!