Can links be used to reference bibliographic information, citations, or footnotes in DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Linking to bibliographic information, citations, or footnotes in DITA XML is crucial for providing readers with references, sources, and additional context in your documentation. This enhances the credibility and transparency of your content, especially when you need to acknowledge sources, cite references, or include explanatory footnotes. Here’s how you can use links in DITA XML for these purposes.

1. Bibliographic Information: To reference bibliographic information in DITA, you can use elements like <foreign> to embed bibliographic entries within your content. The <foreign> element allows you to include references to external bibliographies, such as books, articles, or online sources. These references help your readers access the sources you used in your documentation.

Example:

Suppose you want to reference a book in your DITA topic:


<topic>
  <title>How to Reference Books</title>
  <body>
    <p>To understand this topic better, refer to the book <foreign href="book_reference.html">"DITA Documentation Guide."</foreign></p>
  </body>
</topic>

2. Citations: When citing sources, DITA provides elements like <ph> and <cite>. You can use <ph> to mark the cited text and <cite> to provide additional information about the source. This way, you can maintain a structured citation style in your documentation.

Example:

Let’s say you want to cite a website in your DITA topic:


<topic>
  <title>How to Cite a Website</title>
  <body>
    <p>The official website of DITA is <ph><cite href="https://www.dita.org">DITA Official Website</cite></ph>.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

3. Footnotes: To include footnotes in your DITA content, you can use <fn> elements. These elements help provide additional explanations, comments, or references in a structured manner. You can use links to connect the content in the main text to the respective footnotes.

Example:

If you need to add a footnote to clarify a term in your DITA topic:


<topic>
  <title>Understanding Technical Terms</title>
  <body>
    <p>When working with XML, you might encounter the term "DITA."<fn id="footnote1"><p>This refers to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, a widely used XML-based documentation standard.</p></fn></p>
    <p>Learn more about <ph><fnref id="footnote1">DITA</fnref></ph> for better understanding.</p>
  </body>
</topic>

By utilizing links within your DITA XML content, you can seamlessly reference bibliographic information, cite sources, and include informative footnotes, ultimately enhancing the quality and comprehensibility of your documentation.