How do IT organizations create responsive and mobile-friendly documentation using DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Creating responsive and mobile-friendly documentation using DITA is essential in the modern digital landscape, where users access content on a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets. DITA provides mechanisms to address this need, allowing IT organizations to deliver documentation that adapts to different screen sizes and orientations.

DITA Output Specialization:

To make documentation responsive, IT organizations can leverage DITA output specialization. By creating specialized output formats tailored to different devices (e.g., desktops, tablets, and mobile phones), they can optimize the content presentation for each device category. This approach allows for a seamless user experience, regardless of the device being used.

CSS and Media Queries:

DITA supports the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and media queries. IT organizations can define CSS rules and media queries to control the styling and layout of content based on screen characteristics. For instance, they can adjust font sizes, image scaling, and layout structures to ensure content looks and functions well on various devices. This flexibility is crucial in achieving mobile-friendliness.

Example:

Here is a simplified example of how CSS and media queries can be applied to a DITA topic to create a responsive design:


<topic id="example-topic">
  <title>Responsive Design Example</title>
  <body>
    <p>This is a sample DITA topic with responsive design considerations.</p>
  </body>
</topic>


/* CSS in an external stylesheet */
@media (max-width: 768px) {
  #example-topic {
    font-size: 16px; /* Adjust font size for smaller screens */
  }
}

@media (max-width: 480px) {
  #example-topic {
    font-size: 14px; /* Further font size reduction for mobile devices */
  }

In this example, CSS and media queries are used to adjust the font size of the DITA topic based on the screen width. This ensures that the content remains readable and accessible on different devices.

By applying DITA output specialization and utilizing CSS with media queries, IT organizations can create documentation that is not only responsive but also mobile-friendly. This approach ensures that users can access IT documentation on a variety of devices without compromising the readability and usability of the content.