Can DITA facilitate the localization and translation of government content for diverse language requirements?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Efficiently updating shared content across multiple government documents is a critical aspect of content management. DITA XML provides strategies to achieve this efficiently, ensuring consistency and accuracy in documentation. Two key strategies are content reuse and conditional processing.

Content Reuse

Government agencies can employ content reuse by creating modular topics and components in DITA. When content is shared across multiple documents, any updates or revisions made to the source content are automatically reflected in all documents referencing that source. This simplifies the process of keeping shared information up-to-date and coherent. For example, if there’s a change in a regulation or policy, it can be updated in one place, and all relevant documents are automatically updated, ensuring consistency.

Conditional Processing

Conditional processing allows content to be tailored for different audiences or departments. Government documents often need to address various audiences with specific requirements. With conditional processing, content can be included or excluded based on conditions, such as audience type or department. For example, a document may contain sections that are relevant to one department but not to others, and conditional processing makes it possible to deliver customized documents while maintaining a single source of content.

Example

Here’s an example of how DITA enables efficient updating of shared content across multiple government documents:


<topic id="policy_update">
  <title>Policy Update</title>
  <body>
    <section>
      <title>Main Policy</title>
      <p>This is the main policy content shared across multiple documents.</p>
    </section>
    <section conkeyref="departmentA">
      <title>Department A</title>
      <p>Additional content relevant to Department A.</p>
    </section>
    <section conkeyref="departmentB">
      <title>Department B</title>
      <p>Additional content relevant to Department B.</p>
    </section>
  </body>

In this example, the ‘Main Policy’ section is shared across multiple documents, and additional content specific to ‘Department A’ and ‘Department B’ is included using conditional processing. When updates are made to the ‘Main Policy,’ they are automatically propagated to all documents, maintaining consistency while allowing customization for each department.