Are there strategies for efficiently updating shared content across multiple construction documents?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Efficiently updating shared content across multiple construction documents is crucial for maintaining consistency and accuracy in construction projects. DITA XML provides construction companies with strategies to achieve this efficiently.

Content Reuse

One of the key strategies in DITA is content reuse. Construction companies can create modular content components, such as safety procedures, equipment manuals, or project guidelines, and reuse them across multiple documents. When a change is required, updating the source component automatically propagates the change to all instances where it is reused. This ensures that shared content remains consistent and up-to-date.

Conditional Processing

DITA allows for conditional processing, where content is tagged with conditions that determine when it should be included or excluded in a document. Construction companies can use this feature to create variations of documents for different projects or building types while still sharing a common content base. By setting conditions, specific content relevant to a particular project or context can be included or excluded during document generation.

Example:

Here’s an example of conditional processing in DITA:


<topic id="equipment_manual">
  <title>Equipment Manual</title>
  <body>
    <p>This is a generic equipment manual.</p>
    <!-- Conditional content for specific projects -->
    <ph outputclass="projectA">For Project A, follow these instructions: ...</ph>
    <ph outputclass="projectB">For Project B, follow these instructions: ...</ph>
  </body>

In this example, the equipment manual topic includes conditional content for different projects, allowing construction companies to efficiently manage variations while sharing a common manual.

By utilizing content reuse and conditional processing, construction companies can efficiently update shared content across multiple construction documents, reducing errors and ensuring that each project receives accurate and project-specific information.