<ul>: In what situations is the <ul> element employed to create unordered lists within DITA topics?

November 10, 2023

|By Bryan Tipper

The <ul> element in DITA XML is used to create unordered lists within DITA topics. Unordered lists are used when the order of items does not matter, and you want to present a list of items without any particular sequence. The <ul> element is valuable in various situations for structuring content.

Common Uses of `<ul>`

The <ul> element is employed in DITA topics for various purposes:

Listing Features: When you need to list features, components, or attributes without a specific order, you can use <ul>. For example, listing the key features of a software application.
Steps without Sequence: Unordered lists are useful for presenting a series of steps that do not need to be followed in a specific order. For instance, steps for troubleshooting an issue.
Items of Equal Importance: If you have a list of items of equal importance and no hierarchy is required, <ul> can be used.

Example:

Here’s an example of how the <ul> element is used to create an unordered list within a DITA topic:


<topic id="unordered_list_example">
  <title>Using DITA Lists</title>
  <body>
    <p>Here are some key features of our product:
    <ul>
      <li>Advanced analytics</li>
      <li>Real-time data processing</li>
      <li>Scalability</li>
      <li>Intuitive user interface</li>
    </ul>
  </body>

In this example, the <ul> element is used to create an unordered list of key features, making it easy to present a list of items without a specific sequence.