Efficiently updating shared content across multiple manufacturing documents is a key consideration in maintaining consistency and accuracy. DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) offers strategies to streamline this process, ensuring that changes made to shared content are efficiently propagated to all relevant documents.

Content Reuse

DITA promotes content reuse through the creation of modular topics. Rather than duplicating the same content in multiple documents, you can create topics that contain the shared information. When an update is needed, you can make changes to the source topic, and these changes will automatically reflect in all documents referencing that topic. This approach eliminates the need to manually update the same information in multiple places, saving time and reducing the risk of inconsistencies.

Conditional Text

Conditional processing in DITA allows you to include or exclude content based on conditions. When updating shared content, you can use conditional text to specify which portions of the content should be applied to particular documents. For example, if certain product models require specific details, you can use conditional text to include or exclude that information accordingly. This ensures that shared content remains adaptable to the specific requirements of each document while minimizing redundancy.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA facilitates the efficient updating of shared content:

<topic id="shared_assembly_instructions">
  <title>Shared Assembly Instructions</title>
  <content>...
    <conditional conkeyref="product_model_A">
      <p>Instructions for assembling Model A...</p>
    </conditional>
    <conditional conkeyref="product_model_B">
      <p>Instructions for assembling Model B...</p>
    </conditional>
  </content>

In this example, shared assembly instructions are managed within a single topic. Conditional text is used to apply the relevant instructions to different documents based on the product model, ensuring that updates are efficiently propagated to the appropriate documents.