Adapting Menu Structure and Layout for Multilingual Menus with DITA

When it comes to food service documentation, accommodating variations in menu structure and layout for different languages is crucial to provide a seamless experience to customers from diverse linguistic backgrounds. DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) offers a structured approach to facilitate this process. Here are strategies and an example of how DITA can help in this context:

1. Language-Specific Elements

In DITA, you can create language-specific elements within your menu topics. For example, you can have separate sections for English and French versions of your menu items. These language-specific sections can contain variations in text, descriptions, or even layout to cater to the linguistic and cultural nuances of each audience.

2. Conditional Text

DITA allows you to use conditional processing attributes to control the display of content based on language or other criteria. You can mark sections of your menu content as conditional for specific languages. This means that when generating menus in different languages, DITA will automatically include or exclude the appropriate content, ensuring that the structure and layout are adapted accordingly.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA can be used to adapt menu structure and layout for different languages:

<topic id="menu_item_pasta">
  <title>Pasta Primavera</title>
  <description>Delicious pasta with fresh vegetables and herbs.</description>
  <layout lang="en"><image>primavera_en.jpg</image></layout>
  <layout lang="fr"><image>primavera_fr.jpg</image></layout>

In this example, the menu item “Pasta Primavera” has separate layout elements for English and French, indicating different images for each language, ensuring that the menu’s visual presentation adapts to the target audience.