Yes, DITA topics can indeed contain both specialized and non-specialized content, providing flexibility in content creation. DITA’s modular structure allows content creators to mix and match specialized elements and standard DITA elements within the same topic. This feature is particularly valuable when content requires a combination of domain-specific information and general, reusable content.

Content creators can seamlessly integrate specialized elements and attributes with standard DITA elements like <p>, <ul>, and <li> to build comprehensive and structured documents. The ability to include both types of content in a single topic ensures that specialized information is effectively integrated with broader, non-specialized content.

Example:

In a DITA topic about a software product (a non-specialized topic), content creators can embed specialized elements like <code-example> to illustrate code snippets (a specialized element). This combination allows the documentation to incorporate both general product descriptions and domain-specific coding examples in a cohesive manner.

<topic id="software-doc">
  <title>Product Manual</title>
  <p>This is a manual for our software product.</p>
  <code-example>
    <code>function example() {</code>
    <code>  // This is a code example.</code>
    <code>}</code>
  </code-example>
</topic>