Generating and publishing defense documents from DITA sources involves several steps to ensure that the content is transformed into the desired format and made accessible to the intended audience. Here’s an overview of the process:

Authoring in DITA

The first step is authoring the defense documents in DITA XML. Authors create structured content using DITA elements to represent topics, sections, and other components. They apply specialization and conditional processing where needed to address specific requirements for defense documentation.

Content Reuse and Organization

DITA allows for efficient content reuse and organization. Authors can use references and conref (content reference) mechanisms to link to common content, ensuring consistency across documents. They also organize topics into maps or bookmaps to define the document’s structure and sequence.

Transformation and Publishing

Once the content is authored and organized, it goes through a transformation process. This process typically involves using a DITA publishing tool or a transformation script to convert DITA XML into the desired output format, such as PDF, HTML, or other document formats. The transformation process applies styles, formatting, and layout options according to predefined templates and stylesheets.

Example:

Here’s an example of a simplified DITA map that organizes defense documentation for transformation and publishing:

<map>
  <title>Defense System Manual</title>
  <topicref href="introduction.dita" />
  <topicref href="overview.dita" />
  <topicref href="maintenance.dita" />
  <!-- More topic references -->
</map>

In this example, a DITA map defines the structure of the defense system manual by referencing individual topics. This map serves as a blueprint for the transformation and publishing process.