DITA publishing differs from traditional publishing by emphasizing structured content, content reuse, multi-channel output, and automation. It provides greater flexibility, efficiency, and consistency in delivering content across various formats and channels.

Publishing in DITA involves structured content, content reuse, multi-channel output, and automation.

Structured Content:

DITA Publishing: DITA is built on structured authoring, where content is separated from its presentation. Content is tagged with semantic elements, making it highly adaptable to different output formats.

Traditional Publishing: Traditional publishing often involves formatting content directly within the document, which can be time-consuming and less adaptable.

Content Reuse:

DITA Publishing: DITA promotes content reuse through modular topics. Content components can be reused across documents, improving consistency and reducing duplication.

Traditional Publishing: Traditional methods require content duplication when the same information is used in multiple documents, leading to potential inconsistencies and increased maintenance effort.

Multi-Channel Output:

DITA Publishing: DITA allows for publishing content in multiple formats (e.g., PDF, HTML, mobile apps) from the same source. The same content can be adapted for different devices and platforms.

Traditional Publishing: Traditional publishing often involves creating separate documents for each output format, which can be time-consuming and can result in inconsistencies.

Automation:

DITA Publishing: DITA supports automation tools that generate documents based on DITA content and templates. This automation streamlines the publishing process.

Traditional Publishing: Traditional publishing relies more on manual formatting and layout, which can be time-consuming and prone to human errors.

Example:

A technology company is launching a new product. They need to produce user documentation for this product in various formats, including a printed manual, a web-based help system, and mobile app content.

DITA Publishing: The company uses DITA to create structured content. They create modular DITA topics for different aspects of the product, such as setup, troubleshooting, and FAQs. Through DITA publishing, they can efficiently generate a printed manual in PDF format, a web-based help system in HTML, and mobile app content.

When updates are required, they only need to modify the DITA topics, and the changes propagate to all published formats. This ensures consistency and saves time in document maintenance.

Traditional Publishing: In a traditional publishing approach, the company might create separate documents for each format. They would manually format the printed manual, web-based help, and mobile app content. If they need to make updates, they must make changes in each version separately, which is time-consuming and increases the risk of inconsistencies.

In this example, DITA publishing allows for more efficient, consistent, and automated content delivery across multiple channels, while traditional publishing may involve more manual effort and potential issues related to content consistency.