Information TypeDITA contains four information types. The Topic is the root type. It is designed to support topic-based authoring. Topic is specialized into Concept, Task, and Reference types. All topics contain the same basic elements - a title, short description, prolog, and body. DITA is Object-oriented. The elements of the topic type are inherited by the specialized types. Some are renamed. For example, the body element becomes conbody, taskbody, and refbody. All types must contain an ID, and may contain optional elements, like Related Links. "Information typing is the practice of identifying types of topics that contain distinct kinds information, such as concepts, tasks, and reference information. Topics that answer different kinds of questions can be categorized as different information types. The base topic types provided by DITA (a generic topic, plus concept, task, and reference) provide a usable starter set that can be adopted for immediate authoring." "Information typing is part of the general authoring approach called structured writing, which is used across the technical authoring industry to improve information quality. It is based on extensive research and experience, including Robert Horn's Information Mapping, and Hughes Aircraft's STOP (Sequential Thematic Organization of Proposals)." source.
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