DITA Best Practices: A Roadmap for Writing, Editing, and Architecting in DITA

Chapter 9. Conditional Processing

This is a quiz: What should you do in DITA if you have two task topics that are nearly the same except that the procedure for Task Topic A includes one extra step that is specific to a particular product model. Select the correct answer:

• Answer 1: Write and maintain two topics, and simply insert in the additional information in the topic that needs it.

• Answer 2: Write one topic that includes all the information needed for both topics and use conditional processing attributes to exclude content that you don’t need.

• Answer 3: Take a vacation and hope someone else has the answer.

Although you were tempted to choose Answer 3, we’re sure you chose Answer 2 because we know how savvy our readers are. For information ...