Author Max: Great DITA, Great Documentation


The DITA Project #1 Tagging for menu items

Posted in DITA, Technical Documentation by katriel on the May 9th, 2010

Let’s say that you have a series of menu choices (such as Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad).  Each menu choice item should be in its own <uicontrol> tag.  The whole series should be in a <menucascade> element.

A common error in preparing content is jamming multiple UI controls in one <uicontrol> tag, manually adding the connecting character (typically “>”).

Typical incorrect markup would be:

<menucascade><uicontrol>Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad</uicontrol></menucascade>

The correct markup would be:

<menucascade><uicontrol>Start</uicontrol>
<uicontrol>Programs</uicontrol>
<uicontrol>Accessories</uicontrol>
<uicontrol>Notepad</uicontrol></menucascade>

When the content is published, the DITA OT adds connecting characters between the menu items to represent the menu cascade.  So, the output would look similar to Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad.