Single Sourcing reduces the need to create and maintain duplicate content, by enabling you to use existing “chunks” of content. This means you can have the same information in different publications, and you can have a library of existing content to re-use when you’re developing new documents.
The content is stored independently of the formatting, the same content can be published to different media. These can be used many times to generate paper manuals, Web pages, online Help and e-learning material.
Single Sourcing can significantly improve the way you create, develop and maintain content.
What is DITA ?
DITA is an increasingly popular open source XML-based framework for designing and delivering well-structured technical documentation efficiently and consistently in a single-sourcing environment. Cherryleaf can help you understand when, why, where and how to use DITA.
It may seem pedantic, but I think it helps to distinguish between “topic reuse” and “single sourcing”, because they have different effects and benefits.
“Topic reuse” is the clever chunking of content, so the same topic can be used in different contexts. For example, a concept topic explaining what something is, can well be used in a setup manual and in a operations manual. This makes documentation more efficient, even if you only publish in one format.
“Single sourcing” is the use of one source to produce several different output formats. For example, you use the same XML topics to produce both, printed user manuals and online help. This makes documentation more efficient, esp. if you publish in different formats.
Both concepts, “topic reuse” and “single sourcing” make demands on how tech writers write: “Topic reuse” is more a structural issue of chunking. “Single sourcing” is more a technical issue of writing independent of formats, so writers include references to “pages” or “chapters” into conditional ‘print-only’ tags or avoid them altogether.
Just my two cents, Kai.
A very precise answer, Kai. Thank you.