Inheritance of attributes and metadata

Some of the attributes and metadata in a map can be inherited based on the structures in the map.

Inheritance is additive except where this would cause a conflict. When there is a conflict, the value defined closest to the topicref takes effect.

The following attributes and metadata elements are inheritable:

Attributes: audience, platform, product, otherprops, rev; linking, toc, print, search; chunk, format, scope, type
Elements: author, source, publisher, copyright, critdates, permissions; audience, category, keywords, prodinfo, othermeta

Attributes and metadata can be defined at the root level (attributes on the map element itself, topicmeta as a direct child of the map element) to apply them to the entire map. They can also be applied at any point in a hierarchy, group, or table. Tables can be particularly useful for attribute and metadata management, since they can be applied to entire columns or rows as well as individual cells.