screen

The <screen> element contains or refers to a textual representation of a computer screen or user interface panel (window).

Use <screen> to contain representations of text-based online panels, text consoles ("term" or "curses" windows, for example), or other text-based user interface components. The default print representation is to enclose the screen within a box, suggesting a computer display screen. In contrast to graphical screen captures normally used to represent GUI parts (see the image element description), this element specifically supports constructions for which text is the primary content.

This element is part of the DITA programming domain, a special set of DITA elements designed to document programming tasks, concepts and reference information.

Example

This example demonstrates using the <screen> element to represent a DOS edit session, where this code:
<p>Type "edit" after the command line prompt and press Enter.  The following
editing interface will be displayed.</p>
<screen>
   File  Edit  Search  View  Options  Help
+--------------------------------- UNTITLED1 ----------------------------------+
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦  Line:1    Col:1  F1=Help                                                    ¦
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
</screen>
produces this output:

Type "edit" after the command line prompt and press Enter. The following editing interface will be displayed.

   File  Edit  Search  View  Options  Help
+--------------------------------- UNTITLED1 ----------------------------------+
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦                                                                              ¦
¦  Line:1    Col:1  F1=Help                                                    ¦
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Contains

Doctype Content model
ditabase, topic, task, reference, concept, glossary ( text data or ph or codeph or synph or filepath or msgph or userinput or systemoutput or b or u or i or tt or sup or sub or uicontrol or menucascade or term or xref or cite or q or boolean or state or keyword or option or parmname or apiname or cmdname or msgnum or varname or wintitle or draft-comment or required-cleanup or fn or indextermref or indexterm or data or data-about or foreign or unknown) (any number)

Contained by

Doctype Parents
ditabase desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, conbody, prereq, context, info, tutorialinfo, stepxmp, choice, choptionhd, chdeschd, choption, chdesc, stepresult, result, postreq, refsyn, proptypehd, propvaluehd, propdeschd, propdesc, glossdef, pd
topic desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, pd
task desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, prereq, context, info, tutorialinfo, stepxmp, choice, choptionhd, chdeschd, choption, chdesc, stepresult, result, postreq, pd
concept desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, conbody, pd
reference desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, refsyn, proptypehd, propvaluehd, propdeschd, propdesc, pd
glossary desc, p, note, lq, li, itemgroup, dd, fig, stentry, draft-comment, fn, entry, abstract, body, section, example, linkinfo, conbody, glossdef, pd

Inheritance:

+ topic/pre ui-d/screen

Attributes

Name Description Data Type Default Value Required?
spectitle The specialized title attribute allows architects of specialized types to define a fixed or default title for a specialized element. Not intended for direct use by authors. CDATA #IMPLIED No
%display-atts; (scale, frame, expanse) A set of related attributes, described at %display-atts; parameter entity PE not applicable Not applicable
%univ-atts; (%select-atts;, %id-atts;, %localization-atts;) A set of related attributes, described at %univ-atts; parameter entity PE not applicable Not applicable
%global-atts; (xtrf, xtrc) A set of related attributes, described at %global-atts; parameter entity PE not applicable Not applicable
class, outputclass, xml:space Common attributes described in Other common DITA attributes.      

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OASIS DITA Language Specification v1.1 -- Committee Draft 13 February 2007
Copyright © OASIS Open 2005, 2007. All Rights Reserved.