Reference topics describe regular features of a subject or product, such as commands in a programming language.
In technical information, reference topics are often used to cover subjects such as the commands in a programming language. Reference topics can hold anything that has regular content, such as ingredients for food recipes, bibliographic lists, catalogues, and the like. Reference topics provide quick access to facts. Information needed for deeper understanding of a reference topic or to perform related procedures should be provided in a concept or task topic.
The <reference> element is the top-level element for a reference topic. Every reference topic contains a <title> and a <refbody> and optional <titlealts>, <shortdesc> or <abstract>, <prolog>, <related-links>, and nested topics.
The <refbody> element holds the main content of the reference topic. Reference topics limit the body structure to tables (both simple and standard), property lists, syntax sections, and generic sections and examples.
All of the elements of <refbody> are optional and may appear in any sequence and number.
<reference id="boldproperty"> <title>Bold property</title> <shortdesc>(Read-write) Whether to use a bold font for the specified text string.</shortdesc> <refbody> <refsyn> <synph> <var>object</var><delim>.</delim><kwd>Font</kwd><delim>.</delim> <kwd>Bold</kwd><delim> = </delim><var>trueorfalse</var> </synph> </refsyn> <properties> <property> <proptype>Data type</proptype> <propvalue>Boolean</propvalue> </property> <property> <proptype>Legal values</proptype> <propvalue>True (1) or False (0)</propvalue> </property> </properties> </refbody> </reference>
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OASIS DITA Architectural Specification v1.1 -- Committee Draft 02, 8 May 2007
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