What are topics?

A topic is a unit of information with a title and some form of content, short enough to be specific to a single subject or answer a single question, but long enough to make sense on its own and be authored as a unit.

In DITA, a topic is the basic unit of authoring and of reuse. An XML document may contain one topic or multiple topics, and a document type may support authoring one or many kinds of topics. But regardless of where they occur, all DITA topics have the same basic structure and capabilities. Books, PDF files, Websites, and help sets, for example, can all be constructed from the same set of underlying topic content, although there may be some topics that are unique to a particular deliverable, and the organization of topics may differ to take advantage of the unique capabilities of each delivery mechanism.

DITA topics can be as small as a title that organizes other subtopics or links or as large as a few pages or screens of content. Larger units of content, such as complex reference documents or book chapters, can be created by nesting topics, either directly in a single document or indirectly through references in a DITA map. Nested DITA topics can be used to accommodate the migration of legacy non-topic-oriented content, as well as information with specific authoring requirements, such as marketing material or API reference documents.

Reference information is inherently topic-oriented, since it requires information to be modular and self-contained for the sake of retrievability.

Topic-oriented authoring for conceptual and task information has its roots in Minimalism, an instructional design technique first espoused by John Carroll. The minimalist approach to information design focusses on identifying the smallest amount of instruction that allows for the successful completion of a task, or that provides basic knowledge of a concept. Readers have goals, and they want to achieve those goals as quickly as possible. Generally, readers don't want to read information just for the pleasure of reading. They are reading to learn or to do something.

Some of the key principles of Minimalism are:

Support actions. Let people act as they learn, and let them pursue the goals they want to accomplish.
Document tasks, not tools or functions.
Help readers anticipate and avoid errors.
Let readers explore. They don't need explained what they can discover for themselves.

While DITA's topic-oriented approach has its roots in instructional design, the topic-based approach can be useful for any information that has human readers and a consistent structure.