Training guides for DITA XML

In my last role, I managed the SOPs and onboarding manuals for our technical writing team. One particularly rewarding challenge was refining and rewriting our DITA XML training manual, which we used to onboard new writers.

The main driver behind this project? DITA, while incredibly powerful and versatile:

• Has a steep learning curve for new hires
• The steep learning curve lead to frequent troubleshooting needs

For this project I followed a systematic approach:

1. I started with an in-depth dive into DITA XML’s features.
2. Next, I analyzed our documentation repositories to understand exactly how we were using DITA within the company.
3. Based on this analysis, I streamlined our approach by creating a reduced, official list of supported DITA tags.
4. I restructured the manual’s table of contents and designed practical, hands-on activities for each chapter.
5. Finally, I rewrote the entire manual’s content, following the guidelines from:
   • The Microsoft Writing Style Guide.
   • The tutorial template from The Good Docs project.

In this section, you can find an excerpt of the guide.