LwDITA authoring formats

Besides the XML structure provided by DITA, LwDITA adds support for structured authoring in HTML5 and Markdown.

LwDITA has three authoring formats:

XDITA

An XML-based variant

HDITA

An HTML5-based variant

MDITA

A Markdown-based variant

These authoring formats enable and enhance collaboration across divisional silos. Documents authored in the various authoring formats can be aggregated and published as a single document collection. They also can easily integrate into DITA collections.

The XDITA and HDITA content models are designed to be functionally equivalent to each other, while MDITA is a compatible subset. XDITA and HDITA conform with the OASIS DITA and W3C HTML5 standards, respectively. In its core profile, MDITA aligns with the GitHub Flavored Markdown specification. In its extended profile, MDITA can incorporate extensions from PHP Markdown Extra (definition lists and footnotes), Pandoc (YAML front-matter headers) and HDITA element types and attributes to overcome Markdown limitations as a language for authoring structured and reusable content.