DITA Maps

A DITA map allows componentized content to be ordered into a structured collection of topics and gives publications a purpose. 

You can think of a DITA map as a roadmap. 

When you use a roadmap you want to know where you’re going how you’ll get there. You also want to know why you’re going. The same applies to structured content – you want to know the why, where and how your content all fits together. 

It tells you (or more accurately, your CCMS) where topics fit into a publication by providing them with definitions. It tells you how to place these topics into a hierarchy so that navigation pathways can be constructed. And finally, it provides contextual information between topics, explaining how they are related so that links can be automatically created.

• Order and hierarchy 
• Navigation 
• Links across different topics