RE: the theory of x-refs in a modular writing environment

["Chris Vickery" <cvickery -at- arenasolutions -dot- com>]

I am in the same position...my DITA content started as Docbook books
with xrefs. I thought about using Related Links, even in PDF output,
with a Read More About It type of section at the bottom of each topic.
That way, I could define all the links in the map or a relationship
table on a per-deliverable basis.

My understanding of best practices is to remove all xrefs from DITA
content because, as you say, you get hosed when you reuse a topic with
xrefs.

c

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Kevin McGowan
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:10 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: the theory of x-refs in a modular writing environment


Hi all,
 
A philisophical question for this snowy Wednesday. I'm starting to do a
lot of reuse of my DITA topics through my user guides, training guides,
etc. 
 
I find myself in the position of having to go through and either "fix"
or "remove" a lot of X-references simply because I'm not always sure
which topics will be reused, and where they may end up. I certainly
don't want to build a series of new guides and have broken references
everywhere. 
 
has anyone got any thought on x-refs? Typically, they take the format of
"for more information on Topic A, see "AAA on page 15" and really just
serve as a guide to some extra or related data. Would a thorough Index
be sufficient for readers who may want to read more on a topic?
 
Cheers,
K
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