DITA page layout

Question

I'm getting the sense that DITA will not worked with mixed page layouts.

Is that a fair assessment?

In many of the manuals my company produces the chapters contain a mishmash of page layout styles. Most pages have a two column layout but sometimes a spec table or image requires a one column layout.

My understanding is that it's an either/or. Whatever the page layout is in the template file you import into DITA template -- that's what you get, all of the concept, task and reference files automatically get converted into that format.

Wasn't sure if I was misunderstanding.

DLindsay · Answer

Yes, you apply one template to the whole lot, but that template can include multiple table styles. (You can have a different template for appendices - this could be another option to look at.)

My situation isn't quite the same, but I think you could achieve your desired result by applying a table/object style that spans two columns. I think you could get the style to apply based on a parameter set in the table element / image element. You may have to dig into the EDD to get the style to automatically apply.

I have different table styles applying based on how indented I want a table to be and control this based on whether I have the table in a step vs substep. Sometimes it screws up and then I manually reapply the correct style just before publishing.

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