Product names and reuse

[Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>]

A thread about difficulty in reusing products names has cropped up on the dita-users list.

Problem descriptions
1) Information architects or editors design a reuse strategy that revolves around using the <ph> element to hold product names. They then discover that they cannot put a <ph> element within any of the following elements:

• <uicontrol>
• <wintitle>

2) Another team decides to use <keyword> to hold their product names -- better choice -- but they also discover that they cannot put a keyword element within a <wintitle> element; they have to duplicate their product names within <text> elements for use within <wintitle> elements. And the <tm> element is not available within <text>.

3) Yet another team is stymied because their product name contains typographic formatting (superscript, subscript, bold or italic formatting, an inline image) that cannot be contained in either the <keyword> or <text> element. And while the text element can nest, the @outputclass attribute is not available.

Architects and the writers are caught between a strong desire to reuse content and ensure that product names are consistently used, and a need to have their company's name render correctly.

Thoughts about how we might try to address this problem? And sense about how big (or small) this problem is?

--
Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)