Get started authoring content

All your content lives in self-contained files called components. You can create components from various types of templates, including topics, maps, images, and DocBook articles. You can also create a component from non-XML content such as PDF documents. Storing content in Inspire gives you a single, trusted source of content. Inspire tracks specific and relevant metadata about each component to help you manage and reuse content intelligently.

FAQ's

What's an example of a component?

A component is where all your content lives. For example, a book is made up of chapters, and each chapter could be its own component. When you create a component to add your content to it, you select a component type, such as a DITA concept, task, or a DockBook chapter.

• You may want to define a basic concept and use that definition in multiple chapters. You can create that content in its own component, separate from the chapter. Having the definition in its own component lets you easily reference it wherever you need it.
• You can import an image to create a binary, or non-XML component. Then you can insert the image into one or more book chapters.
• You may have already written the first chapter and saved it as PDF. You can import this file to create a component and include it in your book.
• Your map topic would be your table of contents to outline the structure of your book.

What types of components can I create?

You can create the following components for text:

• Article (DocBook article)
• Book (DocBook book)
• Chapter (DocBook chapter)
• Concept (DITA concept)
• Machinery task (DITA machineryTask)
• Glossary entry (DITA glossentry)
• Reference (DITA reference)
• Section (DocBook section)
• Task (DITA task)
• Topic (DITA topic)
• Workflow

You can create the following components to structure your content:

• Bookmap
• Classification map
• DITAval (an XML file that specifies which attributes and values to filter out of your content when exporting or publishing)
• DITA glossgroup (one topic that contains multiple glossary entries)
• SubjectScheme (DITA SubjectScheme)

You can create the following components to add a binary file:

• Images (BMP, JPG, PNG)
• XSLT Transform (The Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) lets you transform the content of a source XML document into another document that is different in format or structure.)
• XSLFO Stylesheet (Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects is a language for formatting XML data.)
• CSS Stylesheet (Cascading Style Sheets describe the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML on screen, on paper, in speech, or on other media.)

How do I create components?

You can create new content in various ways:

• Create a new component and then type or copy/paste content using the editor.
• Import a binary file, such as a JPEG, and Inspire creates a new component that you can add attributes to and manage it.

Are there any restrictions on file names?

If possible, try to avoid using DITA control characters such as square brackets ([]) in the name. This can cause a validation error when you add the topic to a map.

You can use square brackets in a component name and when you add it to a map it won't cause validation errors. However, you will have to go back and fix any previously created map references to a component with square brackets in the name.

• Follow the steps in Fix map validation errors.

Where are components stored?

Inspire stores components in a folder structure. You can develop and modify the folder structure to meet the needs of your organization and documentation processes.

What can I do with components?

After creating components, you can work with them in the following ways:

• See the status of components, such as when a component is being edited it is locked by a user. For more information, read Work with components.
• Manage the location of components. For more information, read Organize components.
• Manage the relationships and associations with other components. Follow the steps in View component references and View component relationships.
• Add component work to an assignments. Follow the steps in Create an assignment.
• Include components in content development workflows. For more information, read about Workflows.
• Send components to translation. Follow the steps in Send components to a translation vendor.
• Publish components. Follow the steps in Publish components.
• Take snapshots. To see what a component looked like at a specific moment in time, you can also view snapshots of components for audit trails. For more information, read View a snapshot.
• Copy component details outside of Inspire. From the Content details pane, the text you copy is saved in the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the component details from the clipboard to anywhere you want. Follow the steps in Copy text from the Content Details pane.