Add elements to a map

You can create a DITA map to define the topics in a publication, specify the topic sequence, and control linking between topics.

Map Editor and Xeditor still work in the current version to give you time to transition to the new Oxygen-based map editor. Keep in mind that they are labeled as deprecated because they won't function in future updates. Therefore, you should Work with maps in the Oxygen editor as much as possible.

In a map, you can add references to topics, maps, and other resources to organize content into hierarchies, groups, and tables to produce a specific output. Inspire supports the following references in maps:

Anchor: Provide an integration point that another map can reference in order to insert its navigation into the referenced map's navigation tree.
Data: Represent a property rather than content and is normally used for customization. For example, you can use a specialized <data> element to format properties as sidebars.
DitaVal: Identify root element of a DITAVAL file. If you're using conditional attributes extensively in your documentation, you should take advantage of Ditaval files. These files specify the conditions to include and exclude when you generate your output. They ensure that conditions are always applied consistently to generated output.
Glossary: Include elements designed to specify terms and their definitions, as well as elements that are designed to group, reference, or otherwise make use of information in the glossentry topic.
Key: Insert content that may have different values in various circumstances. Keys let you indirectly reference content in DITA to manage and reuse content.
Map: Organize a set of resources, such as topics, into a hierarchy. You can break up a large DITA map into more manageable pieces by creating submaps. A submap is simply a DITA map that is included by another DITA map. There is no separate markup for a submap. Follow the instructions in Create a map component.
Navigation reference: Point to another map which is preserved as a transcluding link rather than resolved when the deliverable is produced. Transclusion is the inclusion of part or all of an electronic document into one or more other documents by hypertext reference. Output formats that support such linking can integrate the referenced resource when displaying the referencing map to an end user.
Table: Define relationships between DITA topics or between DITA topics and non-DITA resources. In a relationship table, the columns define common attributes, metadata, or information types (for example, task or troubleshooting) for the resources that are referenced in that column. The rows define relationships between the resources in different cells of the same row.
Sort: Apply this ordering in any context where <data> is allowed. Sort is a specialization of the <data> element.
Group: Collect <topicref> elements for common treatment without affecting the structural hierarchy of the map, as opposed to nesting <topicref> elements, which does imply a structural hierarchy. This element provides linking relationships and shared, inherited attributes to the set of elements that it contains without affecting the resulting table of contents or navigation.
Head: Display a title-only entry in a navigation map, which should appear as a heading when the map is rendered as a table of contents. In print contexts it should also appear as a heading in the rendered content.
Topic Reference: Create the basic elements of a map. A <topicref> element can reference a DITA topic, a DITA map, or a non-DITA resource. A <topicref> element also can have a title, short description, and the same kind of prolog-level metadata that's available in topics. Follow the instructions in Add topic references to a map.
Topic Set: Define a branch of navigation in a DITA map so that it can be referenced from another DITA map.
Topic Reference set: Reference a navigation branch that's defined in another DITA map.
Topicmeta: Apply metadata inside an element and its descendants. Most map-level elements, including the map itself, can contain metadata inside the <topicmeta> element.