Product names and reuse

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)