Displaying Changes in a DITA Comparison

This topic explains how comparison results are displayed in DITA Compare output and how to control the visual presentation of changes.

Output Formats and Display

DITA Compare's output format determines both how changes are encoded in the output file and how they appear when rendered in an editor or publishing tool.

DITA Markup (default)

The DITA Markup format uses DITA's rev and status attributes to mark changes:

rev="deltaxml-add" with status="new" — marks added content
rev="deltaxml-delete" with status="deleted" — marks deleted content

Text changes are wrapped in <ph> elements with these attributes:

XML

<ph status="deleted" rev="deltaxml-delete">old text</ph>
<ph status="new" rev="deltaxml-add">new text</ph>

This output is tool-agnostic — it renders usefully in any XML editor that supports conditional processing or attribute-controlled styling.

Viewing in oXygen XML Editor

oXygen XML Editor renders DITA Markup output in its Author view using the 'Colored revision changes' style. Added content appears in one colour, deleted content in another.

Tracked Change Formats

When using editor-specific tracked change formats (Arbortext, FrameMaker, oXygen TCS, XMetaL), changes are accepted and rejected using the editor's built-in change tracking UI. Accepting all changes produces the B version of the document; rejecting all produces the A version.

Styling Changes with CSS in Oxygen

For DITA Markup output, the visual presentation can be customised using CSS. The
Styling changes with CSS in Oxygen Editor guide provides detailed instructions.

Publishing with DITA Open Toolkit

DITA Markup output can be published using DITA-OT. The Guide to Publishing with DITA Open Toolkit explains how to configure the publishing pipeline to render change marks in HTML and PDF output.