#### 4.3.2 Specifying building blocks for unique IDs

The following three options determine what building blocks are added to an element ID to create a document-wide unique ID. To omit a building block, set its option to No:

    [IDOptions]
    ; IDTopic = Yes (default, include topic ID in UID) or No
    ; IDFile = Yes (default, include file name in UID) or No
    ; IDPath = Yes (default, include path to file in UID) or No

The default is to include all three in the element ID: path, file name, and topic ID. Depending on your situation, you may be able to eliminate some building blocks. For example, if you know your DITA file names are always unique (as when using a CMS), that alone may be sufficient without paths and IDs.

The following settings determine the separators used between building blocks. To eliminate use of a separator, set its option to blank.

    [IDOptions]
    ; IDPathSep = string used to replace the "/"s in the doc path
    IDPathSep=P
    ; IDUpDir = string used to replace any "../"s at start of path
    IDUpDir=U
    ; IDTopSep = string used to replace the "#" before the topic ID
    IDTopSep=T
    ; IDElemSep = string used to replace the "/" between topic ID and
    ; element ID
    IDElemSep=E

For example, using the default separator characters, this string:

    UconceptsPc_methodTmainmethodEfig1

replaces ID fig1 for this element:

    ../concepts/c_method#mainmethod/fig1

Previous Topic: 4.3.1 Generating document-wide unique IDs

Next Topic: 4.3.3 Specifying a prefix for bookmarks in RTF output

Parent Topic: 4.3 Identifying files and elements

Sibling Topics:

4.3.1 Generating document-wide unique IDs

4.3.3 Specifying a prefix for bookmarks in RTF output

4.3.4 Checking for duplicate IDs