#### 24.5.5 Specifying alternate ancestries for the same element

If your document uses the same paragraph format in several lineages, you can create a set of alternate ancestor elements for DITA2Go to choose from, depending on the context. The following predefined element sets are included in your project configuration file when you first set up a DITA project. You can alter or delete these sets, and you can define additional sets.

To define sets of elements to be considered as alternate ancestors:

[DITAElementSets]
; $setname = DITA elements in the set.
; These element sets are predefined in the starting .ini for DITA:
$top = body conbody taskbody refbody section step
$text = body conbody taskbody refsyn section step entry stentry
$list= ol ul

Each set name must start with a dollar sign ($). You must define each set as a collection of elements; you may not define one element set in terms of other element sets.

You can use an element set name in place of an element name in [DITAParents], in [DITAFirst], or in the corresponding DITAParent and DITAFirst PI markers. For example:

[DITAParents]
Body = $text
Body2 = $top $list li

Any element in the set is acceptable at the point where it appears in the hierarchical sequence. There is no equivalent marker.

See also:

§24.5.6 Avoiding invalid ancestries

Previous Topic: 24.5.4 Deciding when to fully specify ancestry

Next Topic: 24.5.6 Avoiding invalid ancestries

Parent Topic: 24.5 Nesting DITA block elements

Sibling Topics:

24.5.1 Understanding how DITA2Go determines element nesting

24.5.2 Designating DITA ancestor elements

24.5.3 Fixing up interpolated ancestries

24.5.4 Deciding when to fully specify ancestry

24.5.6 Avoiding invalid ancestries

24.5.7 Specifying first-child status for nested elements

24.5.8 Configuring nested lists

24.5.9 Closing DITA ancestor elements

24.5.10 Opening DITA ancestor elements

24.5.11 Configuring multi-paragraph list items

24.5.12 Specifying DITA element levels

Table of Contents • Index