Installing the DITA Open Toolkit

The DITA-OT distribution package can be installed on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It contains everything that you need to run the toolkit except for Java.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK), version 8 or later installed.

    You can download the Oracle JRE or JDK from oracle.com/technetwork/java.

  • If you want to generate HTML Help, ensure that you have HTML Help Workshop installed.

    You can download the Help Workshop from msdn.microsoft.com.

Procedure

  1. Download the dita-ot-3.0.3.zip package from the project website at dita-ot.org/download.
  2. Extract the contents of the package to the directory where you want to install the DITA-OT.
  3. Optional: Add the absolute path for the bin directory to the PATH system variable.

    This defines the necessary environment variable to run the dita command from the command line.

    Tip: This step is recommended, as it allows the the dita command to be run from any location on the file system and makes it easier to transform DITA content from any folder.