A spot of bother in the content model for troubleshooting

I agree completely. We should be able to make that change for the Stage 3 proposal. I know we discussed it and I was positive about including Title.  Do you have to change the inheritance model for this to work?
JoAnn
Sent from my iPad  JoAnn Hackos
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On Oct 22, 2013, at 1:17 PM, "Bob Thomas" < 
> wrote:
Hi,
While working on a feature article for the DITA Adoption SC that discusses troubleshooting for DITA 1.3, I have come across a deficiency in the content model for the <cause> and the <remedy> elements. I now believe that <cause> and <remedy> ought to allow  an optional <title> element at their beginning rather than relying upon static, stylesheet-supplied strings for labeling.
The stylesheet-supplied, string method is sufficient for troubleshooting topics that contain a single cause-remedy pair (simple troubleshooting topics). But, in topics that contain two or more cause-remedy pairs (complex troubleshooting topics), the author  is left with no good way to distinguish them from each other through labeling. At a minimum, the titles for the causes need to signal the essence of each cause.
You can make a case a title is also needed for remedy in complex troubleshooting topics, whenever remedy appears without an associated cause. For example, a common final fallback would be a stand-alone remedy such as this:
<remedy>
  <title>Contact technical support</title>
  <steps-unordered>
    <step><cmd>Contact technical support at either    or 800-555-1234</cmd></step>
  </steps-unordered>
</remedy>
I am sorry to raise this objection at this point. However, I don't think that the current model fully supports complex troubleshooting information without this change.
Best Regards,

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