Install Visual DITA

Recommended

From the VS Code Marketplace

One click, and new versions arrive by themselves.

Open in VS Code Marketplace page

Or in VS Code: open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X, on macOS ⇧⌘X), search Visual DITA and choose Install.

Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium

From Open VSX

Editors built on VS Code install their extensions from Open VSX: search Visual DITA in their Extensions view.

Open VSX page

The editor has to be based on VS Code 1.106 or newer; its About box says which.

Offline and managed computers

As a .vsix file

For computers without the Marketplace: closed networks, or where IT installs the extensions.

Download the .vsix

Check the file against the SHA-256 checksum on the download page.
In VS Code, Extensions › … › Install from VSIX…, or from a terminal:
```
code --install-extension visualdita-<version>.vsix
```
A .vsix does not update itself: install each new version the same way.

Where extensions are restricted, IT can allow pleosoft.visualdita in VS Code's extensions.allowed setting.

Then

Open a DITA topic or map in VS Code: it opens as a page in Visual DITA. Open Source shows the XML whenever you want it. The getting started guide takes ten minutes.

Licence

Free for standard DITA. Ask us for your own.

Standard DITA: free

Every feature, on the OASIS document types of DITA 1.0 to 1.3 and the 2.0 draft. Any number of computers, any use, commercial authoring included. No trial period, no account. Renewed free every year.

Your specializations: licensed

Your own document types come as a Visual DITA package in your organization's name, which we prepare from your DTDs. Until then, those documents still open: the standard content on the page, your own elements kept as tags.

Ask us for a package

The licence

Installing Visual DITA means accepting its end user licence agreement. Open-source components keep their own licences, listed in the third-party notices.

Every year

Standard DITA renews every year, free.

The standard DITA in Visual DITA works until 31 December: hover Standard DITA in the DITA Document Types view to see the date. Each year's renewal comes from October.

Updated by itself

Installed from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX, there is nothing to do: the update that carries the renewal arrives by itself.

Or download it

For a .vsix install, or a computer that does not update: five files, one per DITA version.

Download them into one folder, and check them against the SHA-256 checksums on the download page.
In VS Code, in the DITA Document Types view, choose Import Visual DITA Package… and pick any one of them: the others come with it.
It renews standard DITA for you, in every project.

Download the renewal

Your files stay plain DITA

From 1 November Visual DITA reminds you. If the date passes without a renewal, a DITA file opens on a message instead of the page, with the download and Open Source. Your files are unchanged: editing them as XML, and using them with any other tool, is never restricted.

Talk to us.

About installing on your company's computers, your document types, a licence, or anything else. An email reaches a person, and we answer.

info@pleosoft.com Report a bug or ask for a feature