DITA is an ideal platform for developing content that will go to a worldwide audience. As with most single source solutions, it allows you to translate your content once, and then publish in any number of formats. The publishing process is aware of any processing specifics needed for each language, so the output is appropriate for each region.
DITA really shines when it comes to specialization. That process allows you to create new, very specific DTDs, appropriate for your own well structured information. That information can be translated the same as any other DITA file, even if it has gone through 13, 30, or 300 levels of specialization. The translation memory will save your sentence or phrase segments, and will later match the same segments in new -- but equivalent -- elements.
Even if you are the only one in the world to use this DTD (as is likely with my music specialization), it can be edited and processed with any DITA-aware tool. Most importantly, translation tools will automatically understand your new format. This understanding means that everything is immediately ready for translation, making your overall production both faster and cheaper.
