Classes of DITA elements are inline and can be interfaced with word using character style formatting. Features that can be designed around this interfacing are describe here.
Currently the transformation of typographical formatting (TF) to dita elements is done character by character when a paragraph contains this type of formatting. This can make the time required to save a DITA file much to long. An alternative is to determine the ranges within a paragraph that require character by character processing and only process those ranges with TF this way. All other ranges can use simple text element processing.