Oxygen XML Editor comes bundled with a DITA OT plugin that converts DITA maps to PDF
using a CSS layout processor.
Oxygen XML Editor supports the following processors (not
included in the
Oxygen XML Editor installation kit):
The DITA-OT plugin is located in the following directory: DITA_OT_DIR/plugins/com.oxygenxml.pdf.css.
Although it includes a set of CSS files in its css subfolder, when this
plugin is used in Oxygen XML Editor, the CSS files located in the
${frameworks} directory take precedence.
Creating the Transformation Scenario
To create an experimental DITA map to PDF WYSIWYG transformation scenario, follow these
steps:
- Click the
Configure Transformation Scenario(s) button from the Dita
Maps Manager toolbar.
- Select DITA Map PDF - WYSIWYG - Experimental.
- When applied, this new transformation scenario uses the currently selected CSS files
for the opened topic files. These CSS files can be selected from the
Styles drop-down menu from the toolbar.
Important: The author could open the map in the editor and change its style, but this is ignored
in the publishing stage. Since authors usually edit topics instead of the map, Oxygen XML Editor uses the styles selected in the opened topics.
- In the Parameters tab, configure the following parameters:
- css.processor.path.prince (if you are using the Prince Print
with CSS processor) - Specifies the path to the Prince executable file that
will be run to produce the PDF. If you installed Prince using its default settings,
you can leave this blank.
- css.processor.path.antenna-house (if you are using the Antenna
House Formatter processor) - Specifies the path to the Antenna House
executable file that will be run to produce the PDF. If you installed Antenna House
using its default settings, you can leave this blank.
- show.changes.and.comments - When set to yes, the
user comments and tracked changes are shown in the output. The default value is
no.
Customizing the Styles (for Output and Editing)
If you need to change the styles, make sure you install Oxygen XML Editor in a folder
in which you have full read and write privileges (for instance, your user home directory).
This is due to the fact that usually all the installed files are read-only (for instance, in
Windows, Oxygen XML Editor is installed in the Program Files
folder where the users do not have change rights).
If you want to change the style of an element, open a document in the editor and select
Inspect Styles from the contextual menu. The CSS
Inspector view that shows all the CSS rules that apply to the
selected element will be displayed. Click the link for the CSS selector that you need to
change and Oxygen XML Editor will open the CSS file and position the cursor at that
selector. Simply add the properties you need and to see the changes in the editor, press
F5 to reload the document. Once
you are satisfied with how it looks, use the transformation scenario and check for the
changes in the PDF output.
Note: This experimental transformation scenario also allows you to present colored highlights
in the PDF output.