Oxygen XML Editor comes bundled with a DITA OT plugin that converts a DITA Maps to PDF using a CSS based layout processor. This processor is Prince XML and is not included in the Oxygen XML Editor installation kit. It is a third-party component that needs to be purchased from http://www.princexml.com.
The DITA-OT plugin is located in the following directory: [oXygen Installation Directory]/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins/com.oxygenxml.pdf.prince.
Although it includes a set of CSS files in its css subfolder, when this plugin is distributed in Oxygen XML Editor, the CSS files located in the ${frameworks} directory takes precedence.
Creating the Transformation Scenario
- Click on the
Configure Transformation
Scenario(s) button from the Dita Maps Manager
toolbar. - Select DITA Map PDF WISIWYG [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 list from the toolbar.Important: The author could open the map in the editor and change its styles, but this is not taken into account when publishing. It seems counter intuitive, but the authors are usually editing the topics and is more probable to prefer the style used for topic editing.
- In the Parameters tab, configure the following parameters:
- prince.exec.path - Path to the Prince executable file (for example, c:\path\to\prince.exe in Windows) that will be run to produce the PDF. If you installed Prince using its default settings, you can leave this blank.
- show.changes.and.comments - When set on yes, the user comments and track changes are shown in the output. 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 will be displayed that shows all the CSS rules that apply to the selected element. Click on the link for the CSS selector that you need to change and Oxygen XML Editor will open the CSS file and position the caret 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.