DITA Map to PDF WYSIWYG Transformation

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:
  1. Click the Configure Transformation Scenario(s) button from the Dita Maps Manager toolbar.
  2. Select DITA Map PDF - WYSIWYG - Experimental.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
    • webhelp.show.changes.and.comments - When set to yes, user comments, replies to comments, and tracked changes are published in the WebHelp output. The default value is no.

Customizing the Styles (for Output and Editing)

If you need to change the styles in the associated CSS, 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 all the installed files are usually 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.