Starting with version 9, <oXygen/> adds extensive support for customization.
The Author mode from <oXygen/> was designed for bridging the gap between the XML source editing and a friendly user interface. The main achievement is the fact that the Author combines the power of the source editing and the intuitive interface of a text editor.
Although <oXygen/> comes with already configured frameworks for DocBook, DITA, TEI, XHTML, you might need to create a customization of the editor to handle other types of documents. For instance in the case you have a collection of XML document types used to define the structure of the documents that are used in your organisation and you want them visually edited by people who are not experienced in using XML.
There are several ways to customize the editor:
Create a CSS file defining styles for the XML elements the user will work with, and create XML files that refer the CSS through an
xml-stylesheetprocessing instruction.Fully configure a document type association. This involves putting together the CSS files, the XML schemes, actions, menus, etc, bundling them and distributing an archive. The CSS and the GUI elements are settings of the <oXygen/> Author. The other settings like the templates, catalogs, transformation scenarios are general settings and are enabled whenever the association is active, no matter the editing mode (Text, Grid or Author).
We will discuss both approaches in the following sections.