General formatting questions

[jnielsen]

I am working with a demo version of Oxygen so I am just becoming acquainted with it, but how do you manage what the output presentation/format for the PDF files looks like? On the title page for example I would like to get rid of the "vertical list of authors" text and the blank picture box. And for the record, how do you put content there for the authors & picture in the first place? I've been unable to figure that out.

Also though I have 2 or 3 pages of body content the Contents page is blank (aside from saying "Contents") and the Contents page is on the third page, with a completely blank page (how do I get rid of that?) on the second page following the title page. These are just rookie questions but any feedback would be appreciated. And if there are any handy <Oxygen/> PDF manuals or guides that can answer these types of beginner questions would you be so kind as to point me to them? Thank you.

~Josh

[Radu]

Dear Josh,

Thank you for contacting us.
You are talking about transforming DITA files to PDF in Oxygen.
For this you have to customize the stylesheets which come with the DITA 1.4.2.1 Open Toolkit bundled with Oxygen.

About removing the vertical list of authors and the blank page:

There is a file called "dita2fo-shell.xsl" in the {OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR}/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/xsl/ directory.
You can open it in Oxygen and comment the line 43

Code: Select all

<xsl:call-template name="front-covers"></xsl:call-template>

.

About the Contents page:
It should not be blank. We provide some sample DITA maps in the: {OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR}/samples/dita/. If you run a PDF transformation on any of them, the Contents page appears and contains the links.

If you want you can attach and send us some sample files to our teck support page http://www.oxygenxml.com/techSupport.html and we'll try to reproduce your problem.

You can also try running a "PDF2-Idiom FO Plugin" transformation either with XEP if you have it installed or with the builtin Apache FO as it is more up to date than the "PDF-DITA OT" transformation.
See this link for more details:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... -processor

I also recommand you the DITA users group as a very good place to find out answers to customization questions:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/

Regards,
Radu

[jnielsen]

Thanks, I really appreciate it! That's helpful. I'll give that a good looking-over and get back to you if I have any more questions. Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Josh

[jnielsen]

Ok here's a question, you mentioned the .xsl files used for transforms in DITA, how do I find out which .xsl files are being used for a particular build? Are they referenced in the actual build files? If so how to I find out which build file is being used for a certain transformation (say for PDF)? I noticed that the Advanced tab in the "Edit DITA Scenario" menu allows for a custom build file, but I was unable to figure out which one was already being used. Any ideas?

Edit: Actually I just realized that you could just build one to begin with and simply look at the output in the debugging window at the bottom to see which build it is using (is there an easier/better way to find out though?). But if you wanted to use a different build file by default for a certain type of transform, could you edit which build file it uses aside from having to apply a Custom Build File in the Advanced tab to each transform? And going further could I add my own "Transformation Type" option to show up on the menu when I click 'new'? Sorry for the flurry of questions, but I appreciate your help!

Thanks,

~Josh

[Radu]

Hi Josh,

See some answers below:

Ok here's a question, you mentioned the .xsl files used for transforms in DITA, how do I find out which .xsl files are being used for a particular build?

The DITA Open Toolkit framework included in Oxygen uses ANT build files to transform the DITA files against the XSLT's specific for the certain transformation.

Are they referenced in the actual build files? If so how to I find out which build file is being used for a certain transformation (say for PDF)?

Yes, the build files process the DITA project and uses an XSLT transformer to transform them to the desired output.
The default build file delegates to other build files with names depending on the transformation type, located in the same directory.

I noticed that the Advanced tab in the "Edit DITA Scenario" menu allows for a custom build file, but I was unable to figure out which one was already being used. Any ideas?

The default starting build file is {OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR}\frameworks\dita\DITA-OT\build.xml but you can change it from the "Advanced" tab.
The default build files receives a lot of configuration parameters and depending on them calls the appropriate build file for each transformation.

You can find out more by reading the documentation available for the DITA Open Toolkit project http://sourceforge.net/projects/dita-ot/

Regards,
Radu

[jnielsen]

Great, much appreciated!

The default build files receives a lot of configuration parameters and depending on them calls the appropriate build file for each transformation.

Are those parameters editable/configurable from Oxygen or would I have to play with source files? Maximum customizability would be a plus with this.

And I suppose the only lingering question I have now (which I probably should have made a new post on instead of editing my last post) is if it is also possible to add a completely new option on the "DITA Transformation Type" menu in Oxygen when I click 'new', or are those listed options hard-coded in? Thanks for all the help!

~Josh

[Radu]

Dear Josh,

You can configure or add new paramters sent by Oxygen to the DITA ANT script from the scenarion edit "Parameters" tab:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... ation.html

The initial transformation options are hard coded but you can choose the transformation closest to what you need and then modify all its parameters according to your needs.
When running a transformation you can see in the Results panel the whole command line executed by Oxygen so it should be pretty easy to debug.

Regards,
Radu

[jnielsen]

I'm just revisting this since I'm trying to redo my previous customizations for a new install of Oxygen 10, and I noticed that if you do comment out <xsl:call-template name="front-covers"></xsl:call-template> it takes out the Title page as well as the blank page (I want to keep the Title page). I cannot figure out how it is possible to cut out just the blank page between the Title/Cover page and the Table of Contents (TOC). Experimenting with the .xsl I also commented out the entire content of the TOC template and the blank page still shows, whereas if you comment out the template call itself it leaves off both the TOC and the blank page - thus it seems that the very act of calling the TOC template generates the blank page in front of it if there is also a Title Page, even if you completely comment out the TOC template's contents. I suppose this behavior is defined somewhere else in the .xsl? I'd interested in knowing where that setting is if so.

Thanks,

~Josh

[Radu]

Hi Josh,

Indeed you have to open dita2fo-shell.xsl and uncomment line 43

Code: Select all

<!-- <xsl:call-template name="front-covers"></xsl:call-template>-->

We made some tests and modifications but could not remove that empty page between the title page and the TOC.
It probably has something to do with page numbering in the FO documents.
See this:
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect3/page ... d14123e330

Sorry we can not assist you further. Maybe Eliot Kimber from the DITA users list will be able to give you some hints.

Regards,
Radu

[jnielsen]

That's alright, just trying to test the limits of what's possible. Thanks again for all your help.

~Josh