Oxygen XML Forum

Hi.
I support users who don't know xml and will be using Author mode. Our documentation contains ordered lists that may be nested to 3 or more levels.
I am able to create the first level using the Insert an Ordered List button on the DITA toolbar, and can create nested items beneath it using the Insert a New Item in the current list structure. The problem occurs when I need to move up a level from the end of the line at level 3, i.e., how do I create a number '2' back up at level one, or 'b' at level two, using just the graphical ui?
1. level one
a. level two
i. level three

I am able to edit the xml source manually to get to where I want to be, but I can't ask my users to do that. I can have them add all the items at one level and then go back to insert the next level, but that seems like a workaround and they won't be happy with that either.

Is there some other point and click operation they can use?
Thanks

Hi,

We already have an issue recorded to provide Promote/Demote support, mapped to the TAB and SHIFT+TAB keys. I've increased its priority and we will notifiy you on this thread when it gets released. Until then, as an workaround, perhaps you can advice your users to:
- change the Tags display mode to Block tags
- use the Left/Right arrows to position inside the level 2 or level 1 list elements
- use the Insert list item action on the toolbar to insert an item

Best regards,
Alex

Thanks for the workaround Alex - I think the users will be able to work with this. I appreciate that you're increasing the priority on the issue and will await your notification when its released.

How do I start an ordered list with a specific number within DITA?

<ol start="7"> does not work. Message states that "start" is not a permitted attribute.

Many thanks.

Hi,

Docbook has this support out of the box but DITA does not.
So for DITA you would need some kind of XSLT customization to support this, for example setting an @outputclass attribute on the <ol> and then matching it from a custom CSS for the XHTML output or having an XSLT customization for the PDF output.

Regards,
Radu

Hi,

For those of you that find it interesting, the newly released Oxygen 18 has Promote/Demote support for List items. To use them, you have to position yourself at the beginning of the item and use the following keyboard shortcuts:
- Promote (Shift + Tab)
- Demote (Tab)

If you prefer having author actions on the toolbar then you can create such actions based on the new operation: ro.sync.ecss.extensions.commons.operations.PromoteDemoteItemOperation

Best regards,
Alex