Unable to generate 2-column PDF output in DITA Book
Posted: Mon May 04, 2026 6:21 pm
Hello everyone, first-time poster here.
I have created a document as a multi-topic book in DITA, and everything otherwise displays the way I would like it, however, There is one section, namely "Abstract" that I want displayed in 2-column view. However all attempts to do so have failed (including outputclass, topicgroup, etc..
The current code of the Abstract topic is as follows:
Where the corresponding code in the combined HTML5 is
and the current CSS settings are:
Yest PDF Chemistry still stubbornly refuses to make this section 2-column. Can anybody help?
I have created a document as a multi-topic book in DITA, and everything otherwise displays the way I would like it, however, There is one section, namely "Abstract" that I want displayed in 2-column view. However all attempts to do so have failed (including outputclass, topicgroup, etc..
The current code of the Abstract topic is as follows:
Code: Select all
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
<topic id="abstract" outputclass="two-columns">
<title outputclass="two-columns">(57) Abstract</title>
<body outputclass="two-columns">
<p> This invention ... is not restricted.</p>
<p><image placement="inline" href="media/image3.png" id="image_y3q_5rx_cjc">
<alt>Enxploded view of nail gun</alt>
</image></p>
</body>
</topic>Code: Select all
</article><article xmlns:nd="http://www.oxygenxml.com/css2fo/named-destinations" class="- topic/topic topic nested0 two-columns two-column" aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" break-before="true" is-chapter="true" id="unique_4" topicrefclass="- map/topicref " outputclass="two-columns two-column" nd:nd-id="abstract" oid="abstract" specializations="@props/deliveryTarget">
<h1 class="- topic/title title topictitle1 two-columns" outputclass="two-columns" id="ariaid-title4"><span class="- topic/ph topic/title-wrapper ph title-wrapper">(57) Abstract</span></h1>
<div class="- topic/body body two-columns" outputclass="two-columns">
<p class="- topic/p p"> This invention ... is not restricted.</p>
<p class="- topic/p p"><img xmlns:dita-ot="http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/ns/201007/dita-ot" class="- topic/image image" dita-ot:image-width="483" dita-ot:image-height="351" href="file:/home/tim/Insync/timbot2000@gmail.com/OneDrive/Portfolio/media/image3.png" id="unique_4_Connect_42_image_y3q_5rx_cjc" nd:nd-id="image_y3q_5rx_cjc" placement="inline" src="file:/home/tim/Insync/timbot2000@gmail.com/OneDrive/Portfolio/media/image3.png" alt="Enxploded view of nail gun"/></p>Code: Select all
/* Target abstract by its oid attribute */
article[oid="abstract"] {
column-count: 2 !important;
column-gap: 2em !important;
column-fill: balance !important;
}
/* Make the title span both columns */
article[oid="abstract"] h1.title {
column-span: all !important;
-moz-column-span: all !important;
-webkit-column-span: all !important;
}
/* Prevent paragraphs from breaking across columns */
article[oid="abstract"] p {
break-inside: avoid-column !important;
page-break-inside: avoid !important;
}
/* Target the body only within the article where oid is 'abstract' */
article[oid="abstract"] *[class ~= "topic/body"][class ~= "two-columns"] {
column-count: 2;
column-gap: 10mm;
}