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Configuring a DITA specialization for use in XMetaL

You can configure XMetaL to use your specialization with filesystem DITA.

Before you begin

Before you begin, the following should already be done.
  1. XMetaL and the Content Manager Authoring Bridge for XMetaL are installed and a valid account to the Content Manager server exists.
  2. The specialized DTD is installed on the server.
  3. The OASIS catalog is updated.
  4. An editor template for the specialization is uploaded to the repository.

About this task

To use a DITA specialization in XMetaL, necessary configuration files must be available for XMetaL. There are 2 major parts:
  1. Configure XMetaL to use your specialization with filesystem DITA. This can be accomplished in 2 ways:
    • Create the configuration files (manually) via the standard XMetaL approach. This can be done by using the Tools > Select Specialized DITA DTD... menu within XMetaL on every client,
    • or Prepare & Synchronize the specialized configuration files from the Content Manager server so you can use XMetaL with filesystem DITA documents.
  2. Prepare & Synchronize the specialized configuration files from the Content Manager server so you can use XMetaL with Content Manager documents.

You must configure both parts for the two noted reasons below:

  • The Content Manager configuration files are different from the standard XMetaL ones so that the following features are available when you are working with an Content Manager document:
    • The Content Manager Insert Hyperlink or Insert Image screen is shown when you insert an hyperlink or image (instead of the standard XMetaL screens).
    • The content of included images is updated with the latest repository version when opening a document
    • Conditions are highlighted in yellow and are have a gray background color for read-only documents, conrefs and variables.
  • Without the XMetaL configuration files in place:
    • Filesystem DITA does not work
    • Inserting conrefs and using the map editor with Content Manager documents does not work.