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Adding a PDF output format

To publish from Content Manager to PDF, you must configure a PDF output format. Various DITA Open Toolkit transformation types of PDF output format are available. After it is created, it is available in Publication Manager to add as output for your publications.

Before you begin

To perform this task, the following must be true:
  • The user performing the task has an Output Formats Management privilege or a System Administrator privilege.
  • The style sheets for the output format being added are in place.

About this task

The following DITA Open Toolkit transformation types of PDF output format are available:
ishpdf
A standard PDF generator. Requires integration with a PDF formatter such as Antenna House.
ishxpp
An XPP PDF generator. Requires integration with the RWS product XPP.
pdf2
A PDF generator using the pdf2 plugin that ships with the DITA Open Toolkit. Can be customized by hand.

Procedure

  1. Sign in to Organize Space.
  2. On the top tab level, select the Settings tab.
  3. On the second tab level, select the System tab.
  4. On the third tab level, select the Output Formats tab.
  5. Select Add new at top right.
    The Add new output format dialog opens.
  6. In the GENERAL area, set the following properties:
    PropertyMandatory or optional? Description of value
    Output format nameMandatory The name of the output format. This is the name that users see in Publication Manager or in Organize Space when they publish. A good name for this output format is "PDF" or, if you are using multiple formatters alongside each other, "Antenna House PDF", "XPP PDF" and so on. If you want to publish to multiple output paper sizes, like Legal, Letter, A4, A5 and so on, you must create separate output formats for each size, and distinguish them by name.
    Resolutions prioritizedMandatory A list of one or more resolutions to use for the output format. The first value in the list should be the resolution you want to see included in the topics. By default, the other resolutions are only used by custom publishing processes.
    Resolutions to exportMandatory You can ignore this property if Resolutions prioritized has only one value, or if you have no custom publishing processing that uses resolutions beyond the first one.
    If Resolutions prioritized has multiple values, and you have custom publishing using those values, select one of the values:
    All Resolutions
    This exports all resolutions listed under Resolutions and publishes them to output. Do not select this value if you are publishing your objects with logical IDs (that is, if you have set the ContentObjectIdLevel property to the value logical in the publish post-process plugin DitaDeliveryPrepareOverallPackage). This is because such a configuration would cause different resolutions of the same image to be published to the same output URL, which would lead to conflicts.
    First Matching Resolution Only
    This exports and publishes only one resolution of the image: the first resolution listed under Resolutions that exists as a resolution for the image.
    EDT of the outputMandatory The electronic data type of the output.For a PDF output format, select PDF from the list.
    DITA-OT transformation typeOptional The DITA Open Toolkit transformation type.. For a PDF output format, select ishpdf for standard PDF output, ishxpp for XPP output, and pdf2 for output created by the pdf2 plugin for DITA Open Toolkit.
    Style processorMandatory The engine that will apply the layout and style.. For a PDF output format, select SDLDoc DITA Open Toolkit from the list.
  7. If your DITA Open Toolkit transformation type is ishpdf, fill in the style reference in the XPP style reference field. If you have multiple variants defined for different paper sizes, use the XPP style Alt name field to distinguish them.
  8. If your DITA Open Toolkit transformation type is ishxpp, fill in the following XPP fields:
    PropertyDescription of value
    XPP server URLThe URL to access XPP Server over SOAP Web Services
    XPP style folderThe folder that contains the style you want to use
    XPP style referenceThe reference to the style library, which contains the specifications that control the appearance of your publication when XPP composes it and generates it as a PDF
    XPP style Alt nameIf you have multiple variants defined, for example, for different paper sizes, the variant of the style you want to use
  9. If your DITA Open Toolkit transformation type is pdf2, the publishing engine looks for a subfolder of the DITA Open Toolkit called plugins\org.dita.pdf2\Customization\ for customization settings for the output. If your customizations are located in a different folder, you can specify that folder in the PDF2 customization setting.
  10. Do the following in the Advanced section at the bottom of the window; select the appropriate checkboxes if you want to:
    1. Clean up. After publishing, Content Manager deletes temporary files from C:\InfoShare\DataDita\Publish\Data\.
    2. Resolve Variables. It is recommended that you select this option.
    3. Include missing objects. Inserts placeholder objects whenever referenced objects are missing. It is recommended that you select this option.
  11. Restart IIS on the Content Manager server.