J. McHam wrote: > I have been reviewing XMLMind literature on your web site, and I am > confused. > The DITA Converter looks appealing as I am quite frustrated with trying > to figure out how to reformat PDF files created using the DITA-OT.
You need to have access to the DITA sources files which have been used by the DITA-OT to create the PDF. I mean you cannot ``reformat PDF files'' per se. You must recreate the PDF files out of the DITA source files. See below. > Does the DITA Converter work with the Personal edition of the XML Mind > editor, > or just the professional version? If I download an evaluation version of the > professional version, will I be able to test the DITA Converter to see > how it works? You don't need to use XMLmind XML Editor Personal Edition or Professional Edition to use the DITA Converter. Instead, please download, install and use XMLmind XSL Utility. This tool integrates the DITA converter and makes it easy parameterizing the DITA conversion process. See: * XMLmind XSL Utility -- http://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/xsl_utility.html * Download Personal Edition -- http://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/downloadperso.shtml#xslutil --> For example, let's suppose the main map of your DITA document is main.ditamap. [a] Start XMLmind XSL Utility. [b] Specify file "main.ditamap" in the "Input file" text field. [c] Choose "DITA|ditaToPDF" in the "Conversion specification" combobox. [d] Specify the output file, for example "C:\temp\foo.pdf" in the "Output file" text field. [e] Click the "Convert" button. You can easily change the parameters used by our XSLT stylesheets and hence, change the formatting of the PDF by clicking the "Edit" button found in the "Conversion specification" frame. > How hard is it to make changes to the formatting of PDF files created > using the DITA converter? It highly depends on the kind of customizations you want for your PDF files. XMLmind DITA Converter, which has been developed from scratch in reaction to the complexity of the DITA-OT, *completely* separates the DITA preprocessing from the DITA formatting. This design has an advantage: extensive modifications of our XSLT stylesheets are not difficult to implement (for a person who knows XSL, of course). See http://www.xmlmind.com/ditac/_distrib/doc/manual/howItWorks.html#howItWorks > What all is involved? Please refer to the following documentation (in that order): [1] XMLmind DITA Converter Manual; Using XMLmind DITA Converter; XSLT stylesheets parameters -- http://www.xmlmind.com/ditac/_distrib/doc/manual/xsltParams.html#xsltParams [2] XMLmind DITA Converter Manual; Customizing the output of XMLmind DITA Converter; Simple customization; Customizing the look of the PDF files generated by ditac -- http://www.xmlmind.com/ditac/_distrib/doc/manual/manual-6.html#customAttributeSet [3] XMLmind DITA Converter Manual; Customizing the output of XMLmind DITA Converter; Extensive customization -- http://www.xmlmind.com/ditac/_distrib/doc/manual/howItWorks.html#howItWorks -- XMLmind DITA Converter Support List [email protected] http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/ditac-support
