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Previewing a Document
Prerequisite: Arbortext PE server, Arbortext Styler, or the Print Composer Option The compact installation of Arbortext Editor must use Arbortext PE server.
You can check your document layout and formatting by viewing the document in a preview window, which displays the document as it would print.
The preview process is configured in the document type configuration file (.dcf). The Options attribute AllowComposeStylesheetList must be set to yes in the .dcf to allow the user to choose a stylesheet.
To Preview a Document:
1. Choose File > Print Preview. The Preview dialog box opens.
2. Choose the stylesheet from the Stylesheet list. Click Browse to locate an existing stylesheet that does not appear in the list. You can choose stylesheets of the following types:
.style: an Arbortext Styler stylesheet
.3f: an PTC Arbortext Layout Developer (PTC ALD) template file. This type is only available if PTC ALD is installed in your Arbortext Styler environment or on the Arbortext Publishing Engine server.
.fos: a FOSI stylesheet
.xsl: an XSL stylesheet
If you are using Arbortext Publishing Engine, the list displays the stylesheets available from the Arbortext PE server. The notation (pe) precedes the stylesheet name. Local stylesheets are ignored.
3. If you are previewing a DITA document that has an associated DITAVAL file, choose that file in the DITAVAL File list. Click Browse to locate an existing DITAVAL file that does not appear in the list.
4. If you are using Arbortext Publishing Engine and PTC ALD for publishing, you can choose an PTC ALD configuration file.
For more information, refer to Print and PDF Configuration Files.
5. Print Engine displays the type of publishing engine being used. For information, see Publishing Engine Overview.
6. If your document has change tracking, you can publish the document in any of the change tracking states. By default, the change tracking view from the Edit window is selected, except when publishing from a DITA map.
If you are publishing a DITA map, Changes Applied is selected by default. When publishing from a DITA Map, the Change Tracking view that's selected applies only to the topics referenced from the DITA maps. The DITA map itself, as well as other referenced maps, will always be published with Changes Applied, regardless of the Change Tracking view selected (even if a map has change tracking markup).
The choices are:
Changes with Highlighting — Shows all proposed changes, highlighted with revision marks.
Changes Applied — Shows all proposed changes incorporated into the document, without revision marks.
Original — Shows the original document without proposed changes incorporated into the document.
7. If you want to apply profiling to your document, click Set Profiles to access the Set Profiles dialog box. The Set Profiles button is only available if profiles have been configured for the selected document type.
8. Click OK.
The effective print engine for your Arbortext Editor environment is based on settings made in Arbortext Editor, Arbortext Styler (if applicable), Arbortext Publishing Engine (if applicable) and your stylesheet. Therefore, one of the following distinct preview windows will display your previewed document, depending on which print engine is generating the preview and the type of preview you have requested:
PTC ALD Preview displays your formatted document in a print preview window published locally with the PTC ALD print engine
Adobe Reader displays your formatted document as a PDF if the request was sent to the Arbortext PE server and published with the PTC ALD print engine.
Adobe Reader also displays PDF previews requested from Arbortext Styler.
Adobe Reader displays your formatted document as a PDF if you are using the compact installation of Arbortext Editor.
Print Preview displays your formatted document in a print preview window published with the FOSI or XSL-FO print engines.
If the document has already been previewed or published locally, Arbortext Editor uses the formatting information stored in the .aptcache directory as the basis for formatting new information.
For information about setting an effective print engine for your environment, please refer to Logic for print/preview engine selection.
For information about stylesheets, please refer to Stylesheets Overview in the User's Guide to Arbortext Styler and the Administrator's Guide. For information about using PTC Arbortext Layout Developer for publishing, refer to PTC Arbortext Layout Developer in Arbortext Styler.