It is possible to associate an PTC ALD template (.3f file) with an Arbortext Styler stylesheet, to access functionality that is difficult to achieve with source edits. For example, you could provide the tags that support a hyphenation exception dictionary or an alternative kerning table. You might also want to provide some additional JavaScript functions or special frames or other tag types. Providing that they can be accessed or called from source edit locations, these can also be provided to PTC ALD using a template associated with the stylesheet.

Templates are associated to a stylesheet in the Print/PDF tab of the Stylesheet Properties window in Arbortext Styler. Recommended practice is to provide an absolute location path to the template, and to store the template in the same location as your stylesheets.

When PTC ALD publishes from an Arbortext Styler stylesheet, it creates a new PTC ALD template based on the definitions in the stylesheet plus some standard libraries. The definitions are used to create tags in the template. During the tag creation process, if a tag of the same name exists in the associated template, the new one is not created. The version in the associated template takes precedence. If you want to replace a tag which would be created from the stylesheet, you can provide that tag in the associated template.