Editing Stylesheet Source Overview
Arbortext Styler uses the style settings you make to generate different types of stylesheet source code for different outputs and editors. Arbortext Styler allows you to directly edit the different types of generated stylesheet source to accomplish effects that are not possible through the Arbortext Styler user interface.
You can use source edits to reference custom JavaScript functions, if you are working with the
PTC ALD engine.
Arbortext Styler provides the option to create, edit, and manage Function objects that hold JavaScript function code. You can call these objects from a stylesheet extension with
PTC ALD code. Fore more information, see
Custom JavaScript Functions.
Be aware that if you edit the source of an object you cannot subsequently use the Arbortext Styler UI to make further changes to the object. You should make all changes to your element that are possible through the UI and then edit source to apply the more complex effects.
There are many ways to identify if an object includes edited source - if you see any of these indicators for an object, any changes to that object in the UI will have no effect.
See
Identifying Items that have Edited Source for a list of the visual indicators that an object includes edited source.
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Significant code changes between releases of Arbortext Styler mean that you should always check that stylesheets that contain edited source still provide the desired effect when they have been updated to a new release.
It can be difficult to maintain edited source changes as the stylesheet progresses through later releases. Some suggestions to make the maintenance task easier are given below:
• Try to isolate edited source as much as possible — edit only a context rather than an entire element or, if possible, edit the source of a property set.
• If applicable, insert a UFE via generated text and edit the source of that UFE.
• Comment your edited source effectively so that, if you need to regenerate it for a new release, you'll recognize the edit and know what it was meant to achieve.
See the note in Comment Tab for information on how to add comments to source code. |
You can edit stylesheet source for the following object types:
• Element
• Element context
• Property set
• Page set (print outputs only)
• Page type (PTC ALD only)
• Page region (PTC ALD only)
• Generated content object (FOSI and XSL-FO output only)
• XSL root template (XSL outputs only)
• FOSI resource description (FOSI output only)
• Common XSL source (XSL outputs only)
• PTC ALD root template (PTC ALD only)
The tables below describes the types of source that can be edited for each type of output.
Supported Types of Source Editing
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Source type
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Uses
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Element
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Context
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Property set
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Page set
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Page type
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APP
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Print/PDF output
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•
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•
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•
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•
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FOSI
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Editor view, Print / PDF output
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•
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-FO
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Print / PDF output
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•
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-FO RTF
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Text output
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-HTML File
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HTML File output
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-HTML Help
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HTML Help output
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-Web
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Web output
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•
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•
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•
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Supported Types of Source Editing
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Source type
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Uses
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Page region
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Generated content
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XSL root template
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FOSI resource description
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Common XSL source
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APP
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Print/PDF output
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•
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FOSI
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Editor view, Print / PDF output
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•
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•
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XSL-FO
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Print / PDF output
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•
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•
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•
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XSL-FO RTF
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Text output
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•
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•
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XSL-HTML File
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HTML File output
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•
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•
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XSL-HTML Help
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HTML Help output
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•
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•
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XSL-Web
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Web output
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•
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•
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Supported Types of Source Editing
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Source type
|
Uses
|
PTC ALD root template
|
|
APP
|
Print/PDF output
|
•
|
|
FOSI
|
Editor view, Print / PDF output
|
|
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XSL-FO
|
Print / PDF output
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|
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XSL-FO RTF
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Text output
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XSL-HTML File
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HTML File output
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XSL-HTML Help
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HTML Help output
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XSL-Web
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Web output
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The FOSI and XSL-FO print engines are on sustained support and do not receive enhancements or maintenance fixes. PTC ALD is the recommended engine for print/PDF output.
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