Working Offline
The PTC Server connection enables you to work offline from the PTC Server. To work offline, you must first select the workspaces that you want to have available for offline use. For these workspaces, the PTC Server connection will download all of the document and graphic objects for the workspace to your system when you disconnect from the PTC Server or close Arbortext Editor. Only the workspaces you have selected for offline use will be available during an offline session. Also, only objects that were checked out in the selected workspaces when you disconnected from the PTC Server can be modified when you are working offline.
When you have an offline session active, Arbortext Editor displays Offline in the title bar when you are editing a document in your offline workspace. The Browser also displays Offline in its title bar when you use it offline. Only PTC Server connection features that do not require access to the PTC Server are available when you are working offline. Features that you cannot use when working offline will not be available in the interface.
When working offline, you can use > to open the Browser, access the contents of the workspace, and view and edit document objects. You can use > to open the Change Active Workspace dialog box and switch to another workspace you have made available for offline use. You can also use > at any time to connect to the PTC Server and check in any changes you have made or add any new documents to the server.
You can work offline in the following ways.
1. Follow these steps to work offline when you are currently connected to the PTC Server:
a. In Arbortext Editor, choose > .
The Select Workspaces for Offline Use dialog box opens.
b. In the Select Workspaces for Offline Use dialog box, select the workspace or workspaces in which you want to work offline.
The active workspace is selected by default.
If you just want to select workspaces to work with offline later, click OK to close the dialog box and continue with your PTC Server session.
c. Check the Disconnect from server now? option and select OK to close the dialog box.
A confirmation dialog box opens asking you to confirm that you want to disconnect.
d. Click Yes.
The Preparing for offline use dialog box opens as the PTC Server connection downloads the contents of the workspaces you have selected for offline use. If you decide to Cancel the download, the workspace currently downloading must finish before the process can stop.
The dialog box disappears when all needed objects have been downloaded, and the Select Workspace dialog box opens.
e. In the Select Workspace dialog box, select the workspace in which you want to work offline in the Workspace option and click OK.
The dialog box closes and Arbortext Editor starts the offline work session.
2. Follow these steps to work offline when you are currently disconnected from the PTC Server:
a. Open Arbortext Editor and choose > .
The Connect dialog box opens.
b. In the Connect dialog box, select the desired PTC Server and check the Work Offline check box.
The other options on the dialog box become unavailable.
c. Click Next.
The Select Workspace dialog box opens. If you have not selected any workspaces for use offline, the dialog box just contains a message telling you that no workspaces are available for offline use. In this case, connect to the PTC Server and select the workspaces you want to be available offline.
d. In the Select Workspace dialog box, select the workspace in which you want to work offline in the Workspace option and click Finish.
The dialog box closes and Arbortext Editor starts the offline work session.
Note the following things about working offline:
• If you lose your connection to the PTC Server through a network or server failure, you are able to work offline using the objects that were available in the active workspace when the failure occurred.
• If you are working offline in a place where you have no network access, such as on an airplane, you must have a fixed license for Arbortext Editor on your system.
• If you are working on a DITA document that contains content references, the source of those references might not be automatically added to the workspaces you have selected to be available offline.
To ensure that the source of all content references are available in the workspace, you can choose > > for a DITA map or > for a DITA topic to produce a resolved document. This process adds the source objects for all of the existing content references to the workspace. In this case, you can just close the resolved document after it opens.
• Burst configuration files are not available when you are offline.
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