Publishing a Document as a PDF File

To publish PDF files using the Arbortext Publishing Engine (refer to Using Arbortext Publishing Engine for Publishing Documents), the Arbortext Publishing Engine must be enabled in the Arbortext Publishing Engine Preferences. Otherwise, you can also publish PDF files locally if you have Arbortext Styler (refer to User's Guide to Arbortext Styler for information) or a Print Composer license.

If the Arbortext PE server is installed on a Windows server, you can see which publishing engine is being used for PDF publishing: PTC Arbortext Layout Developer (PTC ALD), FOSI, or XSL-FO. The Print Engine is displayed in the Publish > PDF File dialog box. For more information on these publishing engines, see Publishing Engine Overview.

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.

For information on how to set the print engine for your environment, see Logic for Print/Preview Engine Selection.

If you choose to Queue Transaction, Save As and View PDF File are not available. You are prompted for those when you retrieve the PDF from your list of Queued Transactions, available from the Tools menu.

1. Choose File > Publish > PDF File. The Publish to PDF File Dialog Box opens.

2. Specify a path and file name for the resulting PDF file or accept the default. Click Browse to locate an existing file.

3. Choose View PDF File if you want to display the PDF file in an associated viewing application (typically, Adobe Reader) when publishing is complete.

4. Choose the stylesheet from the Stylesheet list. Click Browse to locate an existing stylesheet that does not appear in the list.

If you are using Arbortext Publishing Engine for publishing documents, the list displays the stylesheets available from the Arbortext Publishing Engine server. The notation (pe) precedes the stylesheet name. Local stylesheets are ignored; you can't send a stylesheet to the server with your document.

5. Choose the PDF configuration file from the Config File list. Click Browse to locate an existing file that does not appear in the list.

If you are using Arbortext Publishing Engine for publishing documents, the list displays the notation (pe) preceding the configuration file. These are the configuration files available from the Arbortext PE server. Local configuration files are ignored, and you can't send one to the server with your document.

Print Engine displays the publishing engine being used. For information, see Publishing Engine Overview.

6. If you are publishing 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.

7. 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, are always published with Changes Applied, regardless of the Change Tracking view selected (even if a map has change tracking markup).

◦ 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.

8. Crop Marks, Date Mark Header, Registration Marks puts these printers marks on the formatted pages. They are only available with PTC ALDPrint Engine.

9. Set the Print range to which pages you want to print. Your choices are:

◦ Pages — Prints a range of pages that you specify in the page range entry field. Enter the page numbers separated by a comma for individual pages or a hyphen to include all pages within the range (for example, 1, 3, 5–7).

10. If you are using Arbortext Publishing Engine for publishing documents, you may be able to Queue Transaction. Checking this box means you are prompted for the Save As file name and whether to View PDF File when you retrieve the result from your list of Queued Transactions, available from the Tools menu. Choosing to Queue Transaction clears Save As and View PDF File values from the dialog box. If you entered values in these fields, they are displayed again if you clear the Queue Transaction check box.

11. Choose whether to enter a Transaction Name. The transaction name is displayed when you retrieve the result from your list of Queued Transactions, available from the Tools menu.

You can enter transaction names to use by default or for specific output types by entering values in the Queued Transaction Names Dialog Box.

12. If you want to apply profiling to your document, click Set Profiles to choose your profile settings. The Set Profiles button is only available if profiles have been configured for the selected document type.

13. If you want to create a publishing rule, click Create Rule to open Create New Publishing Rule, where you can create a new publishing rule or rule set.

14. Click OK to begin publishing.

If your Arbortext Editor environment is set to use PTC ALD as the print engine for a local publishing, you see the interim Publishing to PDF Dialog Box during publishing. The dialog box provides information about publishing operation progress.