B HTML Conversion Editor User Interface

The Dynamic Converter HTML Conversion Editor consists of several administrative pages that you use to customize your HTML conversion templates. The HTML Conversion Editor gives you broad control over how a template interprets a source document and converts it to HTML. The interface is organized according to these four options:

B.1 Document Formatting

The Document Formatting page allows you to customize the formatting of your converted files according to file type:

B.1.1 Text/Word Processing Tab

The Text/Word Processing tab allows you to set formatting options for text and word processing files.

Figure B-1 Document Formatting - Text/Word Processing Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-1 .
Element Description
Layout Select which layout to use for this type of document. The layout controls the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Generate list bullets without <li> tags When this option is checked, the bullets/numbers for each list entry will be generated instead of using HTML list tags. Generated bullets/numbers tend to have higher fidelity to the look of the original document, but do so at the expense of not placing the list in HTML list tags. The generated bullets/numbers as well as the paragraph text will be treated as being ordinary paragraph text. If this option is not checked, then HTML list tags are used, but the types of bullets and numbers seen in the browser are severely limited.
Include footnotes and endnotes If checked, footnotes and endnotes from the input document are included in the output. Footnotes are always placed at the end of the HTML page the note is referenced from. Endnote placement is determined by the Separate endnotes option shown just below this option.
Separate endnotes If checked, endnotes are placed on a separate page at the end of the document. Otherwise, endnotes are handled as being a continuation of the last page of output. The Break on pages option must be enabled under Page Layout for this option to take effect.
Ignore unnamed character styles If checked, formatting from unnamed character styles in the source document is ignored and will not be present in the output. This is useful when the template author wishes to override the formatting of paragraphs in the output via format mapping. Without this option, formatting specified in the template could potentially be overridden if the source document was not well-formatted. This could happen, for example, if the document writer selected a block of text and applied a character format to it rather than specifying a style.
Note separator This allows you to enter HTML markup that will be placed between the body and the footnotes/endnotes at the end of the page. The default is to do nothing unless HTML markup is specified here.
Set maximum width (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels wide. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.
Set maximum height (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels high. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.
Set maximum size (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels in area. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.
Break page when hard page break is encountered When set, the output is split into additional output files every time a hard page break is encountered in the source document. The Break on pages option must be enabled under Page Layout in order for pagination to occur.
x characters per page This option sets a suggested page size in characters for the generated output. This means that the text of the document is broken up into pages of approximately the requested size. The Break on pages option must be enabled under Page Layout in order for pagination to occur. A setting of 0 means there will be no page breaks.

B.1.2 Spreadsheets Tab

The Spreadsheets tab allows you to set formatting options relevant to spreadsheets.

Figure B-2 Document Formatting - Spreadsheets Tab

Select a Document Dialog
Element Description
Layout Selects which layout to use for this type of document. The layout controls the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Section title format Specifies the format to be applied to the Section Title layout item.
Default section label Specifies the default label to be used in section-based navigation.
Show grid lines Check this box to force the table representing the spreadsheet to be output with a "border" value of "1".
Allow cell overflow Setting this option will cause non-wrapping text and frames to be positioned over the table representing the spreadsheet. In most cases, this allows the export filter to generate output that has very good fidelity with respect to the source document, in that text and/or graphics that overlap multiple cells will not alter the layout of the rest of the table. This option also allows text that is centered across a selection to be rendered properly (note that if the "selection" is only one cell, the text will be rendered left-aligned). However, the formatting of the source document may cause text to be unreadable when this option is enabled.
Set maximum width (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels wide. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.
Set maximum height (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels high. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.
Set maximum size (in pixels) to x Shrinks overly large images to no more than this many pixels in area. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no limit.

B.1.3 Presentations Tab

The Presentations tab allows you to customize the formatting options for presentations.

Figure B-3 Document Formatting - Presentations Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Layout Selects which layout to use for presentation files. The layout controls the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Section title format Specifies the format to be applied to the Section Title layout item.
Default section label Specifies the default label to be used in section-based navigation.
Set exact width (in pixels) to x Shrinks or enlarges the image so that the width exactly matches the specified value. If Set height to exactly x is not set, then the image will be scaled without altering its original aspect ratio. Setting this option to zero causes it to be ignored.
Set exact height (in pixels) to x Shrinks or enlarges the image so that the height exactly matches the specified value. If Set width to exactly x is not set, then the image will be scaled without altering its original aspect ratio. Setting this option to zero causes it to be ignored.
Set maximum width (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels wide. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum width.
Set maximum height (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels high. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum height.
Set maximum size (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels in area. If a change is needed, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum size.

B.1.4 Images Tab

The Images tab allows you to customize formatting options specific to image files.

Figure B-4 Document Formatting - Images Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Layout Selects which layout to use for image files. The layout controls the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Section title format Specifies the format to be applied to the Section Title layout item.
Default section label Specifies the default label to be used in section-based navigation.
Set exact width (in pixels) to x Shrinks or enlarges the image so that the width exactly matches the specified value. If Set height to exactly x is not set, then the image will be scaled without altering its original aspect ratio. Setting this option to zero causes it to be ignored.
Set exact height (in pixels) to x Shrinks or enlarges the image so that the height exactly matches the specified value. If Set width to exactly x is not set, then the image will be scaled without altering its original aspect ratio. Setting this option to zero causes it to be ignored.
Set maximum width (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels wide. If size reduction is required, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum width.
Set maximum height (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels high. If size reduction is required, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum height.
Set maximum size (in pixels) to x Shrinks very large images to no more than this many pixels in area. If size reduction is required, the aspect ratio of the source image is preserved. The default (0) means there is no maximum size.

B.1.5 Archives Tab

The Archives tab allows you to specify formatting options specific to archive files.

Figure B-5 Document Formatting - Archives Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Layout Selects which layout to use for this type of document. The layout controls the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Display method If you select Filenames, the names of files and folders in the archive will be output. If you select Decompressed files, the filenames will be output as links to the exported files.

B.1.6 Database Tab

The Database tab allows you to specify formatting options specific to database files.

Figure B-6 Document Formatting - Database Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Layout Selects which layout to use for this type of document. The layout controls what the overall look of the document. Page layouts are defined under Output Page Layouts, and can then be selected from the drop-down menu.
Section title format Specifies the format to be applied to the Section Title layout item.
Default section label Specifies the default label to be used in section-based navigation.
x records per page If set to a nonzero value, this option works in conjunction with the Break on pages option under Page Layout to indicate the number of records to output on each page.

B.2 Document Properties

This section of the Editor allows you to specify predefined and custom document properties to be placed in the head or body of the document.

The following pages are available in this section:

B.2.1 Add Document Property

The Add Document Property page allows to you add and remove document properties.

Figure B-7 Add Document Property

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add Click this button to add a new document property.
Remove Select a defined document property from the list and click this button to remove it. A property may not be removed if it is used by a page layout.

B.2.2 Document Property

The Document Property page allows you to define two types of document properties: predefined and custom.

Figure B-8 Document Properties

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Predefined Predefined properties are metadata fields stored in many file formats. An example of this is the Primary author, which is the author of the input document. Exactly which properties are available is highly dependent on the input file format and in most cases it is also dependent on whether or not the author provided this information.
Custom Custom properties are defined by the author. These can be used to insert arbitrary text and HTML markup into the output files.

By default, no document properties are defined. In order to include them in the output from the conversion, each desired document property must first be defined here. They must then be added to the output from the conversion by inserting them into page layouts defined under Output Page Layouts.

Default value The default value to use if the property is not found in the input document being converted. This is also used as the value for custom properties. Providing a default value is optional.
Meta tag name If the property is to appear in an HTML meta tag, then this is the value of the "name" attribute to use in the meta tag. The value of the "content" attribute will be taken from the source document or the Default value option set above, as appropriate.

If there is no author specified in the input document, then the meta tag generated will be as follows:

<meta name="author" content="Unknown">

While providing a meta tag name is optional, it must be specified if the property is to be included with the rest of the meta tags in the <head> of the output files.

Output format Name of the output paragraph format to use to format the property when including the property's value in the output as visible text.

B.3 Generated Content

Generated content is made up of two kinds of elements:

  • Text elements, which define custom strings that can be used as replacement strings in the template or at run-time via a server API call. These strings can be output as-is or with formatting defined in the template.

  • Navigation elements, which automatically generate navigation links.

The following pages are available:

B.3.1 Add Text Elements

The Add Text Elements page enables you to access the Text Elements page, which allows you to specify text to be inserted into the converted output.

Figure B-9 Add Text Elements

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add Click this button to display the Define Text Elements page to add a new text element.
Remove Select a defined text element from the list and click this button to remove it. An element may not be removed if it is used by a page layout.

B.3.2 Text Elements

The Text Elements page allows you to set a name/value for new text elements.

Figure B-10 Text Elements

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name The name by which this text element will be referred when creating/editing page layouts. This field is required.
Value The value to insert into the output when this text element is used in a page layout. By default, this is left blank.
Output format The name of the output format. This will be used to format the text element when including its value in the output as visible text.

B.3.3 Add Navigation Elements

The Add Navigation Elements page enables you to access pages that allow you to place navigation links in the converted output. There are three kinds of navigation elements: document navigation, page navigation, and section navigation.

Figure B-11 Add Navigation Elements

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add Click the drop-down box next to this button to select whether a document navigation, page navigation, or section navigation element will be added.
Remove Highlight a navigational item and click this button to remove navigational elements that are no longer needed. A navigational element may not be removed if it is used by a page layout.

B.3.4 Document Navigation

The Document Navigation page enables you to provide local/global navigation to document elements for word processing documents. It has the following subordinate Link Set pages:

Figure B-12 Document Navigation

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name Name by which the page layouts will refer to this navigation element. Required.
Link tag Specifies whether to use <a> or <option> to enclose the links in this element.
Generate parent levels when "orphan" levels are encountered When creating navigation based on outline levels, problems can arise when the document being converted is "sloppy" in its use of outline levels. By setting this option, the Markup to insert before this set of links and the Markup to insert after this set of links specified under Link Set Markup from the link set (defined below) are inserted into the output for the orphan level. By default, this option is not set.
Only include links to targets on the same page This is used to generate a small set of links to targets that all appear in the same output HTML page. An example of this would be to break a document up so there is one outline level 1 paragraph in each output HTML page. You could then set this option as part of creating a line of links across the top of the page that go to all the outline level 2's that appear on the page.

If this option is not set (the default), then links to targets across the entire document are generated.

Word limit for labels The link's label is taken from the text of the document element. Some target elements may contain large amounts of text. This can cause problems in the formatting of the list of links. Setting this option truncates the label after the specified number of words, in which case an ellipsis will be output to indicate the truncation.

Setting this option to 0, the default, causes the entire target element's text to be used as the link label.

Add Link Set Adds a new link set, which permits you to add custom HTML to all links in the set. See Link Set Markup Tab.
Move Up and Move Down Once link sets have been added, their order may be arranged by using these buttons. The order that link sets appear in the window establishes navigation hierarchy. When a link set is moved up or down, its name changes accordingly; for example, if two link sets are defined (Level 1 and Level 2) and the second one is selected and moved up, it becomes the Level 1 link set.
Remove Highlight a link set and click this button to remove it.

B.3.4.1 Link Set Markup Tab

The Link Set Markup tab allows you to define custom attributes and custom markup to insert before or after the link set.

Figure B-13 Link Set Markup Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-13 .
Element Description
Custom link attributes Displays custom attributes specified by the user. Use the Add attribute and Remove Attribute buttons to add and delete attributes, respectively.
Custom markup Any desired text or HTML that should appear before or after the set of links. By default, this is empty.

B.3.4.2 Link Formatting Tab

The Link Formatting tab allows you to define an external CSS class, or directly define character formatting for the link set.

Figure B-14 Link Set - Link Formatting Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-14 .
Element Description
Use external CSS class If this option is chosen, then the author must enter the name of a class from an external CSS file here. The URL of the external CSS file is specified with the External user stylesheet option set under Output Pages.
Character Formatting Each available type of character-level formatting can be set to one of four values:
  • Always off - Forces the attribute to always be off when formatting the link.

  • Always on - Forces the attribute to always be on when formatting the link.

  • Inherit - In the case of navigation links this has the same effect as Do not specify below.

  • Do not specify - Leave the formatting unspecified. The state of the attribute will depend on the browser's rendering settings.


B.3.4.3 Link Markup Tab

The Link Markup tab allows you to define HTML markup to be inserted before, between, and/or after links.

Figure B-15 Link Set - Link Markup Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-15 .
Element Description
Markup to insert before link Any desired text or HTML that should appear before the first link. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert between links Any desired text or HTML that should appear between links. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert after link Any desired text or HTML that should appear after the last link. By default, this is empty.

B.3.4.4 Add Link Mapping Rules

The Add Link Mapping Rules page allows you to access the Link Mapping rules page. Link mapping rules establish which parts of the input document will be used to create links.

Figure B-16 Add Link Mapping Rules

Surrounding text describes Figure B-16 .
Element Description
Add/Remove Link Mapping Rule Click Add Link Mapping Rule to add a new link mapping rule to mark document content for navigation. Highlight a rule and click Remove to delete it.
Move Up and Move Down Once mapping rules have been added, their order may be arranged by using these buttons. The mapping rules are ordered so that the first rule that matches is the one that is applied.

B.3.4.5 Link Mapping Rules

The Link Mapping Rules page is used to mark document content for navigation.

Figure B-17 Link Mapping Rules

Surrounding text describes Figure B-17 .
Element Description
Match on This determines what kind of mapping rule is being created. There are two choices:
  • Match on paragraph outline level - If the author of the input document included outline information, then you are able to generate navigation based on those outline levels. Typically, outline information is the result of the author including predefined styles such as Headings.

  • Match on paragraph or character style - If you know the name of a paragraph or character style used in the source document, then you may base navigation may on that, as well.

Paragraph outline level If Match on paragraph outline level is selected, then the outline level to match on should be entered here. The default outline level is 1. If Match on paragraph or character style was selected, then this option is not available.
Paragraph or character style If Match on paragraph or character style is selected, then the name of the style to match on should be entered here. The style name is case-sensitive and must exactly match the style name stored in the document. No default style name is given. If Match on paragraph outline level was selected, then this option is not available.

B.3.5 Page Navigation

Page Navigation provides page-relative navigation. This page has the following three tabs and two subordinate pages:

B.3.5.1 Custom Markup Tab

The Custom Markup tab allows you to insert markup before and/or after the set of links.

Figure B-18 Page Navigation - Custom Markup Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name Name by which the page layouts will refer to this navigation element. Required.
Link tag Choose between anchor and option for the HTML tag to be used for the link.
Markup to insert before this set of links Any desired text or HTML that should appear before the set of links. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert after this set of links Any desired text or HTML that should appear after the set of links. By default, this is empty.

B.3.5.2 Navigation Formatting Tab

The Navigation Formatting tab allows you to specify formatting for navigation links.

Figure B-19 Page Navigation - Navigation Formatting Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name Name by which the page layouts will refer to this navigation element. Required.
Link tag Choose between anchor and option for the HTML tag for this link.
Use external CSS class If you choose this option, you must enter the name of a previously defined class from an external CSS file here. The URL of the external CSS file is specified with the External user stylesheet option set under Output Pages.
Character Formatting The available types of character-level formatting are presented. Each type of formatting can be set to one of four values:
  • Always off - Forces the attribute to always be off when formatting the link.

  • Always on - Forces the attribute to always be on when formatting the link.

  • Inherit - In the case of navigation links this has the same effect as Do not specify below.

  • Do not specify - Leaves the formatting unspecified, and takes the state of the attribute from the browser's current default rendering. In other words, if the browser renders text for the link in blue, you will see a link with blue text


B.3.5.3 Navigation Markup Tab

The Navigation Markup tab allows you to set custom markup for navigation links.

Figure B-20 Page Navigation - Navigation Markup Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name Name by which the page layouts will refer to this navigation element. Required.
Link tag Choose between anchor and option for the HTML tag to be used for this link.
Markup to insert before link Any desired text or HTML that should appear before the first link. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert between links Any desired text or HTML that should appear between links. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert after link Any desired text or HTML that should appear after the last links. By default, this is empty.

B.3.5.4 Add Page Links

The Add Page Links page allows you to access the Page Links page, where you can add page navigation links, and then determine their order.

Figure B-21 Add Page Links

Surrounding text describes Figure B-21 .
Element Description
Add/Remove Page Link Click Add page link to define a page navigation link. By default, no page links are present and so no links will be generated. Highlight a link and click Remove to delete it.
Move Up and Move Down Once page links have been added, their order may be arranged by using these buttons.

B.3.5.5 Page Links

The Page Links page allows you to define page navigation links.

Figure B-22 Page Links

Surrounding text describes Figure B-22 .
Element Description
Link type Defines the link as one of the following types:
  • First page - A link to the first page in the generated output. This is the default.

  • Previous page - A link to the previous page in the generated output.

  • Next page - A link to the next page in the generated output.

  • Navigation page - A link to the navigation page in the generated output. The navigation page is defined under Navigation Layout.

  • Custom link - A link to the specified URL.

URL Required if the Link type option above is set to Custom link.
Link text The text to place between the HTML begin and end anchor tags. This may be any valid HTML, including an <img> tag for a graphic to use as a button for the link.
Add/Remove Custom Attributes Click Add Attribute to add new attributes to include in the HTML anchor tag for the page link. After clicking the button, an entry will appear in the Name/Value table above. Replace the default name with the name of the attribute. Replace the default value with the value for the attribute. As an example, you might choose alt and generated, respectively. Highlight a name/value pair and click Remove Attribute to delete it.
If link is unavailable This option specifies how to handle situations when the given link is unavailable; for example, the Next link is not available when generating the last page of the document. The following choices are available:
  • Suppress link - The Link text is still placed in the output, but without the underlying link. This is the default.

  • Suppress link and text - The Link text is not placed in the output.

  • Provide alternate link - If this option is selected, then the Alternate link options are used instead.

Alternate link options If Provide alternate link was selected above, the following settings become available.

Link type - The following choices are available:

  • First page - A link to the first page in the generated output.

    Navigation page - Replace the link with a link to the main navigation page in the output document layout. Selecting this option requires that a navigation layout be specified under Navigation Layout.

  • Custom link - Specifies that a URL (specified below) will be used as a replacement link.

  • Text only - No link is created. The value of the Link text option set below will be used instead of the normal Link text option value set above. This is the default for this option.

URL - URL to use if the Link type is set to Custom link. This must be set to a valid URL. No default is provided.

Link text - No matter what Link type is chosen, this is the text and/or HTML that will be used for the replacement link. No default is provided.


B.3.6 Section Navigation

Section Navigation provides section-relative navigation. This page has three tabs:

At the top of the page, two items are displayed for all three tabs.

Element Description
Name Name by which the page layouts will refer to this navigation element. Required.
Link tag Specifies whether to use <a> or <option> to enclose the links in this element.

B.3.6.1 Custom Markup Tab

The Custom Markup tab allows you to insert custom markup before or after the set of links.

Figure B-23 Section Navigation - Custom Markup Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-23 .
Element Description
Markup to insert before this set of links Any desired text or HTML that should appear before the set of links. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert after this set of links Any desired text or HTML that should appear after the set of links. By default, this is empty.

B.3.6.2 Navigation Formatting Tab

The Navigation Formatting tab provides you with two different methods to specify the formatting for links.

Figure B-24 Section Navigation - Navigation Formatting Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-24 .
Element Description
Use external CSS class If this option is chosen, then you must enter the name of a class from an external CSS file here. The URL of the external CSS file is specified with the External user stylesheet option set under Output Pages.
Character Formatting Each type of available character-level formatting can be set to one of four values:
  • Always off - Forces the attribute to always be off when formatting the link.

  • Always on - Forces the attribute to always be on when formatting the link.

  • Inherit - In the case of navigation links this has the same effect as Do not specify below.

  • Do not specify - Leave the formatting unspecified. The state of the attribute will depend on the browser's rendering settings.


B.3.6.3 Navigation Markup Tab

The Navigation Markup tab allows you to insert HTML markup before, between, and/or after links.

Figure B-25 Section Navigation - Navigation Markup Tab

Surrounding text describes Figure B-25 .
Element Description
Markup to insert before link Any desired text or HTML that should appear before the first link. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert between links Any desired text or HTML that should appear between links. By default, this is empty.
Markup to insert after link Any desired text or HTML that should appear after the last link. By default, this is empty.

B.4 Output Pages

The Output Pages section contains options for HTML output, including markup items, and formatting of text, page layouts, and navigation layouts. This section of the interface contains the following pages that allow you to customize output:

B.4.1 Output Pages

The Output Pages page allows you to set a variety of options regarding HTML output.

Figure B-26 Output Pages

Surrounding text describes Figure B-26 .
Element Description
Use DOCTYPE Check this option to have the technology insert a DOCTYPE statement at the top of each output file. If CSS is enabled, the HTML generated conforms to the XHTML 1.0 Transitional DTD. If CSS is disabled, HTML 4.0 Transitional-conformant HTML is output. This option is enabled by default.
Language string Specifies the value of the "lang" attribute of the <html> tag. This indicates the primary natural language of the document.
CSS generation This setting specifies whether Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) formatting will be used, and if so, the method of CSS presentation. CSS enables Dynamic Converter to create output with higher fidelity with respect to the source document. Please note that CSS support varies from browser to browser.

This option can be set to the following values:

  • none - only HTML tags will be used for formatting.

  • embedded - CSS styles will be included in the head of each output file.

  • external - CSS styles will be output in a separate file, which is referenced by all output files generated during the conversion.

By default, the CSS is embedded in the HTML of each output file. This reduces the total number of files generated by the conversion, as there is no need to create a separate CSS file. Note that if a style is needed anywhere in the final output of the conversion, it will appear in the style definitions of every HTML file.

External user stylesheet Specifies the URI of a stylesheet to be referenced by the output. This is used in conjunction with the Use external CSS class option in the Character and Paragraph Formatting tabs to allow the template author to control the formatting of the document content. This option is ignored if CSS generation is set to "none".
Output character set This option allows you to specify which character set should be used in the output file. The technology then translates or "maps" characters from the input document's character set to the output character set as needed.
Value for unmappable characters This option specifies the character used when a character cannot be found in the output character set. This option takes the Unicode value for the replacement character specified in hexadecimal (the default value of 2A corresponds to the asterisk ("*") character). It is left up to you to make sure that the selected replacement character is available in the output character set.
Graphics format This option allows the developer to specify the format of the graphics produced by the technology. The following values are allowed:
  • GIF

  • JPEG

  • PNG

  • BMP

  • None

When setting this option, remember that the JPEG file format does not support transparency. In addition, if this option has been set to JPEG it will be overridden and set to None if the OIT option SCCOPT_FILTERJPG has been set to SCCVW_FILTER_JPG_DISABLED.

Interlaced GIF This item is available if you have selected GIF as the Graphics format. Check this box if the output graphic is to be an interlaced GIF.
Output DPI This option allows you to specify the output graphics device's resolution in DPI and only applies to objects whose size is specified in physical units (in/cm). For example, consider a 1" square, 100 DPI graphic that is to be rendered on a 50 DPI device ("Output DPI" option set to 50). In this case, the size of the resulting JPEG, GIF, BMP or PNG will be 50 x 50 pixels.
JPEG Quality If the format selected is JPEG, this allows you to set the quality (1-100) of the JPEGs created by the technology.
Image sizing method This option determines the method used to size graphics. You can choose among three methods, each of which involves some degree of trade off between the quality of the resulting image and speed of conversion:
  • quick

  • smooth

  • grayscale

Custom target attribute Some input documents contain hyperlinks. Template authors may have a preference for the frame or window in which the browser opens the source document links. This option allows the template author to specify a value to use for the "target" attribute of the hyperlinks generated by the technology, and will override any target information from the source document. It does not affect hyperlinks in navigation layout items or markup. If this option is left blank, the "target" attribute will only be set if the source document provides a value for it.

The following are valid values for the "target" attribute in HTML:

  • _blank - The user agent should load the designated document in a new, unnamed window.

  • _self - The user agent should load the document in the same frame as the element that refers to this target.

  • _parent - The user agent should load the document into the immediate FRAMESET parent of the current frame. This value is equivalent to _self if the current frame has no parent.

  • _top - The user agent should load the document into the full, original window (thus canceling all other frames). This value is equivalent to _self if the current frame has no parent.

Format HTML source for readability Checking this option causes the technology to write newlines to the output strictly to make the generated HTML more readable and visually appealing. These newlines only appear in the places where you have set Add a newline before this paragraph.

It is important to note the things that setting this option does not do:

  • While setting this option will make it easier for a human to read the generated markup in a text editor, it does not affect the browser's rendering of the document.

  • This option does not affect the contents of the .css files since they do not contain any text from the source document.

  • The option does not affect spaces or newlines copied from the template as the contents of the template are already under user control.

Show style information Checking this box will cause Dynamic Converter to include information about source document style names and how they are mapped. You can see what format has been mapped to a particular paragraph or text sequence by mousing over it.

B.4.2 Add Output Markup Items

The Add Output Markup Items page allows you to access the Output Markup Items page, where you can add or remove customized markup to output pages.

Figure B-27 Add Output Markup Items

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add This button allows you to add a break or another markup item to an output page. Click the button to add an element of this type.
Remove Highlight an output markup item and click this button to remove markup items that are no longer needed.

B.4.3 Output Markup Items

The Output Markup Items page allows you to define markup to be associated with output items.

Figure B-28 Output Markup Items

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name The name to use for referencing this piece of markup. This field is required.
Markup Enter the HTML to be inserted into the Markup text entry field.
Delete This markup item can be removed by clicking this button. It can also be removed by using the Remove button under Output Markup Items.

B.4.4 Add Output Text Formats

The Add Output Text Formats page allows you to access the Output Text Formats page. Output text formats define text and formatting attributes of output document text. These formats will define such attributes as the font family, size, and color, standard text attributes (bold, italic, underline, etc.) and border attributes to use for tables. This allows the author to standardize the look of the output despite differing formatting styles used by the various authors of the source documents.

Figure B-29 Add Output Text Formats

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add Click the Add button to add a new output text format. The newly added item will appear in the left side tree view and you will be taken to that item for editing. The Default Paragraph format is always available. It essentially instructs the technology to leave the formatting in the output the same way it was in the input documents. See Output Text Formats for details on editing output text formats.
Remove Select an output text format in the table and click Remove to delete it.

B.4.5 Output Text Formats

The Output Text Formats page has two tabs:

B.4.5.1 Output Text Format - Markup Tab

This tab allows you to define custom text formatting markup to be associated with elements in the output pages.

Figure B-30 Output Text Format - Markup Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Name Name to use to refer to this format. This field is required.
Tag name (default = p) The HTML paragraph level tag to put around paragraphs using this format. Note that any tag name may be entered here, whether or not it is legal. Only the tag name should be entered, not the surrounding angle brackets ("<" and ">"). The paragraph tag ("p") is the default.
Add Attribute Adds a new name/value pair to the Custom Attributes table. These attributes apply to the tag whose name was specified by the "Tag name" option above. To set the name and value of the new attribute, just click on them in the Custom Attributes table. By default, this table is empty.
Remove Attribute Highlight an entry in the Custom Attributes table and click this button to remove the entry.
Markup to insert before element HTML (and/or regular text) to write out before all paragraphs using this format.
Markup to insert after element HTML (and/or regular text) to write out after all paragraphs using this format.
Insert a newline in the HTML before this paragraph This option does not affect how the output looks in the browser. Instead, it specifies that a new line be inserted into the HTML before the paragraph to make it easier to view the HTML of the output of the conversion. This new line is only written if the Format HTML source for readability option is set under Output Pages. By default, this option is not set.
This paragraph should begin a new page When set, a new output page is created every time this format is applied to a paragraph. By default, this option is off.
Don't begin a page for the first paragraph of this type If This element should begin a new page is selected, then this option turns that behavior off for the first paragraph only. The purpose of this option is to avoid empty or mostly empty pages at the beginning of the output. By default this option is on when This element should begin a new page is selected, otherwise it is not available and is ignored.

B.4.5.2 Output Text Format - Formatting Tab

You can choose one of two ways to specify the formatting for paragraphs: use an external CSS or define formatting in this page.


Note:

This formatting primarily applies to paragraph styles, though named character styles are also supported. Source documents must be styled correctly in order to enable style overrides from the template. This means that when altering the formatting of a paragraph, the user needs to edit the paragraph style rather than selecting text in the paragraph and manually applying formatting; doing the latter causes the word processor to enclose the text in an unnamed character style. Microsoft Word, for example, indicates this fact by displaying the style as "Heading1+ italic" -- the italic formatting is not part of the style. The correct way to style the paragraph is to create a new "Heading 1(italic)" style and set the formatting attributes accordingly, then apply it to the paragraph.

Figure B-31 Output Text Format - Formatting Tab

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Use external CSS class If this option is chosen then the author must enter here the name of an already defined class from in an external CSS file. The URL of the external CSS file is specified with the External user stylesheet option set under Output Pages.
Character Formatting Each type of character level formatting available here can be set to one of these values:
  • Always off - Forces the attribute to always be off when formatting the text.

  • Always on - Forces the attribute to always be on when formatting the text.

  • Inherit - Takes the state of the attribute from the source document. In other words, if the source document had the text rendered with bold, then the technology will create bold text.

  • Do not specify - Leave the formatting unspecified. In certain cases, this will produce different HTML output than Always off. This is useful when the style will be provided by an external stylesheet.

Paragraph Formatting Paragraph level formatting to apply to the text. The types of formatting available are shown in this section. If the format is mapped to a character style, the paragraph formatting will be ignored.

Note: All colors are specified as an RGB value in the range 000000 to FFFFFF.

Each type of paragraph level formatting available here can be set to one of the following options:

  • Always off - Forces the attribute to always be off when formatting the text.

  • Always on - Forces the attribute to always be on when formatting the text.

  • Inherit - Takes the state of the attribute from the source document. In other words, if the source document had a .5 in indent, then the technology will create a .5 indent.

  • Do not specify - This has the same effect as the Always off option above.

Border use This element lets you specify how to handle paragraph borders. This can be set to one of the following options:
  • Always off - Paragraphs mapped to this format will not have a border.

  • Always on - Paragraphs mapped to this format will have a border, as specified in fields below. CSS must be enabled for this to have an effect.

  • Inherit - Paragraphs mapped to this format will use the borders defined in the source document, if any.

  • Do not specify - Has the same effect as Always off.

Border style/color/width For each border side (Top, Right, Bottom, Left) the following attributes can be specified:
  • Border style - Select one of the allowable border styles.

  • Border color - A color, specified as a hex RGB value.

  • Border width - The border width, specified in one of the valid formats for CSS.


B.4.6 Add Format Mapping Rules

The Add Format Mapping Rules page allows you to access the Format Mapping Rules page. In order to know which text format to use, Format Mapping Rules must be created. Mapping rules pick the formatting based on checking the type of source document text.

Figure B-32 Add Format Mapping Rules

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Add Format Mapping Rule Click this button to add a new format mapping rule.
Move Up and Move Down Once mapping rules have been added, their order may be arranged by using these buttons. The mapping rules are ordered so that the first rule that matches is the one, and only one, that is applied.

For example, a rule may be created for mapping paragraphs in the My Style style. Below that rule, another rule may exist for mapping paragraphs with "outline level 1" applied. An input document may have one or more paragraphs in the My Style style that also have "outline level 1" applied. In this example the technology will only apply the My Style formatting to such paragraphs and ignore the "outline level 1" rule for them.

Remove Highlight a mapping rule and click this button to remove it.

B.4.7 Format Mapping Rules

The Format Mapping Rules page is used to map output text formats to output text.

Figure B-33 Format Mapping Rules

Select Preview Document Dialog
Element Description
Format Choose one of the defined formats to apply when this mapping rule is in effect. The Default Paragraph format is always available and is always the default.
Match on Defines the paragraph formatting information to have the rule check.
  • Outline level - Match the outline level specified in the source document. Application-predefined heading styles typically have corresponding outline levels applied as part of the style definition.

  • Style name - Match the paragraph or character style name.

  • Is footnote - Match any footnote.

  • Is endnote - Match any endnote.

  • Is header - Match any document header text.

  • Is footer - Match any document footer text.

Paragraph outline level If Match on above is set to Outline level, then this defines which outline level to match. This option cannot be set/is ignored for all other matching rules.
Paragraph or character style If Match on above is set to Style name, then this defines which source document paragraph or character style name to match. When matching on style names, the author is required to supply a style name here and no default value is provided. The name must exactly match the style name from the source document. Style name matching is done in a case-sensitive manner. This option cannot be set/is ignored for all other matching rules.

B.4.8 Add Output Page Layouts

The Add Output Page Layouts page allows you to access the Output Page Layouts page. Page layouts are used to organize how the various pieces of the output are arranged.

Figure B-34 Add Output Page Layouts

Surrounding text describes Figure B-34 .
Element Description
Add Click this button to add a new layout. The newly added layout will appear on the left side navigation pane and you will be auto-navigated to the new layout for editing.
Remove Select a layout from the list and click this button to remove it. At least one layout must be defined in the template. To ensure this, the default layout cannot be deleted. You may redefine and/or rename the default layout as desired.

B.4.9 Output Page Layouts

The Output Page Layouts page allows you to define an output page layout and link it to a navigation layout. This is where you define such aspects of the output page as where to place the table of contents. A default layout has been provided for users who need output that is pleasing to the eye, but are not particular about the details of their output. You may create multiple page layouts, which allows you to customize a document navigation system according to file type. Each Document Formatting tab allows you to specify a page layout created here to use for that file type.

Figure B-35 Output Page Layouts

Surrounding text describes Figure B-35 .
Element Description
Name Fill in the name to use to refer to this layout (required). Once this has been done, click on the Plus sign on the left side of the name ("default" in this example) to expand the levels underneath this one.
Include navigation layout This allows you to create a Table of Contents page as a separate file containing markup and links to the document content specified in the page layout. Use of a navigation layout is optional.

B.4.10 Title Source

This page allows you to select where the template will get the value to use for the HTML <title> tag. By default, this is empty for new layouts, although the <title> tag will always be output in order to conform to the DTD. The source of the <title> text will be determined from the child elements present.

Figure B-36 <title> Source

Surrounding text describes Figure B-36 .
Element Description
Add Click this to add places to search for the title. The following sources may be examined:
  • Section Name - Use the title for the current document section. Section titles are not available in all document formats; for example, they are not used in word processing files. Taking the title from the section name is very useful in presentations (the slide title), and spreadsheets and database files (the sheet name). Using the section name works well with output layouts that place one slide/sheet in each output HTML page. In this situation, each page would have a title that matches the title of its contents. If the page layout does not break the document by sections, the name of the first section will be used as the title text.

  • Text Element - Use a text element already defined under Text Elements. Using a text element for the title makes a good fail-safe entry at the bottom of the list just in case all other title sources are undefined/unavailable.

  • Property - Use a document property already defined under Document Property; for example, from the "Title" document property, although any property may be used.

  • Output Text Format - Use text mapped to an output paragraph format already defined under the Output Text Formats. Perhaps, for example, from a format created for text in the "Title" style, although any format may be used. The first non-empty instance of a paragraph in this format is used.

Move Up and Move Down The order that the items are listed in the box matches the search order that Dynamic Converter will use to find the title. If no title is available from the first source on the list, then the next source is checked and so on down the list. Use these two buttons to adjust the order as needed.
Remove Highlight an entry and click this button to remove entries that are not wanted. This removes the entry from the bottom of each page, but clicking this button does NOT remove the definition of the entry.

B.4.11 Navigation Layout

The purpose of the navigation layout is to generate a separate Table of Contents HTML page based on mapping rules defined under Link Mapping Rules. This navigation page becomes the first output file of the conversion and is completely independent of other document page-breaking rules in the output.

The navigation layout triggers the creation of a separate file with links to the actual document content. Only navigation items and markup can be inserted into the body of the navigation layout. Page navigation is not supported in the navigation layout; it is intended for use with document and section layout items.

Use of a navigation layout is optional. If one is used, the author can add a page navigation item, with a navigation page link, to the main layout in order to provide access to the navigation page from the other pages of the output document.

Figure B-37 Navigation Layout

Surrounding text describes Figure B-37 .

There are two layout sections under Navigation Layout: Head and Body.

Layout Sections Description
Head This page defines the content that will be placed in the HTML <head> of all of the output files this layout applies to. The technology automatically places the following in the head:
  • A <meta> tag stating the character set in which the HTML file is encoded.

  • A <title> tag, the contents of which are defined under Title Source.

  • A <meta> tag stating that the HTML was generated.

  • <meta> tags for all document properties defined under Document Property that specify a Meta tag name.

  • If the CSS generation option was selected under Output Pages, then CSS style definitions generated by the technology are included.

  • If the External CSS stylesheet option was selected under Output Pages, then an HTML <link> tag to the user-specified CSS file is included.

  • All markup items listed on this page. Markup items must first be defined under Output Markup Items before they will be available to be inserted here. The markup items specified on this page will appear in the head after all of the auto-generated items listed above. By default, there is nothing listed here.

Body This page defines the content that will be placed in the body of the navigation page created by this layout.

Each layout section contains the following elements to control adding, deleting, and setting the sequence of items.

Section Description
Move Up and Move Down The order that the items are listed in the box matches the order that they will appear at the top of each page. Use these two buttons to adjust the order as needed.
Remove Highlight an entry and click this button to remove entries that are not wanted. This only removes the entry from inclusion at the top of each page, the definition of the entry is NOT removed by clicking this button.
Add Click this to add entries to the top of each page in the layout. The following items may be placed in the top:

B.4.12 Page Layout

The Page Layout page defines how the document contents are arranged in the output HTML pages.

Figure B-38 Page Layout

Surrounding text describes Figure B-38 .

The following two elements control page breaking in the output.

Element Description
Break on sections If set, enables page breaking on document sections. Only applicable for multi-section documents.
Break on pages Enables page breaking based on the document-specific pagination options.

Click on each of the following layout sections to define how document contents are arranged.

Layout Section Description
Head Allows you to add markup items to be placed in the HTML <head> of each output file.
Page Top Allows you to specify items to be placed at the top of each output page. The following items may be placed:
Before Content Allows you to specify markup items to be output before the document content. The following items may be placed:
Before Section Allows you to specify items to be inserted before each section of a multi-section document. Note that this is not applicable to word-processing documents. The following items may be placed:
  • Section Name - The Section name from the input document.

  • Document Property - A document property defined under Document Property.

  • Markup Item - A text and HTML markup item defined under Output Markup Items.

  • Text Element - A text element defined under Text Elements.

After Content Allows you to specify items to be output after the document content. The following items may be placed:
  • Header - The header from the input document.

  • Footer - The footer from the input document.

  • Document Property - A document property defined under Document Property.

  • Markup Item - A text and HTML markup item defined under Output Markup Items.

  • Text Element - A text element defined under Text Elements.

Page Bottom Allows you to specify items to be placed at the bottom of each output page, for example, a copyright notice. The following items may be placed:

B.5 Previewing and Saving your Template

This section covers the following topics:

B.5.1 Previewing the Template XML Structure

The HTML Conversion Editor allows you to preview the XML structure of the template as you create it. This preview lets you see the choices you have made in configuring the template. At the top left of the interface, select Tools > View XML structure. The XML structure viewer window is displayed.

Figure B-39 XML Structure Viewer

This is the XML Structure Viewer.

B.5.2 Previewing a Converted Document

As you configure your template, there is a useful tool that allows you to see how a specified source document would appear after the template is applied.

  1. The first step is to set the document for preview. At the top left of the interface, select Tools > Set Preview Document. The Set Preview Document dialog is displayed.

    Figure B-40 Set Preview Document

    This is the Set Preview Document dialog.
  2. In the Content ID for preview text box, enter the Content ID for a document previously checked into Content Server that you want to preview, and click OK.

  3. Select Tools > Preview conversion. Your default browser is launched and displays a preview of the converted document.

B.5.3 Saving your Template

If you start to exit the HTML Conversion Editor with unsaved changes, a dialog will prompt you to select among three choices:

  • Save & Exit

  • Exit

  • Cancel