Style Sample FAQs

Microsoft Word-based Style Sample FAQs

My style sample document has a custom style. Will that style be preserved in the report package?

Yes. If your report package style sample document has a custom style, the style is preserved and can be used in any doclets in your report package, as long as you include an example of the custom style in the document. For example, if your report package style sample document has a custom style called "Headline", enter text in the Headline style in your sample document before you upload the style sample to ensure that any doclets that authors download can also use the Headline style.

My doclet has a custom style. Will that style be preserved in the report package?

If an individual doclet has a custom style that is not included in the report package style sample document, the style is preserved only for that doclet. Any other doclets in the report package will not have that style available to them. For example, if your doclet has a custom style called "Section Header", but the report package style sample does not, that doclet can use the "Section Header" style but no other doclet can. To make the custom style available to all doclets in the report package, add the custom style to the report package style sample document and upload the style sample again.

My style sample document contains a style that I have modified from Microsoft Word’s default style. Will the style be preserved in the report package?

If you have modified one of Microsoft Word’s default styles, you must create an example of that style within your document in order for the modified style to be preserved. For example, you have changed Heading 1 and Heading 2 to include numbers in your style sample document. If you were to upload the style sample document without using those headers somewhere within the document, the system would override the changes with Word’s default Heading 1 and Heading 2. You must create an example of Heading 1 and Heading 2 in the document in order for the changes to be preserved.

When I uploaded a doclet, the beginning text from my doclet was merged into the ending text from the preceding doclet. How do I ensure that my doclet begins on a new page?

By default, a doclet gets merged with the preceding doclet without a page break between them. This occurs because doclets can be defined at the paragraph level, and multiple doclets can appear as one page in the final report. If you want to force a doclet to begin on a new page, you must insert a page break at the beginning of the doclet in Microsoft Word before you upload it to the report package.

Similarly, to ensure that the text from another doclet is not appended to the end of your doclet text, insert a page break at the end of your doclet before you upload it to the report package.

Note:

You can also insert a page break to ensure that a doclet in Landscape orientation does not get merged into a doclet in Portrait orientation. By default, the style sample will ensure that all pages have the same orientation, but a doclet author can override the style sample setting. Use page breaks to ensure that pages with different orientations do not get merged together.

My doclet has multiple section breaks. Does the style sample get applied to each section?

If your doclet has multiple section breaks in Microsoft Word, when you upload it, the style sample gets applied to the first and last sections only. This enables you to customize your doclet without having the page settings for each section overridden by the style sample. For example, your doclet could consist of:

Some introductory text
A chart in landscape mode
A paragraph explaining the chart that is centered on the page
Some closing text

If there are section breaks in Word between each element, the style sample will be applied to the first and last section only, leaving the formatting for the other two sections (the chart in landscape mode and the center-justified explanatory text) intact.

How do I ensure that the line numbers in my doclet continue numbering from the previous doclet?

If your doclet uses the Line Numbering feature in Microsoft Word, as some legal documents do, then when you upload the doclet to the report package you can use the Line Numbering doclet attribute in these ways:

If the report package style sample does not use line numbering, and your doclet does, select the Line Numbering check box to preserve line numbering for your doclet.
If the report package style sample uses single line numbering, but your doclet numbers every other line, select the Line Numbering check box to continue numbering every other line in your doclet, or clear the check box to override the doclet attribute and number every line.

How do I ensure that a numbered list in my doclet restarts the numbering and does not continue from a previous doclet?

When doclets with numbered lists are merged together within the report package, the first list entries within a doclet will default to "continue from the previous list" and the numbering will continue from the prior doclet entries. If you would like the numbering to start a new list within your doclet, perform the following workaround.

Add a new entry to your list as the first entry.
Select the second list entry and update the "Set Numbering Value" to "Start a New List" and set the "Set value to: 1" appropriately.
The second entry should now show the list restarting.
Delete the first entry in the list.
This will save the set numbering override within the doclet file.
Upload and Check-in your doclet.

I uploaded the previous version of my report as the style sample for the current version, and now it takes several seconds to add doclets to my report package.

Uploading a large file as your style sample can affect system performance when you add doclets. Use a file that is only large enough to contain the page settings that you want your report to have. To use a previous version of a report, consider deleting all but the relevant pages that contain the styles that you want to use.

Microsoft PowerPoint-based Style Sample FAQs

When I try to add a doclet, I get the following error, "The uploaded PowerPoint document contains a Slide Master whose size is different from the Sample Style. Ensure that the size setting of the Slide Master matches that of the Sample Style".

The doclet slides must be sized the same as the report package style sample slides in order to upload a doclet. For example, if your doclet slides are sized for On-Screen Show (4:3) and the report package style sample slides are sized for On-Screen Show (16:9), you must resize your doclet slides before you can upload the doclet.

I modified a slide in my doclet from the default slide layout. When I uploaded the doclet, my changes for that slide were not preserved.

When you upload a doclet to the report package, the system resets all slides to their default layouts. If you have modified any slides from the default slide master layout, those modifications are reset back to the default. For example, if you have changed the size of a text box on a slide to make room for an image, the text box is reset to its original size when you upload the doclet. However, you can add additional layouts to the doclet slide master, and those new layouts are persisted within the doclet. Therefore, if you want to preserve the modified text box size, you must add that layout to the doclet slide master.

As an example, you are working with a doclet with a slide layout called Title and Content that contains a text box that spans the entire slide. You want to resize the text box to cover half of the slide so that you can add an accompanying image. If you were to resize the text box, add the image, and upload the doclet, the system would reset the slide back to the Title and Content default layout, and the text would overlap the image. Instead, add a new slide layout (called, for example, Title, Text, and Image) with the resized text box. When you upload the doclet, the new slide master is copied over and persisted for that doclet.