The Style Sheet File option under the Output Tab can be used to override the font styles used to output headings and text in order to produce highly customized output.  This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for creating your own custom output style sheet — an advanced feature that is targeted towards technically-savvy users.

Generating Annotated Output

Sample output style sheets that you can use to create your own custom file can be found in Samples\Output Style Sheets folder of your TechWriter installation (typically C:\Program Files\Adivo TechWriter 2009\Samples\Output Style Sheets).  The samples will include the following style sheet files:

DefaultOutputStyles.xsl

RedOutputStyles.xsl

BlueOutputStyles.xsl

GreenOutputStyles.xsl

Starting with a Sample File

Each output style sheet must contain a complete set of all styles and properties in order to be considered valid.  For this reason it is recommended that you start with one of the sample files and adjust the style settings as needed. 

Output style sheet files are XSLT style sheets that can be edited using a plain text editor such as Notepad.  The style sheet contains an XSL attribute-set to represent each of the following supported styles:

Style	Description
Heading1	Used for level 1 headings.
Heading2	Used for level 2 headings.
Heading3	Used for level 3 headings.
Heading4	Used for level 4 headings.
CodeListing	Used for code listings.
Normal	Used for normal paragraphs and text blocks.
TocTitle	Used for the Table of Contents title.
Toc1	Used for the level 1 Table of Contents entries.
Toc2	Used for the level 2 Table of Contents entries.
Toc3	Used for the level 3 Table of Contents entries.
Toc4	Used for the level 4 Table of Contents entries.
Title	Used for the document title.
Subheading	Used for subheadings within a topic.
TableHeading	Used for column headings of a table.
IndexHeading	Used for index group heading.
IndexTerm	Used for index term.
IndexPage	Used for index page references.
Header	Used for page headers.
Footer	Used for page footers.

Each XSL attribute-set contains set of attributes to represent the following CSS font properties: 

CSS Property	Description
font-family	Specifies the font family to use for the style.  May include alternative font families by using a comma to separate the names.
font-style	Specifies whether the font is italic or normal.  Must be set to either italic or normal.
font-weight	Specifies whether the font is bold or normal.  Must be set to either bold or normal.
font-size	Specifies the size of the font to use for the style.  Must be specified using points (pt) as the unit of measure.
color	Specifies the color to use for the style.  Must be set to a valid CSS color name or #RRGGBB value.

 

Note:  The font families that are supported vary by output format.   For example, PDF and XPS output formats are limited to the following font families:

• Courier New
• Arial
• Verdana
• Times Now Roman

In cases where none of the font families specified are supported by the output format, a default font family will be used.

Modifying a Style

Using the copy of the style sheet that you created, locate the attribute-set for the style you wish to change.  Below is an example attribute-set for the Normal style:

<xsl:attribute-set name="Normal">
    <xsl:attribute name="font-family">Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="font-style">normal</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="font-weight">normal</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="font-size">10pt</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="color">Black</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:attribute-set>    

 

 

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