how to customize the TOC of the PDF output

Hi...

Regarding questions about DITA-FMx, you might get a wider array of responses if you post to the dita-fmx-users Yahoo group.

I'll try to respond to each of your questions, but some of these are fairly complex issues, beyond the scope of a forum post.

- PDF bookmarks (the links in the navigation pane on the left) are generated from the text of the paragraphs that are used to generate them (specified in the Bookmarks tab of the PDF Setup dialog). The text of those headings does not (in your case) contain the chapter numbering, so it won't show up in the bookmark. You'll need to revise the way your headings are created to get chapter numbering in the bookmark text. It is important to differentiate between the Bookmarks and the TOC .. they are two completely different things and created by different processes.

- You'll need to set up special "component templates" for the preface and notices components, then enable the "Apply Templates" option in the Book Build options dialog (or set up a bookbuild INI file to enable that option). These component templates would be named "tpl~preface.fm" and "tpl~notices.fm" and should be copied into your "component templates" folder (as defined in the bookbuild INI file). These templates would contain special EDD rules to apply a different title style so they aren't picked up by the TOC template generation process as a "chapter". You'll also need to modify the reference page of the TOC template ("gentpl~toc.fm") so it honors these new title styles that you use for the new templates.

- I'm not sure which aspect of the "Appendixes, Glossary, Abbreviation" components is incorrect in the TOC (are they in the "Appendix"?) .. but all of the numbering for components would be handled by appropriate sections in the bookbuild INI file. If these components aren't showing up in the TOC, you may need to set up component templates for them and you may need to update the reference page of the TOC template so it includes additional heading styles.

Keep in mind that most of this work is standard, unstructured, generated list template work that has little to do with DITA or DITA-FMx. The main difference is that in unstructured FM, you'd just modify the book file manually. With DITA-FMx you need to make those changes to the ditafmx-bookbuild.ini file. With both DITA-FMx and unstructured FM, you need to make sure there is a generated list template that is set up to handle the heading styles that you want to show up in the generated list file (TOC, Index, etc.). Part of the DITA-FMx book-build process allows you to apply alternate templates to different components based on their "map element type" (preface, notices, chapter, appendix, etc.). When you enable the option to apply the templates, you just have to make sure there are templates available to be applied. The default DITA-FMx Book application contains a folder called "component-tempaltes" that includes some samples for toc, index, chapter and appendix .. if you have other map element types, you'll need to make your own component templates.

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice

Leximation, Inc.

www.leximation.com