Formatting conref text so that every insertion of it retains that formatting

Report · Jul 19, 2011

Hi,

(Structured FM V10, DITA V1.2, Windows XP)

I've created several conrefs, and they work fine. But when I apply formatting to the text of a conref in the conref file, that formatting does not stick. I save the conref file, but when I close it and then open it, the formatting of the conref text is gone. Here's the details:

I created a conref called "about". It looks like this:

<ph>About this topic</ph>

I want to use the "step.callouts" style from the F Catalog. I apply the step.callouts formatting, the text is formatted, and all is well. I save the conref file, close it, and then open it, and now the formatting is gone.

So then I tried another tactic. Instead of applying the style from the F Catalog, I use the paragraph designer. I highlight the conref text (still in the conref file), and in the Paragraph Designer, I select Myriad Pro, Italic, SmallCaps, and GrayDark -- now the text looks just like I applied step.callouts to it. I save the file, close it, open it, and again, the formatting is gone!

As an experiment, I tried formatting with bold. I get the following:

<ph><b>About this task</b></ph>

I save the conref file, close it, open it, and now the formatting sticks. I open the topic that references this conref, and sure enough, About this task is in bold. Great, but I don't want it in bold, I want it in step.callouts (Myriad Pro, Italic, SmallCaps, and GrayDark). So how do I do this?

Report · Jul 19, 2011

Hi Capt...

You can't apply character or paragraph formatting to XML files .. only elements. You need to set up the EDD to apply named styles based on the element context. If you need to have special cases, you can use the @outputclass attribute and set that to a specific value, then have the EDD context rules match on that value and apply the necessary formatting.

Cheers,

...scott