How do I format PDF output from DITA?

Report · Mar 29, 2016

I am evaluation FrameMaker. I produced a DITA document that publishes well to HTML formats.

But when I publish to PDF, I don't like the format.

It seems no matter what I do to change paragraph and character formats in WYSIWYG view,

the changes don't stick, but instead revert to the default formats.

What do I need to do to get the PDF output to keep the formatting I set?

Is there a specific template that must be changed?

Thanks for your help.

-Lee

Report · Mar 31, 2016

You have to modify the template that your DITA structured application uses for the topic. I also use composite documents to generate DITA for a full map -- the ditamap template also must be updated.

FrameMaker uses an EDD to map structure to formatting. You might need to modify that EDD to control some of the formatting changes and then import the EDD into your template. You also might need to modify the paragraph format catalog in the template. Then, when Maker opens the DITA topic, it flows the XML into the template, and that should show your changes.

I'm not giving much detail here... All this is covered in the FrameMaker documentation. In my opinion this is easier than using open source DITA tools to set up PDF output. BUt it does take some work.

Hope this helps...

Report · Mar 31, 2016

You might want to have a look at this blog article on customizing FM DITA templates: [Guest Post] “Customize FrameMaker 2015 DITA Templates for your Corporate Design” by Bernard Aschwan...

Report · Mar 31, 2016

Thanks, Arnis Gubins this was exactly what I was looking for -- when I open structured topics, they are formatted correctly.

(I edited the templates in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\AdobeFrameMaker2015\Structure\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template).

But when I save to PDF, it still reverts to some other template. Do you know which one it's using?

Thanks again for your help, Arnis.

Report · May 25, 2016

I had the same problem when I was evaluating FrameMaker.

Although you're using the DITA_1.2 files, FrameMaker still looks at the \xml\DITA folder for outputting maps. Try editing:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\AdobeFrameMaker2015\Structure\xml\DITA\outputTemplates\ditabase.template.fm

I'm using DITA 1.3, so in order to get the PDF to format correctly, I had to edit:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\AdobeFrameMaker2015\Structure\xml\DITA\outputTemplates\ditabase1.3.template.fm

Interestingly, if you delete the xml\DITA folder (rename it would be better), Framemaker is forced to use:

DITA_1.3\app\technicalContent\template\ditabase.template.fm

Report · May 24, 2017

Hi,

I have modified the Framemaker templates according to our corporate style. But when I generated the PDF, the default template (DITA OT plugin) is used. How do we generate the PDF using modified templates of FM?. I used save DITA-MAP as fm components option to generate the bookfile. Again when I save it as PDF, all the individual topic/concepts are created in a separate page. I want to get the PDF output which will have each chapter starting from a new page and individual task/concept topics merging in a respective chapter.

Can anyone help me ? I did read the blog mentioned above. But it only talks about modifying the FM templates. But how do we populate the same in PDF output ?

Report · Apr 27, 2023

I have the same issue and nothing I try gets FM to use the templates I created. Anybody have the answer?

Report · Apr 27, 2023

How are you saving the FrameMaker book as PDF? Did you use File > Publish? Or File > Save As PDF? Both of those should give you WYSIWYG output from FrameMaker.

Report · Apr 27, 2023

Publish.

I can produce the pdf but it uses the default dita template. I created new settings file and checked with components, but it still uses the default.

Btw, this is not the subject of my email but is related.

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Report · Jun 11, 2018

Hi Lee,

Did you get the answer for this?