Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

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technopsis
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:47 am

Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

Post by technopsis »

Hello... Few quotes from D2H online documentation, and few appended questions. My objective is to use own custom corp. template, as both source and target.
Thank you.

“You should always create your documents with the source templates provided by Doc-To-Help and edit the source document as desired; this will guarantee full Doc-To-Help functionality.”

“You can create your own custom source templates. If you do this, it is recommended that you make copies of an existing Doc-To-Help template to edit rather than creating a template from scratch. This is because Doc-To-Help templates use several proprietary styles and bookmarks to ensure that your output builds correctly.”

“If you use Doc-To-Help to create custom templates for these documents rather than using Doc-To-Help's standard templates. It is recommended that you make copies of an existing Doc-To-Help template to edit rather than creating a template from scratch. This is because Doc-To-Help templates use several proprietary styles and bookmarks to ensure that your output builds correctly.”

My queries:

- What features are embedded in a D2H template that would be compromised? And how to avoid losing them?
- If using custom source template, could it be specified as the target template? There is no cause why should one use two different looking templates, unless building multiple PDF targets of different styling.
SKamprowski
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 277
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:25 am
Location: Germany

Re: Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

Post by SKamprowski »

Hi,

you might have found the answer meanwhile: Please take a look into one of MadCaps Sample programs. D2HML-Styles make the difference between sources and targets.
Kind regards,
Sabine Kamprowski
DocToHelp MVP (by ComponentOne)
technopsis
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:47 am

Re: Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

Post by technopsis »

Hello Sabine

I share the concerns of this post. I'm a new user with primary objective to prove concept of Word single sourcing in the context of and R&D project. I'm not able to generate "Manual" output in Word/PDF and a case is open that couldn't be resolved yet in spite of effort exerted by tech. during a long screen share session.

I find statements in the "Documents, Templates, and Content Guide" manual (pp. 23-29) somewhat confusing, I summarize my observations below:
- Why, for purpose other than using C1H styles, is the user “recommended” to use or start with one of D2H template? The phrase “recommended” is fluid without an explanation; especially that it's understood that it's also OK to develop own templates from scratch. Where are the limitations other than w.r.t. C1H styles, which I won't use before having full control over the transformation process itself.
- Why is it also “recommended” to use the pairing target template for each D2H source template?
- How does the style mapping work between source and target documents? For the target template styles to be applied to certain chunks of the source document, it has to translate the style of that chunk (say as “BodyText” or “Heading”) to the target style, and hence it looks up the source template to identify the mapping. Meanwhile, we say to the user that source templates are “for your eyes only”, which makes sense only to the editor but not to the template designer.

Thanks & regards,
Khaled Aly
technopsis
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:47 am

Re: Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

Post by technopsis »

Hello Sabine, MadCap's support team

Could you please respond to my elaborated queries...?

Thanks & best regards,
Khaled Aly
SKamprowski
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 277
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:25 am
Location: Germany

Re: Custom (source) and target templates for PDF output

Post by SKamprowski »

Hi Khaled,
- Why, for purpose other than using C1H styles, is the user “recommended” to use or start with one of D2H template? The phrase “recommended” is fluid without an explanation; especially that it's understood that it's also OK to develop own templates from scratch. Where are the limitations other than w.r.t. C1H styles, which I won't use before having full control over the transformation process itself.
-
Actually, this is the only limitation I see.
Why is it also “recommended” to use the pairing target template for each D2H source template?
I experienced that users want to see their content during writing in a similar way it will appear in their manual. Manual is the only target type that has pairing templates to source templates.
- How does the style mapping work between source and target documents?
Doc-To-Help replaces styles found in source documents by styles it finds in target template. If there is no style with the same name it copies the style into the target document. This might look different due to Word's inheritance of style properties.
For the target template styles to be applied to certain chunks of the source document, it has to translate the style of that chunk (say as “BodyText” or “Heading”) to the target style, and hence it looks up the source template to identify the mapping. Meanwhile, we say to the user that source templates are “for your eyes only”, which makes sense only to the editor but not to the template designer.
Sorry I have no idea what you want to say with your last sentence.
Kind regards,
Sabine Kamprowski
DocToHelp MVP (by ComponentOne)
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