Graphical User Interface

XSL Formatter V3.4 Windows version has a Graphical User Interface (GUI). By using the GUI, you can easily initiate formatting and then view the formatted results on the browser prior to outputting to PDF or print. You also have control over a number of formatting options, can set the options for PDF output and can direct files to any connected printer.

For developers the GUI provides quick visual feedback of formatting results and has the added ability to save Area and FO Trees to aid in the development processes. In a large multi page document the pages can be browsed as they are formatted. If errors are detected Formatting can be stopped prior to completion, thus on very large runs saving considerable time.

The GUI also lets you save the resulting XSL-FO file from XSLT. This is very useful when you want to transmit a file for formatting, but not the XML or XSL files.

The application window of XSL Formatter V3.4 consists of following elements.

1. Title Bar

   The title bar shows the name of the original file being formatted; the stylesheet (XSL file) if formatting an XML file; and if in the FO file fo:title or if axf:document-info extension property, the content will also be shown (fo:title takes priority).

   

2. Menu Bar

   The menu bar contains the following 5 pull-down menus:

   • File
   • Move
   • View
   • Format
   • Help
   
   
3. Tool Bar

   The most commonly used menu functions are available as buttons on the Tool Bar. You can easily execute these functions by one click of the mouse.

4. Status Bar

   The Status Bar displays the following information.

   • Current status of Formatter or the tool bar button function as you pass over the button with the pointer.
   • Current page number/total number of pages (based on physical page count).
   • The physical page size of the displayed page.
   • Zoom ratio.

   

5. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)

   The WYSIWYG displays the formatted results. The bottom and right scroll bars let you scroll around the displayed page when it displays off the screen in zoom mode. When the scroll bar is displayed, you can use the hand tool as the mouse pointer on the WYSIWYG window to move the page around so that you can view all the areas on it while pressing the left mouse button.

   You can format an FO document by dragging and dropping it on the GUI. In addition, it's possible to execute XSLT transformation and formatting of an XML document by first dragging and dropping an XSL stylesheet and then the XML file. Formatting starts immediately after the XML file is dropped on the GUI. If you drag and drop the XML document first the dialog box to "Open Stylesheet" will appear. When you select the appropriate XSL file the formatting will start. See also the Document/Stylesheet Dialog for specifying the stylesheet.

   When a mouse is pointed on an area on the screen such as a character string or an image, the information about the area is displayed as a ToolTip. Font name, size, format and size of an image that are actually used can be checked.

   

   The WYSIWYG can also be used to view/preview any graphics supported by XSL Formatter V3.4 by dragging and dropping the Graphics onto the window (see graphics file).

6. Log Window

   The log window shows a running status as the document is formatted. Minor warnings are shown here. Serious warnings are shown in a popup dialog box. The log window can hold a significant amount of status information. Older information is discarded if the information becomes too much. The final line of information is the time it took to format the document. The log window has its own scroll bar for viewing the information.

   

   The content in the log window can now automatically be saved to a file by click the Others tab in the Other settings dialog and then checking the [Output Log File] check box.

When exiting XSL Formatter V3.4, the position and the size of the GUI are stored. Formatter restarts at that same position and size.

1. File

   Menu	Shortcut	Description
   Open...	Ctrl+O	Displays the Document/Stylesheet Dialog.
   Save AreaTree...	Ctrl+A	Displays the Save AreaTree Dialog. no-LT
   Save FOTree...		Displays the Save FOTree Dialog.
   Save FO...		Displays the Save FO Dialog.
   Edit Document		Edits the target XML document or stylesheet using the editor specified in the external editor page in the Other Settings Dialog.
   Edit StyleSheet
   Print...	Ctrl+P	Displays the Print Dialog.
   PDF Output	Ctrl+D	Displays the PDF Output Dialog.
   SVG Output...		Displays the SVG Output Dialog.
   Document Information...		Display the Document Information Dialog. V3.4
   Import Option Setting...		Displays the Import Option Setting Dialog.
   Export Option Setting...		Displays the Export Option Setting Dialog.
   <Recent File>		Displays the files that are recently formatted.
   Exit	Alt+F4	Exits XSL Formatter V3.4.

   
   
2. Move

   Menu	Shortcut	Description
   First Page	Ctrl+Home	Goes to the first page.
   Previous Page	Ctrl+PageUp	Goes to the previous page.
   Next Page	Ctrl+PageDown	Goes to the next pate.
   Last Page	Ctrl+End	Goes to the last page. When you stop formatting before finishing, the last formatted page will be displayed.
   Go To Page...	Ctrl+G	Displays the Go To Page Dialog. This only functions in multi page documents. The current page position is shown in the Status Bar.
   Back	Alt+Left	As you move through the pages of a document Formatter stores up to 10 moves. By using the Back and Forward you can step backwards or forwards through the pages viewed. If you format again, Formatter will display the first page of the document. Back will take you to the last displayed page prior to formatting.
   Forward	Alt+Right
   Search String...	Ctrl+F	Displays the Search String Dialog.
   Search Property...	Shift+Ctrl+F	Display the Search Property Dialog.
   Search Previous	Shift+F3	Searches previous from the position just before the search position.
   Search Next	F3	Searches next from the position just before the search position.
   Page Limit...	Ctrl+L	Displays the Page Limit Dialog.

   
   
3. View

   Menu	Shortcut	Description
   Fit in Window	Ctrl+V	Zooms the displayed size of the formatted page to automatically fit the entire page in the window.
   Fit Page Width	Ctrl+W	Automatically zooms the width of the formatted page to the width of the window.
   Zoom In	Ctrl+1	Changes the zoom ratio as follows. 400% 300% 200% 150% 125% 100%  75%  66.7%  50%  33.3%  25%  12.5% Values from 5% to 1000% can be entered in the Zoom Dialog. The current zoom ratio is shown in the Status Bar.
   Zoom Out	Ctrl+2
   Zoom...	Ctrl+0	Displays the Zoom Dialog.
   Show Border	Ctrl+B	Used to confirm how the formatted result is divided in areas. The border does not affect PDF Output or Print.
   Border Color...		Displays the Color Dialog. Possible to specify the border color.
   Show Printer Mark		Effective when formatting the document that includes printer marks. Specifies whether to display printer marks or not.
   Display Glyph		Available to see if the character is displayed with the font actually specified. In Windows, a font sometimes may be replaced, and such a character is not outputted correctly in the PDF.
   Tool Bar		Specifies whether to show or hide the Tool Bar.
   Status Bar		Specifies whether to show or hide the Status Bar.
   Log Window		Specifies whether to show or hide the Log Window. The log window is automatically displayed when execute formatting.

   
   
4. Format

   Menu	Shortcut	Description
   Format	F5	Formats the current document (FO or XML+XSL).
   Stop Format	ESC	Stops formatting. In a large multi page document the pages can be browsed as they are formatted. If errors are detected Formatting can be stopped prior to completion.
   Format Option Setting...	Shift+Ctrl+O	Displays the Format Option Setting Dialog.
   PDF Option Setting...	Shift+Ctrl+P	Displays the PDF Option Setting Dialog.
   Other Settings...		Display the Other Settings Dialog.

   
   
5. Help

   Menu	Shortcut	Description
   Online Manual	F1	Displays this Online Manual.
   Q&A		Displays the Q&A on the Internet.
   Mail to Support		Sends mail to Antenna House Support. The necessary information such as serial number, etc., is embedded automatically. It's not available with the evaluation version and XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite.
   Antenna House website		Displays the Antenna House website on the Internet.
   About XSLFormatterV3...	Shift+F1	Displays the About Dialog of XSL Formatter V3.4.

   
   

Used to specify the target FO or XML and XSL. The FO or XML document is specified in the Document combo box. If an XML document has been selected then the XSL stylesheet or the Project file needs to be specified in the Stylesheet box. The Project file is a file used in Antenna House XSL Report Designer. FO files can only be specified in the document box. Specified files can reside on the local file system, the network or over the internet. Files over the internet can be specified with a URL via HTTP.

Local files can also be specified by a URL format starting with file://. Under the each edit box, the directory or the base URL is displayed, which indicate the base directory when the relative path is specified.

Recent used files are listed in the Document drop-down list. Only the XML documents are listed even though the stylesheets are also specified in pairs. However the target stylesheet can be inserted in the Stylesheet combo box automatically when the document is selected.

Click [OK] to start formatting.

In XSL Formatter V3.4 it is not necessary for an FO file to have a ".fo" extension. Formatter determines the file type based on its content. If from within an XML document a stylesheet is called, then it is not necessary to separately specify a stylesheet. The specified stylesheet is automatically adopted.

The AreaTree is an XML representation of the formatted document that includes all the page geometry and layout information. Since all formatting information and all information necessary for formatting is included in the area tree it is a very useful tool for stylesheet developers. Press the [Save] button to save the area tree. An area tree XML file can be opened using the current browser, e.g. MSIE. It's possible to format an area tree by specifying it in the document combo box of the Document/Stylesheet Dialog. Caution: Area trees can be very large. Under normal circumstances they should not be modified as the reformatted results cannot be guaranteed.

It's not available to save and load the area tree with XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite.

In processing an FO or XML and XSL file Formatter first complete the FO file by adding properties, adding the elements omitted in the loaded FO or the resulting FO of the XSLT transformation and removing unused elements. The area tree is generated by evaluating this completed FO. Press the [Save] button to save the FO that was made at this time. If you format a document from the area tree, this menu cannot be selected.

This menu item lets you save an FO file that is the result of the XSLT transformation of the XML and XSL files that is being formatted. This menu is only available for files formatted from XML and XSL files.

The print Dialog lets you output the formatted result to any printer installed or accessible from your Windows system. The user can select to print all pages, a range of pages, or selected pages. If formatting is not completed in the GUI Formatter reformats the document from the beginning for output to the printer. For this reason it may take more time to output to a printer than the GUI. The border used to confirm how the formatted result is divided in areas does not affect Print Output.

See also Restrictions regarding print.

The PDF Output Menu enables outputting the formatted results to PDF by using the PDF output engine developed by Antenna House. Through the menu a user can select to output the entire document or selected range of pages. If formatting is not completed in the GUI then Formatter reformats the document from the beginning for output to PDF. For this reason it may take more time to output to a PDF file than the GUI. The border used to confirm how the formatted result is divided in areas does not affect PDF Output.

• Multi Volume

  When FO includes the axf:output-volume-info extension property which enables to output volume separately, it's effective to check. By checking here, the output volume can be separated.

• Output Range

  Specifies the number of volumes when outputting in multi separate volume, and specifies the number of pages for others. If the specified value in [End(E)] is O or larger than the actual number of volumes or pages, the output range continues to the end.

• Embed All Embeddable Fonts

  Embedding fonts in a PDF makes it possible to create a PDF that can be browsed anywhere and independent of the fonts available on the local machine. This is particularly important when generating multilingual PDF files. The negative is that is can substantially increase the size of the PDF file.

• Embed Standard 14 Fonts

  Usually, Standard 14 Fonts are not embedded even if the [Embed All Embeddable Fonts] check box is checked, However, by checking the [Embed Standard 14 Fonts] check box, Standard 14 Fonts can be embedded.

• Text and Line-Art Compression

  Selecting this option makes the PDF file more compact by compressing the text and line-art.

• Fast Web View no-LT

  Generates Linearized PDF. In PDF's character, it cannot be optimized unless once usual PDF is generated. Therefore, although the generation of the Linearized PDF requires time rather than usual, the display of the generated PDF on the Web will be in high-speed.

• Open PDF

  Opens the created PDF using the application associated with extension .pdf (in many cases, it is Adobe Acrobat or Reader).

Changes made in this dialog are temporary and do not affect the much more comprehensive PDF Option Settings File under the Format Menu. Please specify the detailed settings regarding PDF output in the PDF Option Setting Dialog.

The SVG Output Menu enables outputting the formatted results to SVG by using the SVG output engine developed by Antenna House. Through the menu a user can select to output the entire document or selected range of pages. If formatting is not completed in the GUI then Formatter reformats the document from the beginning for output to SVG. For this reason it may take more time to output to a SVG file than the GUI. The border used to confirm how the formatted result is divided in areas does not affect SVG Output.

• SVG Version

  Specifies the type of SVG to output.

• Output Range

  Specifies the range to output. This feature is not available with the evaluation version.

• GZIP Compression

  Outputs GZIP compressed svgz. The extension is set to .svgz.

• Embed Fonts

  Embeds fonts in SVG. This feature is not available with the evaluation version.

• Output to Single File

  Specifies whether pages are outputted as one SVG file, or each page is outputted as an individual file when outputting two or more pages. When outputting two or more SVG, page numbers are placed before the extension of the output file name. For example, if the specified file name is document.svg, page numbers are put as document1.svg, document2.svg,... The number format can be set in Option Setting File, etc.

• Open SVG

  Opens the created SVG using the application associated with extension .svg.

Changes in this dialog are temporary and are not reflected to the Option Setting File. See also SVG Option in the Other Settings Dialog.

The information of axf:document-info in FO is displayed. The content can be changed here, and it can be reflected to the output PDF. The content of the change is not reflected in former FO. Refer to axf:document-info for details. V3.4

This enables you to load an Options Setting File with previously saved preferences from the Option Setting Dialog. By default if the XfoSettings.xml file exists in the same directory where XSLFormatter.exe is installed the XfoSettings.xml is automatically loaded at startup as the options setting file.

Writes the current setting to the Option Setting File. Most of the setting contents can be referred to in the Option Setting Dialog.

Specify a sequence of characters to search. This dialog continues being displayed until it closes. When some characters have found in the last searching, It start searching from the following character. For example, when ABCDE is searched and is found, the next searching starts from B. When having found nothing, the searching begins from the first or the last page. In order to cancel the highlight of a searching result, please click anywhere on the GUI screen.

• Ignore Case

  Searches a sequence of characters without distinguishing upper-case and lower-case. It is applied to all Latin alphabets, Cyrillic alphabets, etc. that have upper and lower case characters.

• First Page / Last Page

  When these check boxes are checked, It starts searching from the first or the last page. When the Reverse check box is unchecked, the display of the check box on the left side changes to [First Page]. When the Reverse check box is checked, the display of the check box on the left side changes to [Last Page].

• Reverse

  When the [Reverse] check box is checked, it starts searching toword the first page.

This search function has the following limitations.

• Impossible to search neither what has been deleted such as a white space, nor the strings summarized to one.
• Impossible to search the strings whose spelling has changed by the hyphenation.
• Impossible to search the strings whose spelling has changed by the hyphenation.

Specify a property to search. This dialog continues being displayed until it closes.

• Underline / Line Through / Overline / Revision Bar

  Specify a property to search.

• First Page / Last Page

  When these check boxes are checked, It starts searching from the first or the last page. When the Reverse check box is unchecked, the display of the check box on the left side changes to [First Page]. When the Reverse check box is checked, the display of the check box on the left side changes to [Last Page].

• Reverse

  When the [Reverse] check box is checked, it starts searching toword the first page.

Used to specify the page number to go to and can be from 1 to the total number of formatted pages displayed in the Status Bar.

This is used to control the maximum number of formatted pages for a very large document that a user wants to make available for display in the GUI. A large amount of memory is necessary to display a large number of pages. By specifying an appropriate value it is possible to improve the efficient working of the system. See also Restrictions for more detail.

Specifies the zoom ratio. Can be set from 5% to 1000%.

By default if the XfoSettings.xml file exists in the same directory where XSLFormatter.exe is installed the XfoSettings.xml is automatically loaded at startup as the Options Setting File. If you want to load the other setting file, click Import Setting Files on the File menu.

Through the Format Option Setting Dialog, formatting items in the Option Setting File can be modified. Once changes are made through the Format Option Setting Dialog, click [OK] to write the changed items to the XfoSettings.xml file that exists in the same directory where the XSLFormatter.exe is installed. Next time XSL Formatter V3.4 is started the saved settings will be used.

Font Setting

Format Setting

Color, Border, Unit

Page Setting

XSLT Setting

PDF Option Settings are stored in the XfoSettings.xml as part of the Option Setting File which is loaded at Formatter starting-up.

Changes to the PDF Option Setting Dialog can be saved to the Option Setting File by selection [OK] after changes are made. This writes the changes to the XfoSettings.xml that exists in the same directory where the XSLFormatter.exe is installed.

Font

Security

Compression

Others

SVG Option

Editors

Window

Others

Displays the version of XSL Formatter V3.4 and the license information. If you are using an evaluation license the evaluation period remaining can be confirmed here.

The GUI program XSLFormatter.exe can be invoked with parameters.

• Only one of the -d, -p, -pt parameters can be specified.

The GUI has certain formatting restrictions that do not apply when using the other interfaces.

• The maximum number of pages that can be formatted is controlled by the [Page Limit] setting on the Move menu. This is because storing formatted pages for browsing in the GUI consumes memory. For very large documents the system would run out of memory without this restriction.

  When using one of the other interfaces it's possible to format a very large number of pages because the information of already formatted pages is aggressively discarded while formatting.

  In the GUI all pages can be outputted to PDF or the printer regardless of this limitation.

• Windows functions are used for EMF and WMF drawing on the GUI. For this reason there may be a case that the formatted results in GUI and the formatted results in the PDF may be different. The same applies to the printing of EMF and WMF using Windows printer drivers from GUI or the Command-line Interface.

• There may be a case that the SVG drawing in GUI and in the PDF may be different.

• There may be a case that fonts displayed in an image are dropped when outputting to PDF. This is because Windows might substitute the fonts. It is necessary to specify the proper font-family in the FO in order to avoid this.

• Sometimes the GUI may not properly display the entire ascenders and descenders portions of Arabic and Thai characters. The PDF output should still be correct.