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Configuring and Managing Multiple CSS Styles for a Framework

Oxygen XML Author provides a Styles drop-down menu on the toolbar that allows you to select one main (non-alternate) CSS style and multiple alternate CSS styles. This makes it easy to change the look of the document as it appears in Author mode.

An example of a common use case is when content authors want to use custom styling within a document. You can select a main CSS stylesheet that styles the whole document and then apply alternate styles, as layers, to specific parts of the document.

Note: When altering a CSS file configured as a stylesheet for the current document framework, you can quickly check its effects in the Author mode by using the Reload document action that is available on the toolbar.

Managing the CSS Styles

The main and alternate styles that are listed in the Styles drop-down menu can be controlled in the Document Type configuration dialog box. To access it, follow these steps:
  1. Open the Preferences dialog box .
  2. Go to Document Type Association.
  3. Select the appropriate document type and click the Edit button.
    Important: If you do not have access rights to the folder where the framework files are stored, you can either elevate read/write permissions on that framework folder or you can extend the framework and customize the CSS stylesheets in the extension. If you want to share the customized extension with the rest of your team, see Sharing the Extended Framework.
The CSS styles (CSS files) associated with the particular document type are listed in the CSS subtab of the Author tab.
Figure 1. Main and Alternate CSS Styles in the Document Type Configuration Dialog Box

You can Add, Edit, or Delete styles from this dialog box to manage the main and alternate styles associated to the particular document type. You can also change the order of the styles by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. This also changes the order that they appear in the Styles drop-down menu. The alternate styles are combined with the main CSS sequentially, in the order that they appear in this list. Therefore, if the same style rules are included in multiple CSS files, the alternate style that is listed last in this list takes precedence, since it is the last one to be combined (applied as a layer).

The URI column shows the path of each CSS file. The names listed in the Styles drop-down menu match the values in the Title column. The value in the Alternate column determines whether it is a main or alternate CSS. If the value is no, it is a main CSS. If the value is yes, it is an alternate CSS and the style can be combined with a main CSS or other alternate styles when using the Styles drop-down menu.
Note: To group alternate styles into categories (submenus), use a vertical bar character ( | ) in the Title column. You can use multiple vertical bars for multiple submenus. The text before each vertical bar will be rendered as the name of a submenu entry in the Styles drop-down menu, while the text after the final vertical bar is rendered as the name of the style inside the submenu.

Example: Suppose that you want to add two alternate stylesheets in separate submenus, with the Title column set to My Styles|User Assistance|Hints and My Styles|User Actions|Inline Actions, respectively.



Oxygen XML Author will add a My Styles submenu with two submenus (User Assistance that contains the Hints style, and User Actions that contains the Inline Actions style) in the Styles drop-down menu.



The Enable multiple selection of alternate CSSs checkbox at the bottom of the pane must be selected for the alternate CSS styles to be combined. They are applied like layers and you can activate any number of them. If this option is not selected, the alternate styles are treated like main CSS styles and you can only select one at a time. By default, this option is selected. There are also a few options that allow you to specify how to handle the CSS if there are CSS styles specified in the document. You can choose to ignore or merge them.

The following rules apply for merging CSS styles:
  • CSS files with the same title will be merged.
  • CSS files without a title will contribute to all others.
  • They are merged sequentially, in the order that they appear in the list.