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Changing the Look of DITA Documents in Author Mode Using the Styles Menu

The Author mode renders the content of the DITA documents visually, based on CSS stylesheets associated with the document.

Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin 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.

Figure 1. Styles Drop-down Menu in a DITA Document

You can use the Styles drop-down menu to select a main css style that applies to the whole document and then select one or more alternate css styles that behave like layers and are merged sequentially with the main style. Each of the styles that are listed in this drop-down menu have a corresponding CSS file that defines how your documents are rendered in Author mode and in the output. Also, the selections from this drop-down menu are persistent, meaning that Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin remembers them when subsequent documents are opened.

Unique CSS Styles for DITA

Oxygen XML Author Eclipse plugin comes with a set of built-in CSS layer stylesheets for DITA documents (as well as some that are specifically for DITA maps).

Some of these unique alternate styles for DITA documents include:
  • Hints - Displays tooltips throughout DITA documents that offer additional information to help you with the DITA structure.
  • Inline actions - Displays possible elements that are allowed to be inserted at various locations throughout DITA documents.
  • Inline insertion actions - Displays a widget () near each empty paragraph that makes it easy to insert DITA elements (for example, to insert lists, notes, or tables).
Tip: For information about configuring the Styles drop-down menu, see Configuring and Managing Multiple CSS Styles for a Framework.