Chapter 5. Customizing an existing configuration
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## Chapter 5. Customizing an existing configuration

This chapter is not a tutorial. It will merely give you some recipes. If you want to understand what you are doing, please refer to Writing a configuration file for XXE.

Let's suppose you want to customize one of the DITA[5], DocBook 5, DocBook 4 or XHTML configurations, here's what to do.

1. Create in ``XXE_user_preferences_dir`/addon/`[6] a subdirectory which will contain all the files comprising your customization.

   The name of this directory is not important. Let's suppose you have created ``XXE_user_preferences_dir`/addon/custom/.`

2. Copy one of the following template files depending on which configuration you want to customize:

   Configuration Name | Procedure
   --- | ---
   DITA | Copy 0topic.xxe to `custom/`.
   DITA Map | Copy 0map.xxe to `custom/`.
   DITA BookMap | Copy 0bookmap.xxe to `custom/`.
   DocBook v5+ | Copy 0docbook5.xxe to `custom/`.
   DocBook | Copy 0docbook.xxe to `custom/`.
   XHTML Strict | Copy 0xhtml_strict.xxe to `custom/`.
   XHTML Transitional | Copy 0xhtml_loose.xxe to `custom/`.
   XHTML 1.1 | Copy 0xhtml11.xxe to `custom/`.
   XHTML 5 | Copy 0xhtml5.xxe to `custom/`.

   For example, `0docbook5.xxe`[7] looks like this:

       <configuration name="DocBook v5+"
         xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/schema/configuration"
         xmlns:cfg="http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/schema/configuration"
         xmlns:db="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
         xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
         xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
         xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
         xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

         <include location="docbook5-config:docbook5.xxe" />

       </configuration>

3. This step involves adding one or more configuration elements after the `include` element. This is done using any XML or text editor. Each of the following sections describes a common customization step.

4. Restart XXE.

[5] The configuration associated to DITA topics is called `DITA`. The configuration associated to DITA maps is called `DITA Map`. The configuration associated to DITA bookmaps is called `DITA BookMap`.

[6] `XXE_user_preferences_dir` is documented in 1.

[7] The ``funny'' name, starting with a "`0`", has its utility if you happen to create your customization in ``XXE_install_dir`/addon/` rather than in ``XXE_user_preferences_dir`/addon/`.

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