Legacy PDF output reference

Review this information to learn more about generating PDF documents with the Rational® Publishing Engine Legacy PDF driver.

Purpose

To output the template into a .pdf document.

Choosing between the PDF drivers

In Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.2, the default PDF driver produces version 1.5 PDF files. This is the same PDF driver that was called New PDF driver in the 1.1.2.1 release. You can still choose to use the Legacy PDF driver. In Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.1 and earlier, the Legacy PDF driver is the default driver and produces version 1.4 PDF files. You can choose to use the new PDF driver.

If you create a document specification in Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.1 or earlier and open it with Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.2, the PDF settings are migrated to the version 1.1.2.2 PDF and Legacy PDF settings. If you create a document specification in Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.2 and open it with Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.1 or earlier, the Legacy PDF driver is used by default. If both the PDF and Legacy PDF drivers were configured in the version 1.1.2.2 document specification, two PDF driver instances are created and are the same. If this duplication occurs, you can delete the duplicate driver from the document specification.

Template elements

Table 1. Template elements available to use for the Legacy PDF output format
Element Description Can contain other elements Can contain data
Paragraph icon Paragraph Use to group a section of elements. Adds a carriage return around its child elements in the output. Yes No
Container icon Container Use to group a section of elements. Cannot be styled and does not affect the formatting of the output.
When used inside other elements, the child elements available to use within the container might be limited. For example:
  • Inside rows, containers can host cells only
  • Inside lists, containers can host list-detail elements only
Yes No
Text icon Text The content renders with the same, specified formatting. No Yes
Styled text icon Styled text A block of text that can have unique formatting on individual words. Use bold, italic, underline, strikeout, or color formatting on a selection of words within the element. The text is static. No Yes
Hyperlink icon Hyperlink Creates a hyperlink in the output. The hyperlink can point to a location inside the document or to an external location. No Yes
Image icon Image Displays as an image in the output. The document designer can specify the image path in the template or the document generator can specify the path at run time. No Yes
Table icon Table Creates a table in the output. A table can contain rows or container elements. Yes No
Row icon Row Creates a row in the current table. Yes No
Cell icon Cell Creates a cell in the current row of the current table. Yes No
List icon List Creates a bulleted or numeric list in the output. Yes No
List detail icon List detail Creates a list item in the current list in the output. Yes No
Data Source configuration icon Data source configuration See Creating dynamic data elements to define at run time. No No
Include file icon Include file Includes the specified file in the output as an INCLUDETEXT field.
  • For Microsoft Word output, the included file can have a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf extension. You must update all fields in the Microsoft Word document to see the included file.
  • For PDF output, the included file can have a .doc or .docx extension.
  • For Legacy PDF, HTML, and XSL-FO output, the included file is a hyperlink to the document.
No Yes
Region icon Region Regions are static elements that allow you to alter the output flow by redirecting the contents of other elements or groups of elements at their position. If an element has the target region property specified with the name of a region element, its content renders in the specified region instead of in its position in the document. No No
Bookmark icon Bookmark Defines a bookmark in the document. The name of the generated bookmark is the content for the bookmark. When generating the documents, Rational Publishing Engine generates a unique name for each bookmark. The name is based on the name provided at design time and a unique identifier generated at run time. No Yes
Page Break icon Page Break Adds a page break to the output. No No
Section Break icon Section Break Adds a section break to the output. No No
Table of Contents icon Table of Contents Adds a table of contents to the output. No No
Page Number icon Page Number Adds a page number in the output. Supported in Microsoft Word and PDF output only. No No
Total Pages Number icon Total Pages Number Adds the total number of pages in the output. Supported for Microsoft Word and PDF output only. No No

Element properties

Review these notes to understand more about specifying the element properties in templates that are designed to generate Legacy PDF documents.

Table 2. Cell properties
Cell properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
You must specify a value for the border width to create a border in the output.
Cell alignment This property specifies the position of the text within the cell. The justify value is not supported for this output format.
Col span The borders between cells are removed. All rows and columns must contain the same number of cells. Additional columns might be added when you apply a column span. Avoid overlapping spans. Avoid overlapping spans.
Row span The borders between cells are removed. All rows and columns must contain the same number of cells. Avoid overlapping spans.
Table 3. Figure caption properties
Figure caption properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.
Field code Do not use for this output format.
Table 4. Image properties
Image properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.
Table 5. List properties
List properties Notes
Numbering style You can use the following styles:
  • Bullet: Unordered lists
  • Arabic: Numbered lists

Lowercase roman, uppercase roman, lowercase alpha, and uppercase alpha numbering styles display as Arabic numbers.

Numbering character spacing You must specify a value.
Table 6. List-detail properties
List-detail properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.
Table 7. Page number properties
Page number properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.
Table 8. Paragraph properties
Paragraph properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
You must specify a border width value between 1 and 30 pixels to create a border in the output.
Paragraph alignment Space the text across the page with a certain alignment.

Left, right, and center alignment, creates uneven paragraph edges, fitting as many words in a paragraph as possible. Justify creates even paragraph edges by inserting additional space between words on all lines except the last line.

Do not use distributed for this output format.

Widow/orphan control When set to true, the line spacing is adjusted to prevent the following formatting results:
  • A single word ending a paragraph on a new line
  • A single line ending a paragraph on a new page

When set to false, spacing is not adjusted.

Table 9. Row properties
Row properties Notes
Break across pages When set to true, the content of a row that comes at the end of a page is split, if necessary. The content that does not fit on the page carries over onto the next page as a new row.

When set to false, the content of a row that comes at the end of the page is not split. The whole row carries over onto the next page.

Table 10. Table properties
Table properties Notes
Autofit to contents Resizes the table to fit the content each cell contains. When you use this property, also set the Resize to fit contents property to true.
Autofit to window Specify values for the column widths.
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
You must specify a value for the border width to create a border in the output.
Cell spacing Specify a value in pixels to create white space between the cell border and the cell content.
Fixed cell width Specify a value in pixels to ensure that all of the cells in a column are the same width.
Internal links Do not use for this output format.
Resize to fit contents When the value is true, and the width and autofit to window are cleared, the column width is adjusted to fit the content. If autofit to contents is set, you must set resize to fit contents to true.

When the value is false, clear the width and autofit to window properties for the table. The table is generated with the default column size of one inch.

Table auto fit When set to true, the table is resized to fit the width of the page. When resize to fit contents is also set to true, cell widths are ignored and the table is resized to match the content.

In Rational Publishing Engine 1.1.2.1 and earlier, you can enter fixed column width as a value. In 1.1.2.2, you cannot enter fixed column width as a value. Use the fixed cell width property instead.

Table 11. Table caption properties
Table caption properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.
Field code Do not use for this output format.
Table 12. Text properties
Text properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
You must specify a border width value between 1 and 30 pixels to create a border in the output.
Table 13. Total pages number properties
Total pages number properties Notes
Border width
  • all borders width
  • top border width
  • right border width
  • bottom border width
  • left border width
Do not use for this output format.

Include file element

The way that include file elements are handled depends on the output format. For Legacy PDF, HTML, and XSL-FO output, the included file is a hyperlink.

Heading styles

To use the predefined heading styles for Microsoft Word (Heading 1, Heading 2, ... , Heading 9) and HTML (H1, H2, ... , 9), use the style name 1,2, to 9. PDF and XSL-FO output formats do not have heading styles; however, Rational Publishing Engine uses internally defined heading styles.

Unicode data in output

All Unicode data is rendered if the font that is used supports Unicode.
  • For PDF output, additional configuration is necessary. See the PDF output settings for details. If you used a non-Unicode font, generate the document again using True Type Unicode fonts and set the appropriate output properties.
  • For Microsoft Word output, if you used a non-Unicode font, change the font in the output document after document generation.
  • For HTML output, if you used a non-Unicode font, change the font family in the style sheet after document generation.

Table of contents

Each heading in the table of contents must be associated with a page number.

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