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Release of Open Source XMLmind DITA Converter v3.7

November 20, 2019

Submitted by Hussein Shafie, XMLmind Software.

Release of Open Source XMLmind DITA Converter v3.7

Converts the most complex DITA documents to production-quality XHTML, HTML, Web Help, Java Help, HTML Help, Eclipse Help, EPUB, PDF, PostScript, RTF, WML, DOCX, ODT. A serious alternative to the DITA Open Toolkit. Free, open source, software.

Change history

Enhancements:

  • Upgraded XMLmind Web Help Compiler (whc for short) to version 3.0. The Web Help generated by whc v3 gets a fresh new look. Moreover:
    • It is now “responsive” by default, that is, it adapts its layout to the size of the screen (e.g. it can adapt to the screen of a smartphone in portrait mode). This feature is controlled by new parameter wh-responsive-ui.
    • It does not leverage jQuery UI anymore (only jQuery now). However some new parameters (e.g. -p wh---navigation-background-color "#F6F8FA") may be used to override most fonts and colors used in the generated Web Help.
    • New parameter wh-ui-language may be used to specify the language used by the messages of the generated Web Help (tab labels, button tool tips, etc). The default is to use the language of the Web browser.
  • The CSS stylesheet used by default when generating any of the XHTML-based output formats (except Java™ Help) has also been “modernized”.
  • Any XHTML-based output format: it's now much easier to customize the look of the XHTML pages generated by ditac. This is done using new XSLT stylesheet parameter custom-css.
  • Upgraded Saxon to version 9.9.1.5.

Incompatibilities:

  • Web Help output format: the following XSLT stylesheet parameters, all related to jQuery UI, are not supported anymore: wh-jquery-css, wh-jquery-custom-theme, wh-jquery-theme, wh-jquery-ui.
  • Any XHTML-based output format: XSLT stylesheet parameter css-name is not supported anymore. The stock CSS stylesheet is now stored in a file called "base.css" and this, whatever the XHTML-based output format.


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