Author Preferences

Oxygen XML Author provides and author mode editor which provides a configurable graphical editing interface to XML documents. To configure the Author mode preferences, open the Preferences dialog box and go to Editor > Edit modes > Author.

The following options are available:

• Author default background color -Sets the default background color of the Author editing mode. The background-color property set in the CSS file associated with the current edited document overwrites this option.
• Author default foreground color - Sets the default foreground color of the Author editing mode. The color property set in the CSS file associated with the current edited document overwrites this option.
• Show XML comments - When this option is selected, XML comments are displayed in Author mode, otherwise they are hidden.
• Show processing instructions - When this option is selected, XML processing instructions are displayed in Author mode, otherwise they are hidden.
• Show doctype - When this option is selected, the doctype declaration is displayed in Author mode;, otherwise it is hidden.
• Show placeholders for empty elements - When this option is selected, placeholders are displayed for elements with no content to make them clearly visible. The placeholder is rendered as a light grey box displaying the element name.
• Show Author layout messages - When this option is selected, all errors reported while rendering the document in Author mode are presented in the Errors view.
• Show block range - When this option is selected, a block range indicator is shown in a stripe located in the left side of the editor. The block range indicator is displayed as a heavy line that spans from the first line to the last line of the block.
• Display referenced content (e.g.: entities, XInclude, DITA conref, etc.) - when enabled, the references (like entities, XInclude, DITA conref) also display the content of the resources they reference. If you toggle this option while editing, reload the file for the modification to take effect.
• Auto-scale images wider than (pixels) - Sets the maximum width at which an image will be displayed. Wider images will be scaled to fit.
  • Show very large images - When this option is selected, images larger than 6 megapixels are displayed in Author mode, otherwise they are not displayed.
    Important: If you enable this option and your document contains many such images, Oxygen XML Author may consume all available memory, throwing an OutOfMemory error. To resole this, increase the available memory limit. and restart the application.
• Format and indent - here you can set the format and indent method that is applied when a document is saved in Author mode, or when switching the editing mode (from Text to Author or vice versa):
  • Only the modified content - the Save operation only formats the nodes that were modified in the Author mode. The rest of the document preserves its original formatting.
    Note: This option applies also to the DITA Maps open in the DITA Maps Manager.
  • The entire document - the Save operation applies formatting to the entire document regardless of the nodes that were modified in Author mode.

    If the Apply also 'Format and Indent' action as in 'Text' edit mode option is enabled, the content of the document is formatted by applying the Format and Indent rules from the Editor/Format/XML option page. In this case, the result of the Format and indent operation will be the same as when it is applied in Text editing mode.

• Tags display mode - Sets the default display mode for element tags presented in Author mode. You can choose between:
  • Full Tags with Attributes - All XML tags are shown, with attribute names and values, easing the transition from a Text based editing to an Author mode editing.
  • Full Tags - All XML tags are shown, but without attributes.
  • Block Tags - The XML tags that enclose block elements are shown in full. Compact tags (no element names) are shown for inline elements.
  • Inline Tags - The XML tags that enclose inline elements are shown in full. Block tabs are not shown.
  • Partial Tags - Partial tags (no names) are shown for all elements.
  • No Tags - No tags are displayed. This representation is as close as possible to a word-processor view.
• Tags background color - Sets the Author tags background color.
• Tags foreground color - Sets the Author tags foreground color.
• Tags font - Allows you to change the font used to display tags text in the Author visual editing mode. The [Default] font is computed based on the setting of the Author default font option.
• Compact tag layout - When you deselect this option, the Author mode displays the tags in a more decompressed layout, where block tags are displayed on separate lines.