Author Preferences

Oxygen XML Editor provides an Author mode editor that provides a configurable graphical interface for editing XML documents. To configure the options for the Author mode, 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 currently 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 gray box and displays 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 at the bottom of the editor.
Show block range: When this option is selected, a block range indicator is displayed in a stripe located in the left side of the editor. It is displayed as a heavy line that spans from the first line to the last line of the block.
Display referenced content (entities, XInclude, DITA conref, etc.): When enabled, the references (such as entities, XInclude, DITA conrefs) also display the content of the resources they reference. If you toggle this option while editing, you need to reload the file for the modification to take effect.

Images Section

The following options in regards to images in Author mode are available in this section:

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 Editor may consume all available memory, throwing an OutOfMemory error. To resolve this, increase the available memory limit. and restart the application.

Format and Indent Section

In this section you can configure options in regards to the formatting and indenting that is applied when a document is saved in Author mode, or when switching the editing mode (from Text to Author, and vice versa). The following options are available:

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 also applies to the DITA maps opened 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.

Also apply 'Format and Indent' action as in 'Text' edit mode: If this 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.

Compatibility with other tools

Use this option to control how line breaks are handled when a document is serialized. This will help to obtain better compatibility with other tools. You can choose between the following:

None - The default formatting is used.
Do not break lines, do not indent - Choose this option to avoid breaking lines after element start or end tags and indenting will not be used.
Note: New lines that are added by the user in elements where the xml:space attribute is set to preserve (such as pre elements in HTML, or codeblock elements in DITA) are still inserted. Also, selecting this option automatically disables the Also apply 'Format and Indent' action as in 'Text' edit mode option, since the formatting from Text mode does not take the CSS styles into account.
Break lines only after elements displayed as blocks, do not indent - Choose this option to instruct Oxygen XML Editor to insert new lines only after elements that have a CSS display property set to anything other than inline or none (for example, block, list-item, table, etc.) and indenting will not be used. When selecting this option, the formatting is dictated by the CSS.
Note: New lines that are added by the user in elements where the xml:space attribute is set to preserve (such as pre elements in HTML, or codeblock elements in DITA) are still inserted. Also, selecting this option automatically disables the Also apply 'Format and Indent' action as in 'Text' edit mode option, since the formatting from Text mode does not take the CSS styles into account.

Tags Section

In this section you can configure the following options in regards to tags that are displayed in Author mode:

Tags display mode

Sets the default display mode for element tags presented in Author mode. You can choose between the following:

Full Tags with Attributes - All XML tags are displayed, with attribute names and values, making it easier to transition from a Text-based editing to Author mode editing.
Full Tags - All XML tags are displayed, but without attributes.
Block Tags - The XML tags that enclose block elements are displayed in full. Compact tags (no element names) are displayed for inline elements.
Inline Tags - The XML tags that enclose inline elements are displayed in full. Block tags are not displayed.
Partial Tags - Partial tags (no names) are displayed 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 mode tags background color.

Tags foreground color

Sets the Author mode 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.

Configure annotation tooltip

Click this link to open the Annotations Preferences page.

For advanced Author configuration see the Document Type Association settings

Click this link to open the Document Type Association preferences page.