Introduction

Oxygen XML Editor/Author offers built-in support for transforming DITA content into WebHelp, PDF, ePub, and plain HTML output. This support is also available as a separate toolkit for easy integration with an automated process. This means you can use an integration server to run the transformations and publish the output or simply use it from a command-line interface. Note that this application requires its own license key.

From a technical standpoint, the Oxygen Publishing Engine is an archive that contains a DITA Open Toolkit distribution with Oxygen publishing plugins already integrated.

Single-Styling and Single-Source Publishing

WebHelp output for DITA consists of a series of responsive HTML5 pages, neatly integrated into a system that offers a table of contents, index navigation, search capabilities, and various other features. The WebHelp Responsive system features a very flexible layout and is designed to adapt to any device and screen size to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience. It is based upon the Bootstrap responsive front-end framework and a template mechanism that allows you to control the position of various functional components in the output to suit your particular requirements.

The PDF output is based on an intermediate HTML5 format, very similar to the structure of the HTML pages from the WebHelp system. This means that you can easily customize both types of output at once, using a common CSS file.

Read more about customization

Visual Customization Tool: Oxygen Styles Basket

To help you develop a custom CSS for styling your WebHelp and/or PDF output, the web-based Oxygen Styles Basket application was created. It is based on galleries that you can use to pick and mix styles until you get the desired look and feel. You simply select from the available options for various aspects of the output (such as fonts, tables, lists, spacing, code) and then download the generated CSS file. You can even upload a CSS file that was previously created in the application and continue changing it. This application is available free of charge at: https://styles.oxygenxml.com.

The Oxygen Styles Basket application is only compatible with the latest release of Oxygen XML Editor.

Integrate the Oxygen Feedback Commenting Component in Your WebHelp Output

Oxygen Feedback is a modern comments management platform that provides an efficient way for your community to interact and offer feedback. You can integrate it with your WebHelp Responsive output to provide a comments area at the bottom of each WebHelp page where readers can add new comments or reply to existing ones.

Oxygen Feedback includes a modern, user-friendly administration interface where you can moderate comments, manage users, view statistics, and configure settings. It is very easy to integrate and there are no requirements for installing additional software. You simply need to create an Oxygen Feedback site configuration in the administration interface, copy the HTML installation fragment that is generated at the end of the creation process, and paste the generated fragment in the Feedback tab in the WebHelp transformation scenario dialog box.