Solved: Highlighting text in Arbortext Editor 6.1 F000

eraj · ‎Jul 24, 2014

Hi,

We used to work with MsWord where we used "highlight text fucntionality" to identify the paragraph, sentence that need to be modified or reviewed later on.

But as we moved to Arbortext, authors are finding it impossible to markup/highlight text that are not finalised.

Is there a similar function in Arbortext we could use to identify text within an element (e.g <para>) as "not final".

Is there a way to highlght text in Arbortext?

This could be a great help and reduce intermediate authoring in word only to be copied to Arbortext later on.

Thanks,
Edwin

SuzanneNapoleon · ‎Aug 04, 2014

Create a graphic for the icons

1. Create a graphic file with two icon images for two highlighting colors. The example below uses yellow and red background colors. Each icon should be 16 x 16 pixels with a magenta background color. For an example, see ToolbarApplication.bmp in the Arbortext Editor\lib\dialogs directory.

2. Name the graphic file ToolbarHighlight.bmp and put it in the Arbortext Editor\custom\dialogs directory.

Add the icons to the Application toolbar

1. Go to Arbortext Editor\lib\dialogs and copy editwindow.xml.

2. Paste the copy of editwindow.xml in Arbortext Editor\custom\dialogs.

3. Open the new editwindow.xml in Arbortext Editor and make the following changes:

3.1. Insert an <imagelist> element in <imagegroup> between <imagelist path="ToolbarApplication.bmp> and <imagelist path="Toolbar Record.bmp>.

3.2. On the new <imagelist> element, set imagewidth=16 and path="ToolbarHighlight.bmp".

3.3. Within <imagelist path="ToolbarHighlight.bmp">, insert an <image> element and set id="imageHighlightYellow".

3.4. Insert another <image> element and set id="imageHighlightRed". The new code should look like this:

3.5. Locate <button id="Toolbar_Paragraph"> at the end of <toolbar id="toolbar4"> and insert a <checkbox> element.

3.6. Modify the attributes on <checkbox> as follows:

<checkbox command='td _font -none;it _font; mt BackColor="#FFFF00"'

id="highlight_Yellow" image="imageHighlightYellow"
statustext="Yellow highlighting" tiptext="Yellow highlighting">
</checkbox>

Note: You can use whatever wording you want for the statustext and tiptext attributes.

3.7. Copy the modified <checkbox> and paste it after itself and change the attributes as follows:

4. Save editwindow.xml and exit Arbortext Editor.

5. Start Arbortext Editor and open a document. If the toolbar is not displayed, enter the following at the command line: set toolbar4=on.

6. Select some text and click on the icon for yellow highlighting. The selected text will be displayed with a yellow background. The <_font> Touchup tag is there but is not shown.

7. Select some text and click on the icon for red highlighting. The selected text will be displayed with a red background. Again, the <_font> Touchup tag is there but is not shown.

If you want an icon to insert a <_font> tag that opens the Font dialog, create the desired graphic image and add it and the following to editwindow.xml:

<checkbox command="td _font -none;it _font;mt" id="font_Dialog"

image="imageFontDialog" statustext="Font Dialog" tiptext="Font dialog">

</checkbox>

Good luck!

Suzanne

View solution in original post

GarethOakes · ‎Jul 24, 2014

Yes, you can insert what is called "touchup". Touchup is not related to the elements of the DTD but is an Arbortext-specific way of marking up changes to font, colour, etc. I don't have Arbortext in front of me right now but it should be under the Insert or Format menu perhaps.

Note that Arbortext also supports change tracking if that is more closely aligned with your needs.

eraj · ‎Jul 25, 2014

Thanks for pointing to some workaround. We could adapt such features in Arbortext to our need.

It would have been better if PTC pulled in this simple MS Word feature.

GarethOakes · ‎Jul 26, 2014

I might have misunderstood your question. What does "been better if PTC pulled in this simple MS Word feature" mean? I don't see how Arbortext Editor text highlighting is different from MS Word text highlighting (except for the different buttons to click)?

Or do you mean that you would like to import MS Word to Arbortext with highlighting? Or do you mean copy/paste from MS Word is not retaining highlighting?

eraj · ‎Aug 04, 2014

The highlight fucntion is different in the sense it is not straight forward as in case of Table cell highlighting from color pallet.

It would be easy and simpler if I select text and select a color from the pallet to apply to the text.

SuzanneNapoleon · ‎Jul 27, 2014

Arbortext Editor has a tag to highlight text. Select Format->Touchup->Font..., which will insert a <_font> tag and display a Font dialog where you can select the highlighting, such as yellow shading, and any other font properties you want. If Touchup is not listed in the Format menu, enter the following at the command line:

set fullmenus=on

Note that you don't have to use the Format menu every time. Instead, you can create a user-defined tag (UDT) based on the Font Touchup tag with the highlighting you chose. You can name this tag "highlight" or "not-final" or any name not already used.

For example, to define a user tag named "highlight":

1. In the Edit window, click after the <_font> tag you inserted and modified and then enter the following at the command line:

dft

2. In the Tag Definition dialog that appears, click on "<font> with local mods," enter "highlight" as the New Tag Name, and click on OK.

To insert a <highlight> user-defined tag:

1. In the Application toolbar, click on the icon for the Insert Markup dialog.

2. In the dialog that is displayed, use the pulldown menu to select User Tags and see that the <highlight> tag you created is listed. Click on the tag name and then on Insert. Anything typed within the <highlight> tag has the formatting you chose.

You can also insert a <highlight> tag using the comand line. For example, enter:

it highlight

In addition, a keymapping can be created to insert the <highlight> tag. For example, enter the folowing at the command line:

map F4 it highlight

Then you can just press F4 to insert the <highlight> tag.

Note that you can create more than one UDT of the <_font> tag with different properties. For example, a "critical" tag could be created with red shading.

A toolbar icon can be added to insert the <highlight> tag. You could have an icon for yellow shading and an icon red shading.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

A user-defined tag is saved with the document. To apply to all documents, a UDT can be added to the documents used for new template and sample documents.

A keymapping entered at the command line ends with the session. However, a keymapping can be included in start-up files so it is always available.

SuzanneNapoleon · ‎Jul 29, 2014

I should add that the <_font> tag does not have to be visible. The following tag display command in a startup file will hide the <_font> tagdd, but the highlighted text will be shown.

td _font -none

eraj · ‎Aug 04, 2014

Thanks. This comes closer to what we are after.

It is interesting to note we can creata tool bar icon for different shading.

"A toolbar icon can be added to insert the <highlight> tag. You could have an icon for yellow shading and an icon red shading."

Any help on how to do this?

I am out of office with no access to Arbortext at the moment.

SuzanneNapoleon · ‎Aug 04, 2014