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Hi,
We currently use Editor and Print Composer to produce print and PDF manuals. I'm being asked about change page capability for an upcoming RFQ and what we might need to support that. Would that be DTD and style sheet dependent only or do we need another product completely?
I've looked at the PTC product pages and have to admit I'm not sure what the differences are between PE and APP. I can see that APP comes in desktop and enterprise flavors. But I also don't see anything about change page capability on either product.
I was hoping maybe someone on the forum could point me to a good comparison chart or perhaps share a little insight on the differences if you have experience with them.
Thanks,
KM
Hi again,
Thanks for the great information, Gareth. That goes some way to helping me.
As a matter of fact, I did see the "Change Page for Defense" product in the PTC matrix and noticed that it only supported Editor 5.3/5.4. It happens that the dtd we are looking to support is MIL-STD-3001 so maybe that would have supported what we are looking to do for our customer? Are you saying that it is no longer for sale at all, or that it will never be updated to support Editor 6?
Paul,
I have to confess I'm not sure exactly what APP is - a different type of print engine?
We use Print Composer in both node-locked and floating versions to support multiple authors and most of our stylesheets are FOSI, but we do also use some XSL stylesheets as well with it and they work OK if that means anything although we usually have to tweak things a bit.
Suznne,
Thanks for the info and pdf link. That was interesting and definitely helps me understand the differences. It also confirms for me that APP probably isn't the way I want to go with this. I am waiting for info from my reseller regarding the Change Page app - it looks like that requires purchasing PE so I'm sure the price tag is steep. I would love a solution that would work with Print Composer so I will likely be getting back to you on this for more information about your proof-of-concept.
Thanks,
KM
Gareth,
Thanks for the explanation and history - it was illuminating!
I'm assuming then that Print Composer has support for either FOSI or APP? do you need Styler in order to create style sheets with APP?
Great write up Gareth! 🙂
I have been meaning to finish my 'common misconceptions about APP' article on our site for some time, it will get out of draft status one day!
If they are of use to anyone here, some existing related content:
http://www.tformat.com/resource/Arbortext_APP_Evolution_EN.pdf
http://www.tformat.com/resource/Arbortext_StylerAdvFmt_EN.pdf
Cheers
Chris
Hi Kim
RE: Styler and APP templates...
Styler uses APP.ddl for Print/PDF output by default, so it does create underlying APP JS-FOM stylesheet code. And you can 'save-out' stylesheets (templates in APP) from Styler to enhance/modify them in APP desktop for features not exposed to the Styler UI. Although if you need to do this to a great extent its probably best advised to start from scratch in APP desktop to give your the Architectural freedom this permits!
Regards
Chris
In Reply to Kim McCain:
Gareth,
Thanks for the explanation and history - it was illuminating!
I'm assuming then that Print Composer has support for either FOSI or APP? do you need Styler in order to create style sheets with APP?