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XMLmind XSL-FO Converter

XMLmind XSL-FO Converter is an XSL-FO processor similar to Apache FOP, RenderX XEP or Antenna House XSL Formatter. Unlike the aforementioned processors which all renders XSL-FO as PDF and PostScript®, XMLmind XSL-FO Converter converts XSL-FO v1.0 to the following formats:

  • RTF (can be opened in Word 2000+),
  • WordprocessingML (can be opened in Word 2003+),
  • Office Open XML (.docx, can be opened in Word 2007+),
  • OpenOffice (.odt, can be opened in OpenOffice.org 2+).

In other words, XMLmind XSL-FO Converter translates one format, XSL-FO v1.0, to the file formats of the two most commonly used word processors, Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer.

item How it works.
item Some of the problems solved by XMLmind XSL-FO Converter.
item Why choose XMLmind XSL-FO Converter?

How works XMLmind XSL-FO Converter
Click to enlarge.
See also RTF in MS-Word 2000, WML in MS-Word 2003, Open XML in MS-Word 2007, OpenDocument in OpenOffice.org.

One technology but two platforms, two editions and three software distributions

  • The XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine is available in two versions, targeted at the Java 1.4+ Platform and the Microsoft .NET 2.0+ Framework respectively.
  • The XMLmind XSL-FO Converter product is available in two editions: Personal Edition and Professional Edition. Personal Edition is free of charge but is restricted to non-commercial use. Moreover, the files it generates contain a small, non-obtrusive stamp found at the bottom of the footer of each page. Professional Edition has of course no such restrictions.
  • The XMLmind XSL-FO Converter product is available as three software distributions: the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine, XMLmind XSL Utility, XMLmind XSL Server. In principle, each distribution serves a different purpose and hence targets a different audience. However feel free to download all the three distributions if you want.
v4.6.1 (March 23, 2012): XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server:
  • now integrate much improved XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac) v2.2;
  • use new XSLT 2 stylesheets allowing to convert XHTML 1.0, 1.1 and 5.0 documents to PostScript, PDF, RTF, WordprocessingML, Office Open XML (.docx) and OpenOffice (.odt).

    These XSLT 2 stylesheets support a large number of parameters. They make an extensive use of xsl:attribute-sets. Last but not least, by default, CSS styles specified in XHTML style attributes, style and link elements also apply to the XSL-FO file generated by these XSLT 2 stylesheets.

v4.6 (December 15, 2011): Highlights:
  • New extension attribute xfc:outline-level may be used to mark a fo:block as a heading having an outline level. (Specifying outline levels allow, for example, to use the Document Map and the Outline View in MS-Word.)
  • XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server can now convert DITA documents to Web Help.
  • Several minor enhancements. A few bug fixes.
v4.5.0_01 (July 22, 2011): XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server have been patched in order to integrate XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac) v2.0.4. This release of ditac contains a number of bug fixes.
v4.5 (June 3, 2011): Highlights:
  • Images are now represented by DrawingML elements in OOXML (.docx) files.
  • When the heuristics used by XFC are insufficient to infer the type of a list, it's now possible to explicitly specify this type by adding an xfc:label-format proprietary attribute to the fo:list-block.
  • Added support for scale-down-to-fit and scale-up-to-fit.
  • Couple of minor bug fixes.
v4.4.2 (January 11, 2011): XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server now allow to convert the most complex DITA 1.2 documents to a variety of formats. Couple of minor bug fixes in the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine.
v4.4.1 (September 23, 2010): XMLmind XSL-FO Converter is now available integrated in XMLmind XSL Server, a powerful, production-quality, Servlet which leverages the XSL technology to allow converting XML documents to a variety of formats.

This new software distribution targets the Web developer (JavaScript, Ajax, PHP, etc) and the system integrator. No prior knowledge of the JavaTM language or the Servlet technology is required to be able to deploy, use, program and customize XMLmind XSL Server.