News    

• Any configuration (DITA, DocBook, XHTML, etc): added a handy "Change case" toolbar button to the "Convert Text" frame.
• Added a "Highlight all" option to the Search tool.
• New "JSON document format" add-on, installed by default. This add-on lets you use XMLmind XML Editor to edit a JSON file as if it were an XML file.
• Upgraded the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter (XFC for short) plug-in to version 6.3.
• Upgraded the "Word To XML" add-on to XMLmind Word To XML version 1.8.2 which may be used to convert DOCX to DocBook 5.1 assembly.

• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine:
  • It is now possible to add metadata (e.g. the usual author, title, date, etc, but also custom metadata) to the documents created by XFC. (XFC equivalent of MS-Word "File|Info|Properties, Advanced Properties".)
  • It is now possible to control the type of changes which can be made to the documents created by XFC. (XFC equivalent of MS-Word "File|Info|Protect Document, Restrict Editing".) For example, XFC can now generate a DOCX file which cannot be modified at all, unless the user types a password.
• Updated many software components in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server (ditac, Saxon, Batik, FOP, etc).

• Any configuration (DITA, DocBook, XHTML, etc):
  • New "Set ID" toolbar button. This button displays a menu having 3 entries: "Set ID", "Unset ID" and all new "List Anchors and Links". This last menu entry displays a very convenient dialog box letting the user search and select anchors (that is, any element having an ID) and links.
  • More generally, simpler, better organized, enhanced toolbar. For example, when you use the toolbar to add a fig element to your DITA topic, you are now prompted to specify an image file.
  • Ctrl-Alt-click upon a link of any kind to follow it. (Cmd-Alt-click on the Mac.) This new mouse action is a handy alternative to the "Follow Link" entry of the contextual menu.
• Updated many software components (ditac, Saxon, Batik, FOP, etc).
• A few minor bug fixes.

• Any configuration (DITA, DocBook, XHTML, etc): the node path bar can now be configured to display the value of any attribute you want. XHTML example: html > body > pre#example.fancy.line-numbers > code. Character "#" is used to prefix the value of attribute id. Character "." is used to prefix the tokens comprising the value of attribute class.

  These settings are done using a dialog box displayed when selecting the "Customize" item of the contextual menu of the “file icon” found at the very beginning of the node path bar. This contextual menu may also contain a number of checkboxes letting the user quickly hide and show the attributes declared using the "Customize" dialog box.

• New add-on called "FlatLaf Look and Feel" containing a clean, simple and elegant “Look & Feel” for XMLmind XML Editor.

  This add-on, which is not installed by default, is supported on all platforms. It is especially nice to have on Linux where the default “cross-platform”, Look & Feel (called "Metal") looks rather outdated. It may also interest Windows and Mac users who want a dark theme or simply prefer how FlatLaf looks compared to the default, “system”, Look & Feel.

• A number of other minor yet useful enhancements.
• Updated several software components, among them XMLmind Word To XML (Import DOCX) and XMLmind XSL-FO Converter (Convert Document to RTF, WML, DOCX, ODT).
• A few minor bug fixes too.

• Thanks to XMLmind Web Help Compiler v3, the generated Web Help gets a fresh new look, among several other useful enhancements. For example, the Web Help is now “responsive” by default.
• Also some minor enhancements and bug fixes.

• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine: element fo:block-container with a reference-orientation attribute equal to 90, 270, -90 or -270 may be used to temporarily switch the page orientation from portrait to landscape. This feature is typically used to help MS-Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice display a wide table or a wide figure.
• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine for .NET: upgraded the .NET implementation of the Java™ runtime needed to run XMLmind XSL-FO Converter to IKVM.NET 8.1.5717.0 (which corresponds to Java 1.8.0_45).
• Updated several software components in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server, and most notably XMLmind Web Help Compiler. Thanks to XMLmind Web Help Compiler v3.x, the generated Web Help gets a fresh new look, among several other useful enhancements. For example, the Web Help is now “responsive” by default.

• When converting DITA, DocBook or an Ebook to any (X)HTML based format (EPUB, Web Help, etc), the generated HTML pages looks much better than before. Moreover the generated Web Help is now “responsive” by default.
• New add-on "Paste from Word Processor or Browser", now installed by default whatever the platform, supersedes the previous add-on which was called "Paste from Word".

  This add-on adds an entry called "Paste from Word Processor or Browser" to the "Paste As" submenu found in the XHTML, DocBook or DITA Topic menus. This menu entry imports the HTML copied to the clipboard by word processors or web browsers and intelligently pastes it into the XML document being edited.

• Updated many software components.
• Now officially supported on Java™ 13 platforms and on macOS Catalina (10.15).

• Thanks to XMLmind Web Help Compiler v3, the generated Web Help gets a fresh new look, among several other useful enhancements. For example, the Web Help is now “responsive” by default.
• The CSS stylesheet used by default when generating any of the XHTML-based output formats (except Java™ Help) has also been “modernized”.
• Any XHTML-based output format: it's now much easier to customize the look of the XHTML pages generated by ditac. This is done using new XSLT stylesheet parameter custom-css.

• Thanks to XMLmind Web Help Compiler v3, the generated Web Help gets a fresh new look, among several other useful enhancements. For example, the Web Help is now “responsive” by default.
• Setting new ebook attribute includebasestylesheet to "true" guarantees to effortlessly create a nicely formatted book.

• Added a "Toggle the visibility of elements belonging to certain categories" button to the Edit tool.
• DITA Topic, DocBook configurations: added "Continue Numbering" and "Inherit Numbering" entries to the menu displayed by the "Change list type" button found in the tool bar.
• XHTML configurations:
  • Updated our in-house XML Schema and added a companion Schematron in order to implement most of the conformance requirements for authors specified in the HTML Living Standard.
  • Added a "Preview Settings" entry to the XHTML menu.
  • Added an auto-completion facility to the value field of the Attributes tool when the attribute being edited is class.
• Updated several software components.
• Fixed an important bug related to URIs having fragments starting with "#./", that is, the abbreviated fragment-identifier syntax introduced in DITA 1.3 that replaces the topic ID with ".". Therefore if you are a DITA author, upgrading to version 9.1 is strongly recommended.
• Several substantial commercial changes.

• Several minor enhancements and bug fixes.
• Updated several software components in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server, and most notably XMLmind DITA Converter v3.6, which gives even more control over the numbering of ordered lists.
• Due to the recent changes in Oracle Java™ licensing,
  • A Java™ 1.6+ runtime is now required to run the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter engine, Java Edition. A Java™ 1.8+ runtime is now required to run XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server. Both Oracle Java and OpenJDK are now officially supported.
  • The setup.exe and ".dmg" distributions of XMLmind XSL Utility are now bundled with the latest version of OpenJDK (currently OpenJDK v12.0.1).

• Due to the recent changes in Oracle Java™ licensing,
  • Java™ 8+ is now required to compile and run XXE. Both Oracle Java and OpenJDK are now officially supported.
  • The setup.exe and ".dmg" distributions of XXE are now bundled with the latest version of OpenJDK (currently OpenJDK v12.0.1).
• Several useful enhancements, the main one being related to the support of DITA subject scheme maps in XXE.
• Updated most software components (e.g. Apache Batik).
• A few bug fixes too.

• New TEI Lite configuration.

  This configuration is available in the form of an add-on called "TEI Lite configuration". This add-on is not installed by default in XMLmind XML Editor. If you are interested, please use menu item "Options|Install Add-on" to install this add-on.

  By reading new user guide "XMLmind XML Editor - Creating a TEI Lite Document", you'll learn to use XXE to create and modify TEI Lite documents. This user guide assumes that you know TEI and XML, but that you don't not know anything about XXE.

• Several minor enhancements and bug fixes.

• Index entries marking a page range in the DOCX document are now supported when generating DITA and DocBook documents.
• Now officially supported on Java™ 11 platforms and on macOS Mojave (10.14).

• Several minor enhancements and bug fixes.
• Updated most software components.
• Now officially supported on Java™ 11 platforms and on macOS Mojave (10.14).

• Extension attribute xfc:label-format has been enhanced to support multi-level numbering (e.g. "1.A.a.") in fo:list-blocks.
• New extension attribute xfc:render-as-table may be used as a quick and easy workaround for one of the most annoying limitations of XFC: the very poor rendering of fo:block “divisions” having borders and/or background colors (e.g. complex notes, admonitions, sidebars).
• Modified the DocBook, DITA and XHTML XSL stylesheets so they use these new extension attributes.
• All XFC extension attributes are introduced in new article "How to adapt your existing XSLT stylesheet to the specificities of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter".
• Updated all software components (FOP, Batik, Saxon, ditac, etc) in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server.
• A few bug fixes, most of them related to the DOCX output format.
• Now officially supported on Java™ 11 platforms and on macOS Mojave (10.14).

• Enhanced DITA, DocBook and XHTML toolbars.
• New Lightweight DITA (AKA LwDITA) configuration, installed by default, may be used to create XDITA (very small subset of DITA XML, plus new audio and video elements) maps and topics.
• Upgraded XMLmind DITA Converter to version 3.3 which fully supports Lightweight DITA (AKA LwDITA), whether XDITA, HDITA (topics and maps written in HTML5) or MDITA Extended Profile (topics and maps written in Markdown).
• Upgraded XMLmind Ebook Compiler to version 1.3 which, in addition to HTML, supports pages written in Markdown.
• Updated several other software components (e.g. Apache FOP) used to implement XMLmind XML Editor.

• Full Lightweight DITA (AKA LwDITA) support, whether XDITA (very small subset of DITA XML, plus new audio and video elements), HDITA (topics and maps written in HTML5) or MDITA Extended Profile (topics and maps written in Markdown).
• In addition to syntax highlighting, ditac can now add line numbers and expand tabs in any element specializing pre.
• Distribution ditac-N_N_N-plus-fop.zip now contains Apache FOP 2.3 (including hyphenation and MathML support).

• In addition to HTML, an ebook page may now be written in Markdown, with many “Markdown dialects” and many Markdown syntax extensions being supported (this is configurable).
• In a <pre class="role-listing-XXX">, tab characters are now expanded by default to up to 8 space characters.
• Distribution ebookc-N_N_N-plus-fop.zip now contains Apache FOP 2.3 (including hyphenation and MathML support).

• XMLmind XML Editor, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported on Java™ 10 platforms.
• Several minor yet useful enhancements, for example, a more powerful and more flexible Edit tool.
• Several bug fixes.
• Updated almost all the software components (e.g. Saxon) used to implement XMLmind XML Editor.

• Several enhancements and bug fixes.
• Tested against Java™ 10.
• New "HTML5 as an alternative to DITA and DocBook" article.

• Several enhancements and bug fixes mostly related to the support of East Asian languages.
• XMLmind Word To XML, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported on Java™ 10 platforms.

• XMLmind XSL-FO Converter, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported on Java™ 9 platforms.
• New fo2docx options may be used to suppress the "[Compatibility Mode]" text appearing in the title bar of MS-Word 2013 and 2016 and also to generate "Strict Open XML" DOCX files.
• XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server's controlapp: changed the technology used to implement the context-sensitive online help from obsolete JavaHelp to a dedicated, embedded Web browser displaying Web Help.
• Updated several software components in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server.
• Minor bug fixes in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server.

• Replaced both the main tool bar and the configuration specific tool bar (e.g. the DITA tool bar) by a single, “structured”, tool bar having two button rows.
• New "Find and Replace Element" facility.
• Full support of HTML 5.2.
• Improved "Edit Image Map" dialog box.
• Nicer rendering of the GUI when running Windows Java™ 9 on a HiDPI screen.

• Several enhancements related to the Web Help, EPUB and semantic XHTML formats.
• Changed the technology used to implement the context-sensitive online help of w2x-app from obsolete JavaHelp to a dedicated, embedded Web browser displaying Web Help.
• XMLmind Word To XML, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported on Java™ 9 platforms.

• XMLmind XML Editor, which passed all non-regression tests, is now officially supported on Java™ 9 platforms.

  Getting XXE to compile cleanly and to run flawlessly using a Java 9 runtime required making a substantial number of minor changes to the code base. For example, some changes were needed in order to adapt XXE to Java 9 native HiDPI support on Windows and Linux.

• Changed the technology used to implement the context-sensitive online help from obsolete JavaHelp to a dedicated, embedded Web browser displaying Web Help.
• Updated many software components (e.g. ditac, ebookc, whc, XFC, w2x). Several minor yet useful enhancements. A few bug fixes too.

• Some minor internal changes were needed to support new Java™ 9.
• Thanks to new XMLmind Web Help Compiler v2.2, which uses window.sessionStorage rather than cookies, ditac now generates more efficient and more reliable Web Helps.

• Some minor internal changes were needed to support new Java™ 9.
• Thanks to new XMLmind Web Help Compiler v2.2, which uses window.sessionStorage rather than cookies, ebookc now generates more efficient and more reliable Web Helps.

• XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server can now be used to convert DocBook v5.1 assemblies to PDF, RTF, WML, DOCX and ODT.
• Updated some software components in XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server.

This new function leverages a new, free, open source software component called XMLmind Ebook Compiler (ebookc for short). Ebookc is an authoring tool nearly as powerful as DITA or DocBook, but being based on HTML and on CSS, it is much easier to learn, use and customize.

Version 7.5 also features a few minor enhancements —mainly a new layout for the generated Web Help— and bug fixes.

Ebookc features: topic-oriented; automatic TOC; automatic “back-of-the-book index”; automatic cross-references; automatic numbering of sections, tables and figures; footnotes; conditional processing; built-in XInclude. Ebookc uses CSS to create nicely formatted books and this, even for output formats like PDF and DOCX.

All in all, ebookc is an authoring tool nearly as powerful as DITA or DocBook, but being based on HTML and on CSS, it is much easier to learn, use and customize. More »

Forthcoming XMLmind XHTML Editor v7.5 (or its superset, XMLmind XML Editor) will have out of the box, extensive support for creating an ebook specification and its source HTML pages and for converting an ebook specification to a number of output formats. XMLmind XHTML Editor Personal Edition is free to use by many persons and organizations.

• You may now easily add image maps to your XHTML, DITA and DocBook documents. New, advanced image map editor may be used to add “hot areas” to your image. YouTube demo.
• XHTML iframe element is now rendered by embedding a Web browser in the styled view.
• Updated several software components. A number of bug fixes too.

DocBook 5.1 assemblies are processed using free, open source, XMLmind Assembly Processor v1.0. Version 1.0 is the first version to fully support processing DocBook 5.1 assemblies. This includes XInclude 1.1, DocBook Transclusion and assembly features such as relationships and transforms .

• XMLmind XSL Utility and XMLmind XSL Server can now convert DITA 1.3 (Technical Content) documents.
• ODT files generated by XMLmind XSL-FO Converter (Java™ Edition only) can now contain SVG graphics. In previous versions, SVG was automatically converted to PNG.

• Now fully supports DITA 1.3 Technical Content. More information in "XMLmind XML Editor - DITA Support".

  This feature is mainly provided by new XMLmind DITA Converter v3.1, but a substantial number of changes and enhancements were required in XXE in order to really support DITA 1.3 at the editor level.

• XHTML 5, DITA, DocBook 5.1 audio and video elements are now rendered by embedding a media player in the styled view. This media player is similar to those found in Web browsers. More information in "XMLmind XML Editor - Online Help", "The media player dialog box".