ProductsStyleVisionXSLT for Word/RTF

Altova StyleVision® 2008 simplifies the creation of XSLT 1.0 / 2.0 stylesheets for transforming XML and database data to attractive Microsoft Word / RTF pages.

It’s easy to transform XML and database data into Word documents or RTF (rich text format) files with StyleVision® 2008. The unique StyleVision® 2008 design interface allows you to visually design stylesheets to produce Word/RTF output from XML – or a database – quickly and easily. In addition, that same design simultaneously produces an Authentic form, as well as HTML and PDF output and the associated stylesheets.

Based on your design, StyleVision® 2008 auto-generates standards conformant XSLT 1.0 stylesheets with XPath 1.0 expressions. It also includes complete implementations of the powerful new XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 specifications from the W3C. These new versions include significant improvements and new features that improve code stability and reusability, as well as an impressive array of new functions and operators. In addition, XSLT 2.0 support in StyleVision® 2008 is schema-aware. Schema-awareness provides additional mechanisms for error isolation, simplified debugging, and enhanced code performance. In all, XSLT/XPath 2.0 allow you create stylesheets that are much more powerful and highly efficient.

To read more about the benefits of choosing XSLT 2.0 for your stylesheets, check out the "Why XSLT/XPath 2.0?" page.

In StyleVision® 2008, you can select whether you wish to use XSLT 1.0 or XSLT 2.0 for individual designs. Depending on your selection, the appropriate functionality will automatically be made available in the design interface, and transformations will be made with the corresponding XSLT processor (XSLT 1.0 or XSLT 2.0).

The unique StyleVision® 2008 approach to stylesheet design makes creating presentation stylesheets easier and faster than ever before. The intuitive visual design process means you don’t need prior XSLT, XPath, or template coding experience to design stylesheets in StyleVision® 2008.

To begin creating a stylesheet, simply open an existing XML Schema, DTD, or database in StyleVision® 2008, and the content model will appear in the Schema Sources entry helper. You can even connect to multiple XML and database schemas to incorporate data from multiple sources – such as an XML file and a database – in your design. When you select an element or attribute that you wish to see in your output and drag it from the Schema Sources window onto the design pane, StyleVision prompts you to specify how you would like the new node to be handled (for example, as a new paragraph, image, table, etc.). This information will be rendered dynamically based on the data in your source(s). You can also insert static content such as header text, images, hyperlinks, and so on.

To add layout and styling information to your design, the StyleVision interface provides five advanced entry helper windows for viewing, editing, and assigning the style and layout properties of each element in your design. Learn more about this functionality on the Stylesheet Design page.

Since Word/RTF documents are paged media, they require specific styling considerations. StyleVision® 2008 includes special formatting options for Word documents, including cover page design options, right/left hand page numbering, page count totals (page X of XX), headers and footers, margins, etc. These options are available in the Properties and Design Tree entry helper windows.

StyleVision supports advanced styling functionality for building Word/RTF pages, including support for CSS styles. You can add precise visual styling rules to your designs using built in CSS styles, and you can import your own CSS documents to leverage work you’ve already completed. Some CSS styles, such as those for combo-boxes and other HTML-specific components may not, by their nature, be applicable to paged media output. When such styles are used, a comment is displayed to indicate that a style may render a bit differently in your HTML and RTF output files. In these cases, the paged media will use a suitable print rendition of the effect.

StyleVision also allows you to specifiy output-dependent conditions when it's necessary to fine tune the output to different media, for instance to hyperlink text in HTML output but print the actual URL in the corresponding Word/RTF file.

Stylesheets designed in StyleVision support advanced functionality such as conditional templates, auto-calculations, business logic validation, sorting data on output, and much more. Read more about advanced stylesheet functions.

The StyleVision visual, drag-and-drop design approach allows you to create standards-conformant XSLT 1.0/2.0 stylesheets and rich Word/RTF output in minutes – a process that can take hours when performed manually. As you’re creating your design, the resulting XSLT 1.0 or 2.0 stylesheet is auto-generated along with the RTF output, both which can be viewed by clicking on the Preview RTF tab in the design window.

In addition to the XSLT stylesheet for Word/RTF and the associated output, StyleVision also simultaneously generates HTML and PDF output, plus the associated stylesheets, and an Authentic form. These stylesheets and output files are all generated based on the single design you create, and you can save the standards-conformant stylesheets and output files separately at any time.

The ability to produce all these stylesheets and output formats based on a single design makes StyleVision the perfect tool for publishing your XML and database data in multiple media quickly and easily. Download a free trial now!