CSS configuration in version 4.0

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Nicholas Jonker

Hi there,

We have been using the PDF exporter using a custom built template with the previous editor. With our recent upgrade to version 4.0 it seems the option to configure the output has been restricted to a degree.

Since our previous templates have been deprecated I am now trying to get the new templates production ready but I'm finding it hard without the ability to configure some CSS settings. 

Are there any ways to change the following:

  1. The default setting for exporting tables. With v4.0 words in table columns are badly broken up, for example the word "external" might be "externa" in and then the "l" would be on the next line. The previous exporter handled the auto-sizing of column widths and word-wraps very well, can't see why this had to change? Also, I can't find an option to change the heading background color or line width of tables. 
  2. The way the table of contents handles headings on pages. With the previous exporter there was a content processing option called Merge single, first heading and title page. This option made it possible to use Confluence headings on pages and child pages since their depth and formatting would be correctly displayed in the table of contents. With the new exporter, if I add a heading 1 to a child page, it will have the correct numbering in the ToC (e.g. 3.1.1.1) but it would be formatted according to the ToC Level 1 format.
  3. Output of custom macros (or Confluence macros). When writing custom macros it was very helpful to be able to tell the Scroll PDF exporter how it should output those macros, especially regarding how it should handle page breaks and alignment. 

Thanks in advance

Nicholas

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    Michael Pfannkuchen

    Just now we face the problem, that text in tables is formatted randomly: if have paragraph tags (<p> tags) around, then it looks like defined,  but in standard case without <p> tags around, a default format is used for the export.

    As long there is no chance to apply customized styles to a template, currently PDF exporter is completely useless to us.

    Please help ...

    Many thanks : Michael

     

     

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    Nils Bier

    Hi Nicholas,

    Thanks for your feedback - let me answer it chronologically

    1.
    The problem with the line-breaks in tables is already tracked in our JIRA system: https://k15t.jira.com/browse/EXP-1292
    I also created a new improvement to support further customizations of table styles: https://k15t.jira.com/browse/EXP-2017

    2.
    I've created an improvement for bringing back the merge heading functionality: https://k15t.jira.com/browse/EXP-2015

    3.
    Which type of content did you wrap in custom macros? Are we speaking of text (normal Confluence paragraphs)? We could think about adding an option to the custom styles where you can refer to specific macros and define how content within those macros should be exported. Would that work for you?
    I've created the following improvement for that: https://k15t.jira.com/browse/EXP-2016 - please feel free to leave any feedback as a comment directly on the improvement.

    Please sign up at https://k15t.jira.com/secure/Signup!default.jspa to watch, comment on or vote for the mentioned issues. We'll then send a notification for every status update.

    We'll make sure that deprecated templates will be editable until the end of this year. As a next step next year, we'll change the deprecated templates to be read-only (you can only use them to export, but can't make any changes), before we completely drop the support of deprecated templates at all.

    This should give you enough time to move to the new template designer, and also gives us enough time to work on the missing functionality.

    Michael, thanks for your feedback - can you please reach out to support@k15t.com with some further information about which functionality you'd like to control.

    Best,
    Nils

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    Nicholas Jonker

    Hi Nils,

    Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. The tickets seem to address the concerns, just one final comment from my side. 

    The new editor makes it really easy to quickly get to a template that is either 100% sufficient or close to it, and I appreciate the ease of use it gives. I do feel that the users who want to change specifics (like table color) would be able to do the configuration themselves as well if there was some way to access the CSS of the template.

    Would it not be possible to include a "developer" section in die template editor? Almost like the inspect option on Chrome that allows you to look at the actual HTML code. That way we can scan through and maybe change a few small settings after the initial template has been set up through the editor.   

    Other than that, thank you for the quick response and for creating the tickets. 

    Regards,

    Nicholas

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    Seona Bellamy

    I would 100% love and support some sort of "developer" access to the CSS. After getting to mess around with the output to my heart's content, the new template system feels terribly restrictive. Even "Custom CSS" doesn't do anything beyond let you define the class name. I'm sure this is really fantastic for the less technically-minded admins, but for some of us it feels like being sent back to pre-school!

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    Nils Bier

    Hi Seona, hi Nicholas,

    Thanks for your feedback. We understand that for some power users the possibility to have custom CSS is important.

    We're collecting feedback and might come up with an "advanced section", but currently there are no plans to have a section where you can enter CSS or HTML code directly. The main reason for that is that we want to avoid to have the same migration problems as with the switch to Scroll PDF Exporter 4.0.

    Instead we want to extend the graphical editor to give it enough functionality to make the advanced CSS obsolete. If there's anything missing in the current version of the template editor, please let us know and we'll try to implement this as soon as possible.

    Best,
    Nils

     

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    Seona Bellamy

    Hi Nils,

    Thanks for the prompt response.

    Okay, I can totally understand where you're going with the control over what CSS actually turns up in templates. (Doesn't mean I won't get annoyed when I want to do something and can't, but I understand why you're doing it. ;) ) I've actually spent a chunk of this morning going through the proposed features in Jira and adding my votes and comments to the ones that I'm really missing.

    As a shortlist, though:

    • The ability to add your own fonts.
    • The ability to edit CSS for tables.
    • The ability to apply different page margins to specific (static) pages - for example, the cover page would often make sense to have very different margins to the content pages.
    • The ability to set horizontal margins as well as vertical margins on block-level elements.
    • The ability to turn off heading numbering in the TOC (or just have it default to "off" if you've turned it off in the rest of the document).
    • The ability to change the style of bullets and numbers in lists.

    Well... it's sort of a short list...

    Cheers!

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    Nils Bier

    Hi Seona,

    Thanks for the understanding.
    I checked our JIRA to see which of the improvements in your list you already voted for. Additionally, please feel free to vote for:

     

    • The ability to apply different page margins to specific (static) pages - for example, the cover page would often make sense to have very different margins to the content pages. - This should already be possible in the Document Sections tab, where you can define the page margins specifically for each section you're using in your template. Does that work for you?
    • The ability to set horizontal margins as well as vertical margins on block-level elements - can you give us some more information about which block elements you'd need here?

    Best,
    Nils

     

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    Bastian Kippelt

    Hi,

    i unfortunately had to go back to version 3.5, because i also miss important features like:

    • The ability to add own/custom fonts
    • The ability to edit CSS for custom macros, lists, etc.

    I also have problems with adding pictures. Maybe there is a bug. The image path is wrong in the html code.

    wrong: /plugins/servlet/scroll-pdf/api/templates/0a22c78a-bed9-40c3-8013-5e6b09a060f0/data/images/images%5Cdve_d3ecm.png?1494844585790

    correct: /plugins/servlet/scroll-pdf/api/templates/0a22c78a-bed9-40c3-8013-5e6b09a060f0/data/images/dve_d3ecm.png?1494844585790

    Next problem. The Scroll Pagebreak Macro does not work anymore when i have update Scroll Runtime, Scroll Platform with Scroll Versions if i user an older Scroll PDF Version like 3.5.

    Cheers,

    Bastian

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    Nils Bier

    Hi Bastian,

    Thanks for your feedback. We'll take care of the issue with your images in the support request you created.

    Regarding the other feedback:

    Please vote and watch the issues to get a notification for any change on the status.

    Best,
    Nils

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