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About Style Sheet Mediums

You can single-source styles through the use of style sheet mediums. A medium is an alternative set of styles in a style sheet that you use for different outputs. They are intended to be an exception to the default style.

One use for a medium is to have one group of style settings for online formats (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR) and a different group of settings for print-based formats (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker). Therefore, you could use one medium for your online targets and use another medium for PDF and your other print-based targets.

example

Let's say you have text hyperlinks that are shown in blue font with an underline. That may be fine for Target A, but let's say you want this style to appear in black font with no underline for Target B. The solution is to use a style sheet medium.

Suppose Target A is using the "default" medium, where the blue underline properties are specified. With the properties for Target A already set, you now need to specify style properties for Target B. Therefore, in the Stylesheet Editor, instead of selecting the "default" medium, you can select another medium (e.g., the "print" medium) and change the properties for the style to black with no underline. It's the same style sheet and the same style that you are working with. The only difference is that one medium is telling Flare to display that content in blue with an underline, and the other medium is telling it to use black font with no underline. With Target A using the default medium and Target B using the other medium, the content will display appropriately in each output.

Style Sheet Mediums Provided

Flare provides you with the following style sheet mediums. These are enough to satisfy the needs of most authors, but you can create additional mediums if necessary.

default This is the "standard" medium. Any settings that you specify in the default medium "trickle down" automatically to the other mediums. However, you can override any setting in a specific medium.

example

Suppose you are using four different mediums (default, print, non-print, CustomA) in your project. Let's say you specify that the font color for the <p> style tag in the default medium should be red. If you were to then open any of the other three mediums, you would see that the font color for the <p> tag in each of those is also red. If you were to open the print medium and change the font color for the <p> tag to blue, that is the color that will be used for that medium. However, the <p> tag will continue to be displayed in red for the default, non-print, and CustomA mediums.
print This medium is designed to be used for print-based output types (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker). When you create a print-based target, this medium is automatically associated with it (although you can select a different medium for the target if necessary).
non-print If you are creating online output and do not want to use the default medium for it, you can use this medium instead. For example, you might want to use the default medium for three online targets that you are working on, but you want to create a fourth online target that uses a different set of styles. In that case, you can use the non-print medium for that fourth target (or you can create custom mediums if necessary).

Tasks for Using Style Sheet Mediums

Following are the tasks that you might perform when working with style sheet mediums.

Select in Stylesheet Editor When you are modifying the properties of a style in the Stylesheet Editor, you need to let Flare know which medium your settings should be applied to. To do this, select the medium from the Medium drop-down list in the Stylesheet Editor, select a style in the editor, and modify its properties. See Selecting Style Sheet Mediums.
Select in XML Editor Flare lets you use two different layout modes when working in the XML Editor: Web Layout mode and Print Layout mode. The "default" and "print" mediums are tied to these two layout modes. This simply means that when you are working in Web Layout mode, the XML Editor displays the styles specified in the default medium. But if you switch to Print Layout mode, the XML Editor automatically displays the styles specified in the print medium. This is simply a way to let you see your content in the format that you are most likely concerned about at the moment. Of course, you can always select a specific medium in the XML Editor when using either layout mode. See Selecting Style Sheet Mediums and About Layout Modes.
Create You may very well be able to meet all of your style editing needs by simply using the mediums provided by Flare (default, print, non-print). However, if necessary, you can add as many new custom mediums as you need. See Creating Style Sheet Mediums.

Note: Although the application provides a medium called "print," you might find it useful to create a custom medium for print output, rather than using the "print" medium provided. There are benefits to using the print medium provided by the application, and there are other benefits to creating a custom medium. For example, if you want page breaks before a particular heading for print output, but not when users send online topics to the printer, it is a good idea to create a custom print medium. The reason for this is that browsers respect the settings in the "print" medium provided by the application. Therefore, even though your online output style medium does not have page breaks set before that heading, the application will see that you DO have a page break specified in the print medium. And when a user tries to print a topic from your online Help, the printer will start a new page at that heading. The solution is to create a custom print medium (perhaps calling it "PDF" or "XPS"), specifying page breaks in that medium, and using it for your print output (instead of using the "print" medium provided by the application).
Associate with targets After you decide on a medium to use for output, you need to associate it with the appropriate target. After you build the target, the medium will be used to display the correct style settings in the output. See Associating a Medium with a Target.