Linewidth in PDF text fields

[Wolfgang Baer]

I know H&M is not meant to be a DTP software but I ask anyway:

Is there a trick to set the line spacing (distance between the lines of text) for a text field, which is placed on a template in the PrintManualDesigner?

Zeilenabstand.png

[Tim Green]

Hi Wolfgang,

You can't do it directly for text objects in Manual Designer. However, what you can do is use the Text Snippet function in the Insert menu to insert pre-formatted HM text from your project or a HM XML snippet, and that can have all the formatting supported in Help & Manual itself.

If you want to create the snippet in Help & Manual rather than as an external XML file, create a topic file for it in the Project Files > Topic Files section, so that it doesn't have a TOC entry. Then set its build options to PDF only, so that it doesn't get exported as an invisible topic to HTML formats. If you use the same topic ID in all projects you can have a universal snippet that is different for each project with all projects using the same PDF template.

[Wolfgang Baer]

That sounds like a plan.

But one question regarding your last sentence:
"If you use the same topic ID in all projects you can have a universal snippet that is different for each project with all projects using the same PDF template."
is a little unclear to me.

I would like to make a snippet once and it should be the same in each project instead of being "different". Maybe I just miss-interpret your sentence?

[Tim Green]

I would like to make a snippet once and it should be the same in each project instead of being "different". Maybe I just miss-interpret your sentence?

My suggestion was in case the text you wanted to have was something that needed to change for each project. If you want to have it the same every time it's best to use an external XML snippet file and select the from file option for selecting the snippet in Manual Designer.

To create an XML snippet, create the text you want to have in the snippet in the Help & Manual editor and select it. Then select Save Snippet in the Project > Manage Topics: File section and save it as an external XML file.

IMPORTANT:

• Use manual formatting instead of styles. This will ensure that the snippet is formatted the same no matter what styles you have in the project.
• Add the folder where the snippet is stored to the Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path section of all the projects where you are going to be using the snippet, otherwise it won't be found.

[Wolfgang Baer]

Ok, I am officially impressed. It not only allows me to use Snippets from the local project but also to add the Snippet to the "my styles repository" and then use it in the Manual Designer. A little bit complicated to understand first, but then quite nice.

EDIT:
Was writing the text above before reading your new post. Already found out how it works with Repositories. And the Search Path hint, luckily was in the help file

Again, thanks for the tip.