Authoring in Paligo
When you author in Paligo, you mainly work with two different kinds of content, publications and topics. Also see Create a Topic and Publications.
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The typical workflow for authoring in Paligo is:
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Create a Publication This represents the output you will create and you use it to build the structure, like a table of contents.
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Create a Topic Each topic should cover one subject or task.
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Add Content to Topics Add elements and content to the topics. You use the elements to build the structure of a topic and then add your content to them.
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Add Content to a Publication Add the topics to the publication.
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Assignments Send for review.
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Translation Management Send for translation (if applicable).
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Style and Customize your Outputs Set up one or more Layouts. You use the Layout to define what type of output you want and what settings should be in place. For some outputs, such as PDF, you apply the styling directly in the Layout Editor options. For HTML outputs, it's a combination of options to set, as well as the possibility to upload and use custom CSS to style the content, see Branding your HTML Outputs with CSS.
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Publishing Process When the content is approved, publish the publication.
To create and change topics in Paligo, you use the built-in XML Editor. When you click a topic in the Content Manager , it automatically opens the topic in the Editor.
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To learn more about the various parts of the Editor, see Editor.
When you create or edit a topic, add elements to create the structure and then add your content inside the elements. For example, if you want to add a new paragraph, create a new para element and then add your text to it.
You can add some of the commonly used elements by using the Edit and Insert Toolbar options. You can also add elements by using the Element Context Menu.
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You can display the Element Context Menu by using these shortcuts:
Windows: Alt + Enter
Mac: Command ⌘ + Enter
To learn more about using the Element Context Menu, see: Add Content to Topics.
Publications can be opened in the Editor as well, but the default behavior when clicking a publication is to open it in Structure View, since you will mainly work with the structure of topics in a publication.
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Example of a multi-level structure in a publication.
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The typical workflow for authoring in Paligo is:
-
Create a Publication This represents the output you will create and you use it to build the structure, like a table of contents.
-
Create a Topic Each topic should cover one subject or task.
-
Add Content to Topics Add elements and content to the topics. You use the elements to build the structure of a topic and then add your content to them.
-
Add Content to a Publication Add the topics to the publication.
-
Assignments Send for review.
-
Translation Management Send for translation (if applicable).
-
Style and Customize your Outputs Set up one or more Layouts. You use the Layout to define what type of output you want and what settings should be in place. For some outputs, such as PDF, you apply the styling directly in the Layout Editor options. For HTML outputs, it's a combination of options to set, as well as the possibility to upload and use custom CSS to style the content, see Branding your HTML Outputs with CSS.
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Publishing Process When the content is approved, publish the publication.
A revision history is a list with a summary of the changes made to a document. They are useful as they provide an audit trail of the changes made to a document, with details of who made the changes, what the changes were, and when they were added.
For a PDF output, a revision history looks like this:
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Tip
To view revision history, see View Revision History.
To create a revision history topic:
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Create a new topic. Give it a suitable name, such as "Revision History" and then open it in the editor.
There are many ways to create a new topic, including:
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Select New Topic from a publication's structure view
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Select Create Content from a folder's options menu ( ... ) and then choose Topic.
For details, see Create a Topic.
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Use the element context menu to add an info element to the topic.
To access the element context menu, press Alt and Enter (Windows) or Option ⌥ and Enter (Mac).
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Select the
infoelement and then use the element context menu to add arevhistoryelement.When you add a
revhistoryelement, Paligo adds child elements to it automatically.
The child elements are:
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revisionThis is a container element for the
revnumber,date,authorinitialsandrevremarkelements. You need the revision for the structure, but do not enter any information directly into it. -
revnumberEnter the number of the revision, for example, 6 if this is the sixth revision to the content.
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datePaligo inserts the date automatically, by default. You can overwrite it with a different date if you wish.
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authorinitialsPaligo inserts the name of the person who adds the revision element, by default. You can overwrite it with a different name or initials if you wish.
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revremarkEnter a brief description of the changes that have been made. This will help other users to understand what each revision included and why the changes were made.
Tip
You can delete an element if you do not want to include that information in the revision history, for example, you could delete the
dateelement. -
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To add more revisions, select the
revhistoryelement and then use the element context menu to add arevisionelement inside it. Paligo adds therevisionelement and itsrevnumber,date,authorinitials, andrevremark.Note
You can add multiple
revisionelements inside arevhistoryelement. -
Select Save.
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If your revision history topic is not already in a publication, add it by editing the publication structure. Typically, the revision history is added as the first topic so that it appears before the main documentation, but you could add it to any position in the publication. You may also want to put an output filter on the section element so that the revision history is not included in outputs but remains in the publication for internal use. To learn how to filter content, see Filtering / Profiling).
When you publish your content, the revision history topic is included as part of the output (unless you have filtered it out). For HTML outputs, you can use CSS to control the styling of the revision history details (see Branding your HTML Outputs with CSS). For PDF outputs, only the default styling is available, although it is possible to change the styling as part of a customization project (contact customer support for details).
The following code shows the XML for a valid revision history topic. We have removed the XML IDs and attributes for clarity. When you create your own revision history, the elements will have XML IDs and attributes added when you save.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<section>
<title>Revision History</title>
<info>
<revhistory>
<revision>
<revnumber>2</revnumber>
<date>24 May 2022</date>
<authorinitials>CW</authorinitials>
<revremark>Added information on recycling and ordering replacement parts.</revremark>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>1</revnumber>
<date>20 May 2022</date>
<authorinitials>CW</authorinitials>
<revremark>Added legal information in front matter.</revremark>
</revision>
</revhistory>
</info>
</section>
The main building block, a section element, for publications. It may be quite small, containing just a description (a title and a paragraph or two), an instruction or it may be a bit larger. But usually the aim is to make it a self-contained piece of content to build larger
publications. 