3. Converting an XML document to another format

[Important]About Evaluation Edition

Do not be surprised because XMLmind XSL Utility Evaluation Edition generates output containing random duplicate letters. Of course, this does not happen with Professional Edition!

Figure 1. The main window of XMLmind XSL Utility
The main window of XMLmind XSL Utility
Procedure 1. How to convert an XML document to another format
  1. Specify the XML document to be converted in the Input file text field.

    The button next to the text field allows you to choose this XML document using the standard file chooser dialog box.

  2. Choose the conversion using the Conversion specification combobox.

    [Caution]

    Make sure to choose the conversion which matches the document type of your input file. For example, make sure to choose dbToRTF if you want to convert a DocBook 4.x document to RTF. Do not choose db5ToRTF because this will give unexpected results.

    [Note]DocBook 5.1+ support

    Note that db5ToXXX conversions work for DocBook 5.0 input files as well as for DocBook 5.1+ input files. However if the DocBook 5.1+ input file contains an assembly (i.e. not a book, chapter, article, etc), then you must use dbasmToXXX conversions instead.

    [Tip]

    Do not hesitate to remove all the conversion specifications you don't need. This will unclutter the popup menu displayed by Conversion specification combobox. In order to do this, select the unwanted conversion and then click the Remove button.

  3. Specify the output file or directory in the Output file text field.

    The button next to the text field allows you to choose a save file or a save directory, depending on the conversion selected in step #2. Examples: generating a PDF file requires you to specify a save file; generating Eclipse Help requires you to specify a save directory.

    [Tip]

    The filename specified in Output file text field may reference the %I variable. (Appendix A, Variables describes all the variables supported by XMLmind XSL Utility.)

    For example, let's suppose the Output file text field contains %~pI/rtf/%~rI.rtf. When you'll convert /home/john/docs/manual.xml to RTF, the generated file will be found in /home/john/docs/rtf/manual.rtf. When you'll convert /home/john/docs/primer.xml to RTF, the generated file will be found in /home/john/docs/rtf/primer.rtf.

  4. Optionally, check the "Preview result in a helper application" checkbox if you want to preview the result of the conversion in a helper application such as Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, etc. Such helper applications are specified once for all using Preferences, "Helper Applications" section.

  5. Click the Convert button.

3.1. Canceling the current conversion process

After the conversion process is started, the Convert button becomes the Cancel button and allows you the stop the conversion.

A conversion can be be stopped only after the current conversion step (example: the XSLT transformation step) is complete, therefore clicking the Cancel button generally has not an immediate effect.

If you think that the current conversion step has entered an endless loop, click the Cancel button while pressing the Shift key. This will abruptly stop the overall conversion process. After doing that, it is recommended to restart XMLmind XSL Utility as the application may become unstable.