Confluence 3.5 : Providing PDF Versions of your Technical Documentation
This page last changed on Dec 22, 2010 by smaddox.
This page is part of the guide to developing technical documentation on Confluence Wiki. Confluence itself is an excellent platform for publishing online documentation. In some cases, though, you may need to produce PDF versions of your documentation for printing, or to supply to customers who cannot access the online version. Confluence itself provides an export to PDF. Plugins provide additional functionality.
The rest of this page gives more details of the above procedures. Customising the PDF Layout and StylesheetIf you are planning to provide PDF versions of your documentation, you may want to customise the PDF layout and styles for your space. These customisations will apply each time you export your documentation to PDF. In the PDF layout, you can add your own HTML to customise the title page, page headers and page footers in the PDF output. In the PDF stylesheet, you can adjust the appearance of the PDF pages. Editing the PDF Layout
Editing the PDF Stylesheet
Some Useful ExamplesBelow are the typical customisations you may want to make for your technical documentation. For more examples, see Editing the PDF Stylesheet. Adding a Title PageYou can create a title or cover page to your PDF document using HTML. Use the 'PDF Space Export Title Page' section of the PDF layout to do this. Adding a New Title PageThe following example uses HTML with an inline CSS rule to generate a title page. Including Content Above Table of Contents in Default Title PageThe following example includes content above the automatically-generated table of contents that appears on the default title page, so that your title page includes your own content plus the table of contents. Adding an Image to your Title PageIn the examples above, the title page includes an image called 'titlepage.png', centred in the middle of the page. The image is attached to a Confluence page and is referenced via its relative URL (that is, we use only the last part of the URL, excluding the Confluence site's base URL). Follow these instructions to include an image on your title page:
Adding Headers and FootersYou can add headers and footers to your PDF pages using HTML. Use the 'PDF Space Export Header' and 'PDF Space Export Footer' sections of the PDF layout to do this. For simple headers and footers, plain text is enough. The following example adds a simple copyright notice. Adding Page Numbering to a Header or FooterTo add page numbering to your documentation, you need to combine some customised HTML in the header or footer with some customised CSS in the PDF stylesheet.
Analysing the above CSS selector rule in more detail:
Exporting a Single Page to PDFYou can export a Confluence page to PDF. This option exports a single page and is available to all users who have permission to view the page:
Exporting a Space or a Selection of Pages to PDFUsing the built-in Confluence PDF export, you can export a single page, a selection of pages or an entire space into a single PDF file.
Exporting a Spaces or Pages to PDF via a PluginFor advanced PDF export, consider installing the Scroll Wiki Exporter plugin onto your Confluence site. Scroll provides flexible themes for configuring PDF layout and styles. You can select one of Scroll's built-in themes and configure your table of contents, header and title pages. Advanced techniques for Scroll Wiki Exporter. For even more flexibility, you can add your own theme plugins. Scroll supports themes based on DocBook XSL stylesheets. See the Scroll developer's guide. Notes
Next StepsNow you know all about providing PDF versions of your documentation. What next? See other ways of Exporting and Printing Technical Documentation. |
![]() |
Document generated by Confluence on Mar 16, 2011 18:25 |