Multiple new features and usability enhancements have been added to StyleVision® 2010 based on customer requests. All of these combine to streamline e-Form development and template design and portability for more efficient reporting based on XML, XBRL, and database sources.

Completely new design paradigm

StyleVision now gives you the option to create templates within layout containers and even optionally upload a blueprint image. This feature adds a whole new flexibility to the design process, letting you approach StyleVision in the same way that you use other design applications - specifying layout first and adding content after.

This new feature, coupled with absolute positioning (below), makes StyleVision a powerful tool for true electronic forms design.

Layout containers can:

• Be inserted within document templates or encompass the entire document.
• Inherit the dimensions of the document section or have user-defined dimensions.
• Be assigned any number of style properties (borders, background color, font, etc.).
• Contain a blueprint image to serve as a reference template for the design.

Layout container characteristics are accessible through the Properties and Styles windows.

True electronic forms design through absolute positioning

In order to accurately produce stunning electronic forms that realistically mirror printed form designs, StyleVision now includes the ability to absolutely position all layout elements, boxes, containers, etc. Instead of having content and layout elements flow on the page automatically like a typical web page layout, you can now specify exact x and y coordinates for each element to absolutely position them on a page.

This feature gives designers and developers more control in their form design in the manner of desktop publishing applications, but also adds the powerful single source publishing capabilities for XML, XBRL, and database data that have always been present in StyleVision.

Ability to print design templates

StyleVision now lets you print design templates directly from the user interface for documentation purposes. This promotes easy collaboration with other stakeholders, allowing them to preview document markup and design before XML, database, and/or XBRL-derived content is added to the generated output.

Support for multiple page layouts in one document

StyleVision now allows you to create multiple page layouts within the same document. This is very useful for printed media, in which it is often necessary to combine portrait and landscape modes, have different headers and footers, variable page sizes, etc.

This feature is enabled through the Insert Page/Column/Section menu, where selecting New Document Section lets you easily define any of these settings.

Inline HTML, XSLT, XSL:FO processing commands

The ability to use inline HTML, XSLT, and XSL:FO processing commands gives you additional flexibility in your design, enabling you to use functionality that is not sometimes natively supported in StyleVision.

User-defined items, namely user-defined elements or user-defined blocks, can be inserted at almost any point in a design template. An example using XSL:FO to insert a title page appears below.

Extension templates based on any XPath

StyleVision 2010 lets you use the flexibility of any XPath statement to specify output for your designs. XPath wildcards (*, node(), etc.) and the | operator, for example, can now be used for user-designed templates that can output a wide range of variable data based on the referenced XML source code. This allows for full flexibility in selecting nodes and values from any XML location and in any combination within your document(s).

Ability to import external XSLT files

StyleVision 2010 now allows you to import external XSLT files as part of their template designs. This adds an xsl:import statement to the StyleVision stylesheet and enables designers to augment their hard coded XSLT files with styles and other integrated features from the StyleVision design interface.

Column formatting for print output formats

StyleVision now allows you to create static columns in their template designs for printed output, which is essential for newspaper-type layouts. One characteristic of those columnar layouts is that content automatically flows from the bottom of one column to the top of the next. In addition, the Insert Page/Column/Section > New Column option, which can also be accessed in the context menu, can be used to force content into a new column.

XHTML output option

StyleVision now lets you choose whether you would like to generate HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 Transitional documents from your template designs. This setting can be selected or modified at any time in the Properties window.

Disable-output-escaping function

The disable-output-escaping function is used in XSLT to enable developers to render code as-is, without it being transformed by a processor. This is commonly used when there are CDATA sections in source files or the XML is used as a wrapper for HTML. This feature is available in the Properties dialog.

Ability to modify output DPI

StyleVision now allows you to control the print output resolution in your designs in the Properties dialog by specifying the DPI. This lets you accurately fine-tune the conversion from pixel units to absolute units (cm, in, etc.) for better control over how CSS settings get applied to print output formats.

Support for variables in design

StyleVision now lets you declare variables based on any XPath expression (previous support for variables was limited to a specifically selected node in the template design). This feature can be accessed by simply right-clicking the node template where the variable is to be applied. You can also rely on the XPath Builder to ensure a valid XPath statement.

Native code calls (.NET, Java, JavaScript, etc.) in XPath statements

StyleVision 2010 now supports the use of native code calls in XPath statements. For example, the XPath expressions below are examples of using Java and .NET extension functions in auto-calculations.

Java: java:java.util.Date.toString(java:java.util.Date.new() )

.NET: clitype:System.Math.PI()

Support for fixed lines in form design

Fixed lines can be inserted in StyleVision layout boxes and their properties are easily set and modified in the Properties window. Lines can be drawn in virtually any length and direction for absolute positioning.

Internet Explorer support extended to include IE8

StyleVision's support for Internet Explorer has been extended to include the newest version of the browser, IE8.