Release of XMLmind XML Editor v9.5

Release of XMLmind XML Editor v9.5

New "Bidi Support" add-on, which adds bidirectional script support to XMLmind XML Editor (XXE).

This new add-on is not installed by default. If you plan to author documents containing right-to-left scripts (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) using XXE, you must really install this add-on (using "Options|Install Add-ons"), as, out of the box, XXE has no bidirectional script support whatsoever. Without this add-on, even the most basic editing features, like the location of the insertion cursor (caret), won't work or would be incorrect.

IMPORTANT

On the other hand, do not install this add-on unless you have a real need for it. Installing this add-on has a substantial performance penalty on XXE, even when authoring documents not containing any right-to-left scripts.

A sample XHTML document containing English, Arabic and Hebrew, created using XXE, is found in bidi_support_addon_install_dir/samples/sample1_en_ar_he.html. Some DocBook and DITA samples are also found in the same directory.

By reading "XMLmind XML Editor - Bidirectional Script Support", you'll learn to use XXE as effectively as possible in order to create documents mixing right-to-left (RTL; like Arabic and Hebrew) and left-to-right (LTR; like English and French) scripts. Corresponding screencast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8n3LSGAKlEQ.

Many thanks to our sponsors!

The development of this new "Bidi Support" add-on, a large and complex add-on indeed, has been entirely funded by Université de Caen Normandie and CNRS (IR Métopes and Equipex Biblissima). These French education and research public organizations have agreed to make this add-on an integral part of the XMLmind XML Editor product, hence to make it available to all XMLmind XML Editor users, including free-to-use Personal Edition users. Many thanks to our generous sponsors!

Other enhancements:

• Reorganized and improved the View menu. This menu has now all the entries and submenus needed to let the user change the way tree views and styled views are rendered on screen: "Text Size", "Display Images", "Show Tags", "Tree View Details" (new), "Add Views" (replaces previous "Multiple Views" submenu) and the list of stylesheets found at the end of the menu.

  Last but not least, the view settings of the document being edited are now automatically made persistent across editing sessions.

  Moreover, if you wish to use the view settings of the document being edited as the defaults for all the documents of the same type (e.g. all DITA Topic documents), suffice to use new "Options|Customize Configuration|Use Current View Settings as Default" command.

• It is possible to install both the "RenderX XEP XSL-FO processor plug-in" add-on and the "Apache FOP 1.x XSL-FO processor plug-in" add-on. When this is the case, by default, XEP supersedes FOP. The "Add-on|XEP" preferences sheet, which is found in the "Options|Preferences" dialog, has a new "Use Apache FOP rather RenderX XEP" check-box which lets you change this.
• Upgraded XMLmind Assembly Processor to version 1.0.11.
• Upgraded XMLmind Ebook Compiler (ebookc for short) to version 1.4.3.
• Upgraded XMLmind DITA Converter (ditac for short) to version 3.8.1.
• Upgraded XMLmind Web Help Compiler (whc for short) to version 3.1.1.
• Upgraded the "Word To XML" add-on to XMLmind Word To XML version 1.8.3.
• Upgraded the XMLmind XSL-FO Converter (XFC for short) plug-in to version 6.3.1.
• Upgraded Saxon to version 9.9.1.8.
• Upgraded the Apache Batik plug-in to version 1.14.
• Upgraded the Apache FOP plug-in to version 2.6.
• "FlatLaf Look and Feel" add-on: updated FlatLaf to version 1.0.
• "Edit source" add-on: upgraded its RSyntaxTextArea components to version 3.1.2 which implements Markdown syntax highlighting.
• XMLmind XML Editor is now officially supported on Java™ 15 platforms.
• XMLmind XML Editor is now officially supported on macOS Big Sur (version 11.0), except on Macs having an Apple M1 (ARM-based) processor. Macs having an Apple M1 will be officially supported by XMLmind Software as soon as both a “native” OpenJDK and a “native” OpenJFX are available for this platform.

Bug fixes:

• On Windows, with a text size set to 100% (that is, the system default), the default font size of 11pt used by XXE for the styled views caused some characters to be oddly spaced (“uneven kerning”).

Regressions:

• There is no way to specify the followings view settings: "Display Images", "Show Tags", "Tree View Details", for all documents whatever their document types. Corresponding user preferences: imageViewportMode, showTags, showTableTags, treeViewShowAttribute, treeViewShowText, treeViewShowComment, treeViewShowPI, have been discontinued.
• The "Integrated spreadsheet engine" add-on has been discontinued.

Possible incompatibilities:

• The base font size of the tree view is now expressed in “CSS points” (a unit which is independent of the platform, screen, display scaling, etc), just like the default font size of the styled view. Its default value is 10pt. The corresponding user preferences key has changed from "treeViewBaseFontSize" to "treeViewFontSize".

What is XMLmind XML Editor?

Home page: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/

Personal Edition is free to use by many persons and organizations. Download: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml