How to create a publication

Objective

This article shows you how to create a simple publication.

Publications let you assemble a collection of documents into a coherent set that is often more suitable for publishing. In the user interface, the Table of Contents panel lets you navigate between the different documents. Having separate documents, makes it easier to use separate workflows and have different people contribute.

Prerequisites

• You are a manager or a contributor in a PageSeeder group.
• You know how to navigate folders and create documents.

Tutorial

In this tutorial, we’ll create a publication about cats. It will include parts about the definition, etymology, taxonomy, and evolution.

Create component documents

In this step, we are creating the document that will form part of our publication. They are often referred to as "component documents" and include most of the content.

In your group,

1. Create the folder where you want to create your publication, for example “cats” 
2. Create a Default document called "Definition"
3. Create another Default document called "Etymology"
4. Create another Default document called "Taxonomy"
5. Create another Default document called "Evolution"

Create references document

In this step, we are creating the document that will become the root of the publication. Its role is primarily to reference the components documents rather than provide content.

In the same folder:

1. Create a References document called "Cats"
2. Select Open document after it is created

Assemble the documents

Now that we have all the documents we need, we are going to connect them together:

1. Edit the document Cats (use the icon)
2. In the xref fragment (the second one after the title):
1. Start typing the name of the first component "Definition",
2. Press Enter when the document appears in the drop-down
3. Ensures it has been added to the list
3. Repeat the previous step to include other component documents ("Etymology", “Taxonomy”, and "Evolution")
4. Save and turn off editing

Create the publication

From the Cats documents:

1. Open the Document info panel
2. Click Make this document a publication
3. Click Submit – you can use the default values for ID and Type

Notes

For simplicity, this tutorial explains how to create a publication following sequential steps. But the steps can be done almost in any order, and you can add and remove component documents at any time, and you don’t have to wait until all documents are available to make the root document a publication.

Since the components are bound together by xrefs, they can also be moved to any folder without affecting the publication. It is generally best to organise them to that they are close together.

You don’t have to used Default and References documents either, the only requirement for a publication to work is that components are connected using embed or transclusions xrefs. It is common to have publications assembling documents of various document types 

For simplicity, this tutorial used a flat structure, where the root document references all the component documents. But more complex publications can use a more hierarchical structure, where the root document references documents referencing other component documents.