#### 5.3.2 Getting rid of that awful green color

Open file design.htm in a Web browser. You should see an HTML page with the heading 1.1 Test Suite Design. You will modify the appearance of text on this page.

Suppose you want the paragraph after the first heading to be some color other than green. For an ad hoc solution, you could simply inspect the HTML to find the name of the CSS class for this paragraph, then change the color designated for that class in file local.css. But the next time you generated HTML output, the text would be green again.

Look at the HTML code, and notice that the CSS class for this paragraph is shortdesc. This is also the name of the format. To see if there is a definition of a format called Shortdesc for the DITA Test Suite, with a text editor inspect the DITA Test Suite format configuration file for HTML output:

    %OMSYSHOME%\demo\DITATestSuite\_config\dts_htm_formats.ini

(The _config subdirectory holds configuration files specific to the DITA Test Suite, and dts_htm_formats.ini holds text format definitions specific to the DITA Test Suite.)

The only format definition in dts_htm_formats.ini is this one:

    [RevisedConref]
    based = Char
    color = lime

Therefore, we have to look further for the definition of the Shortdesc format. File dts_htm_formats.ini references the following format template:

    %OMSYSHOME%\d2g\local\formats\local_d2htm_formats.ini

So that is the next place to look. If you are just starting out with DITA2Go, it is unlikely you will have put any format definitions in this user-modifiable file, so you will not likely find a definition of the Shortdesc format there. The next place to look is the format configuration file referenced by local_d2htm_formats.ini:

    %OMSYSHOME%\d2g\system\formats\d2htm_formats.ini

This is the master text-format configuration file for HTML output. And sure enough, this file contains the definition:

    [Shortdesc]
    based = Body
    font size = 9pt
    line height = 10pt
    color = green
    margin left = 48pt
    margin bottom = 2pt

You most definitely do not want to change the definition in the master file, because this file will be overwritten every time you update DITA2Go. So you must override the definition, in one of the “lower” files in the chain:

- local_d2htm_formats.ini, if you never want to see the <shortdesc> element rendered in green again, in any HTML output from any DITA source
- dts_htm_formats.ini, to get rid of the green only for the DITA Test Suite.

Suppose you choose the second option. Just copying the definition to dts_htm_formats.ini and deleting the color setting will not change the color, because the Shortdesc format definition inherits all properties assigned to this format in any format configuration file up the chain. So what you must do is override the color setting, for example, by specifying no color.

Add the following format definition to dts_htm_formats.ini:

    [Shortdesc]
    color =

You do not have to repeat any of the other properties in dts_htm_formats.ini, because they will be inherited from the definition at the top of the chain.

Next time you run the DITA Test Suite conversion to any HTML output, text rendered from the <shortdesc> element will no longer appear green.

Previous Topic: 5.3.1 Producing HTML output from the DITA Test Suite

Next Topic: 5.3.3 Changing the indentation

Parent Topic: 5.3 Changing how the output looks

Sibling Topics:

5.3.1 Producing HTML output from the DITA Test Suite

5.3.3 Changing the indentation

5.3.4 Changing the spacing