ScreenSteps is primarily an online knowledge base platform, but it does support exporting content in PDF. This article will explain what PDF export options are supported and what you should expect when working with the PDF feature in ScreenSteps.
What PDFs can I export from ScreenSteps?
In ScreenSteps, you can export your articles, chapters, and manuals as PDFs. The table below shows which options are available in the admin area and the published site.
| Type | Published site | Admin area |
|---|---|---|
| Article | Yes | Yes |
| Chapter | No | Yes |
| Manual | Yes | Yes |
Content that can't be exported to PDF
The following limitations apply for exporting content as PDFs:
- Workflow articles can not be exported to PDF.
- Any embedded video or other custom html code will not be included in PDF exports.
- Checklist items will appear as headings.
- Foldable sections will appear as headings.
What are the benefits of using ScreenSteps to create PDFs?
- ScreenSteps can make generating PDF documents for your guides very fast.
- The same content that is part of your article is used to generate the PDF.
- When exporting a manual or chapter, a table of contents with links is automatically generated.
- You never have to upload updated PDFs to your site. When a user generates a PDF it will always use the most current published version of the article, chapter, or manual.
- Links between articles are automatically updated in the PDF.
- You can customize the templates that are used when generating the PDF.
What are the limitations of PDFs in ScreenSteps?
ScreenSteps is not designed to be a full-fledged PDF layout application like Adobe InDesign or even Microsoft Word. While your templates can be customized, they will rely on certain "rules" for automatically laying out the text and images on each page. You can adjust what these rules are, but you can not add customized page breaks for individual sections.
As long as you are happy with the general rules that are used to flow the text and images in your PDF document, you will be fine. But if you need control over every single detail in the PDF, then ScreenSteps will probably not be the right solution.
Articles that are restricted to certain users will not be included in manual exports.
Who can export PDFs from ScreenSteps?
Admin area
Anyone with access to the admin area of your account can generate a PDF.
Published site
You determine if you want to make PDF generation available on your published site in the Site Template sidebar settings.
How can I customize my PDFs?
Basic customizations
Basic customizations to the fonts, font sizes, logos and colors can be performed in our PDF template editor.
Advanced customizations
Advanced customizations can be done by editing the HTML, CSS, and Javascript that is used to generate the PDF. We have an extensive list of custom CSS and Javascript recipes that you can use.
You can also have our professional services team give you a quote on preparing a customized PDF template for you.