The Stationery designer creates Stationery with ePublisher Designer using a Stationery design project. Stationery specifies the settings ePublisher uses to generate output. Stationery designers create Stationery by creating a Stationery design project in ePublisher Designer and then saving the processing rules, styles, and other information specified in the Stationery design project as Stationery. ePublisher Express and ePublisher AutoMap can then use the Stationery to generate output.

When the Stationery designer creates a project in ePublisher Designer and then saves a project using the Save As Stationery option, ePublisher Designer creates a Stationery file. A Stationery file is a file with the .wxsp file extension that contains formatting, project settings, project overrides, and style information. Source documents and document-specific information, such as Document Manager groups, are not saved in Stationery. After the Stationery designer creates the Stationery, writers use the Stationery provided by the Stationery designer when they create an ePublisher Express project. Writers use their ePublisher Express project and Stationery to generate output.

When the Stationery designer saves the Stationery, ePublisher creates the following folders:

where StationeryName is the name the Stationery designer specified for the Stationery, and OutputFormat is the type of output format the Stationery Designer specified for a target in the Stationery.

The StationeryName\Formats\OutputFormat folder contains any customizations or overrides the Stationery designer specified when designing the Stationery. ePublisher Express synchronizes with the files in the OutputFormat folder and uses the information about customizations and overrides contained in files in the OutputFormat folder to generate output.

The StationeryName\Formats\OutputFormat.base folder contains copies of all the files located in the \Program Files\WebWorks\ePublisher\2024.1\Formats\OutputFormat folder. These files define the default output format and transforms and are installed by default when you install ePublisher.

Stationery designers can do a compare, or diff, between the files located in these folders to quickly see any customizations or overrides specified for the Stationery. Stationery designers can use this information to help them reapply customizations and overrides as needed when designing a newer version of the Stationery in ePublisher Designer.

When the styles or features used in the generated output need to change, the Stationery designer uses the ePublisher Designer Stationery design project to update the styles and features specified in the Stationery, and then the Stationery designer saves the changes, creates updated Stationery, and deploys the Stationery. Once the new Stationery is available, writers synchronize their ePublisher Express project with the updated Stationery file and use the updated Stationery the next time they generate output.

For more information about synchronizing Stationery, see Synchronizing Projects with Stationery.