Export Documents to PDF

You can export documents to a PDF file for sharing and printing. Optionally, you can add a digital signature to the exported PDF file.

Note: PDF export is not available in the WebApp. Please use the native application for Windows, Linux or Mac to use this feature.

Export PDF Files

To export a PDF file, click File, mouseover Export and click PDF File. In the Export PDF dialog, choose exported documents and other options. After confirmation of the dialog, select a destination for storing the exported PDF file.

Export Options

Documents:

• Current document — export the current document only
• Open documents — export all open documents from the main project or loaded linked projects
• All documents from the main project — export all documents from the main project
• All documents from loaded projects — export all documents from the main project or loaded linked projects

Layout:

• Book — export a single column (the displayed columns are stacked as paragraphs) using default styles
• Custom — export content with custom layout and styles using a custom HTML template, see PDF Template

Options:

• Export into a single file — if set then all exported documents will be merged into a single PDF file, otherwise a separate file will be created for each exported document (for Open documents and All documents options)
• Export displayed custom attributes in a single column — if set then columns displaying custom attributes will be compacted into a single column (for Custom layout)
• Preserve filter and sorting — if set then exported data will be filtered and sorted the same way as the table view
• Preserve section folding — if set then the content of collapsed sections will be ignored
• Ignore links to invisible objects — if set then do not include links from / to document objects which are not visible in the exported file (for Book layout)
• Add digital signature — optionally sign the exported PDF file using a provided PKCS#12 certificate, see Digital Signature below

Page Settings:

• Page size — A3, A4, A5, Legal, Letter, or Tabloid
• Page orientation — Portrait Orientation, or Landscape Orientation
• Page margins — Default Margins, Minimum Margins, or No Margins

Note: Page settings must be set in the template for Custom layout, see PDF Template.

Note: Navigation between exported PDF files using links is not supported due to limitations of Adobe Acrobat.

Example: Export a Software Requirements Specification (SRS) into a PDF file using the default title page, table of contents, headers, footers and paragraph styles:

PDF Template

You can customize the title page, document order, header and footer, table of contents, or paragraph styles using HTML export templates, see Custom Export Using Templates. To specify page layout, use paged media CSS properties in <style> tag of HTML templates. ReqView exports PDF files using Paged.js library, for more information about styling see Paged.js Documentation.

Example: Set page size to A4, page orientation to portrait, a custom margin and output page counters in the page footer.

@media print {
  @page {
    size: A4 portrait;
    margin: 25mm;
    @bottom-right {
      content: counter(page);
    }
  }
}

You can download sample PDF templates from the ReqView Support site. See ReqView Support site > Download HTML Export Templates (login is required).

Example: Download and customize PDFBookTemplate.html to generate PDF files with a book layout.

Note: Remove the page break below the table of contents if you you wish to place a page break before each <h1> heading. For instance, delete #toc { page: toc; } from the <style> element of the example template above.

Digital Signature

You can digitally sign exported PDF files using a PKCS#12 certificate file stored at your local file system:

To add a digital signature, check Add digital signature option in the Export Options dialog, then browse for a certificate file (with .pfx or .p12 extension), and finally type in your password for the certificate.

You can buy a digital certificate from a publicly trusted certification authority (CA), generate it by your company’s CA or generate a self-signed certificate. See Adobe Digital ID guide or OpenSSL Essentials for more information about working with certificates.

Notes:

• Legal requirements for digitally signed PDF files differ between countries. Businesses and government agencies can also have different requirements. Therefore, the basic signature offered by ReqView might not be suitable for some cases.
• Use a 3rd party PDF digital signature software if you require a legally binding digital signature recognized in the EU. ReqView supports adding a basic digital signature to the exported PDF files with adbe.pkcs7.detached signature format. While European Union PAdES (eIDAS) standard requires ETSI.CAdES.detached signature format.
• In certain cases, Adobe Reader shows that a digital signature is invalid because of “Invalid policy constraint” error in the certificate chain even with a certificate from a trusted CA, see Adobe Support Community for more info.