Export Documents to PDF

You can export documents directly to a digitally signed PDF file. To export a PDF file, click File, mouseover Export and click PDF File.

Note: PDF export is available in ReqView native applications for Windows, Linux and Mac, but not in the web application.

Export Layout

In the Export Options dialog, choose the layout and style of the exported documents:

• 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 Custom PDF Template

Export Options

In the Export PDF Options dialog, select one or more additional export options:

• Export multiple documents in the current project — if set then all open documents will be exported, otherwise only the current document will be exported
• 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
• 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 links to filtered out objects and to objects in closed documents, or documents not included in a custom template are omitted
• Add digital signature — optionally sign the exported PDF file using a provided PKCS#12 certificate, see Digital Signature below

After confirmation of the dialog, select an output folder storing the exported PDF file(s). If you use the Book layout then PDF files contain the predefined title page, table of contents, headers, footers and paragraph styles:

Custom PDF Template

Create a PDF template to customize the title page, document order, header and footer, table of contents, or paragraph styles. PDF templates have HTML format (see Custom Export Using Templates) and use paged media CSS properties in <style> tag to specify page format (see Paged media).

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);
    }
  }
}

ReqView exports PDF files from HTML templates using Paged.js library. For more information see Paged.js Documentation.

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

Example: Custom template PDFTableTemplate.html generates PDF files with a table layout.

Note: Ensure that all content fits in the page when using a custom template. For instance, very large table cells can break the page layout.

Example: Custom template PDFBookTemplate.html generates PDF files with a book layout.

Note: Remove the page break below the table of contents (TOC) 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.