# The local.properties file

A local.properties file in the root directory of the DITA-OT installation can be used to override the default values of various DITA-OT parameters.

Attention:
The local.properties file is still supported for backwards compatibility, but as of DITA-OT 4.2, any local configurations should be migrated to .ditaotrc configuration files.

If you always use the same rendering engine to produce PDF output for all of your projects, you could create a local.properties file in the root directory of your DITA-OT installation to set the pdf.formatter parameter and additional options for the XSL processor:

    # Use RenderX XEP Engine for PDF output
    pdf.formatter = xep

    # Specify the user configuration file for RenderX
    custom.xep.config = /path/to/custom.config

Backslash “\” characters in .properties files must be escaped with a second backslash as “\\”. If you use Antenna House Formatter on a Windows system, for example, you would set the path to the command using a properties file entry like this:

    # Use Antenna House Formatter for PDF output
    pdf.formatter = ah

    # Specify the path to the Antenna House Formatter command
    axf.cmd=C:\\Program Files\\Antenna House\\AHFormatterV62

Note:
This file can only be used to set Ant property values that can be passed as argument parameters to the command line. The DITA-OT Java code does not read this file.