Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: content creation

[Steve Ball <Steve.Ball@zveno.com>]

Gary Grobe wrote:
> I'm trying to get the doc process down to create some really nice docs. 
> Using vi w/ docbook is making my fingers tired, but it certainly gives 
> me lots of flexibility.

I use Emacs on OSX.  Slightly more GUI, but not much.

 > So I went out and bought adobe acrobat thinking
> it was a sort of create/edit tool for creating manuals, but turns out I 
> think it's only good for making documents into pdf files Probably a 
> waste of $250.

I don't see how it would help when your source is DocBook.

> So I converted all my docbook web pages into pdf's and they turned out 
> ok, but was wondering how you guys are going about this (creating some 
> nice user manuals) and if I understand the process correctly. Do you 
> create the content using whatever you wish and then import/convert them 
> into pdf's?

I use the DocBook XSL stylesheets to create FO, and then
turn those into PDF using Fop.  Fop runs just fine under OSX,
since Java is installed by default.

> Anyone know of any good gui tools where I can just concentrate on the 
> content (and maybe some that run on OSX, and don't cost too much)?

I've written an application that allows you to run your
documents through the XSLT processor in a point-and-click
fashion.  Would you like to beta test it?  If so contact
me directly via my email address below.

Cheers,
Steve Ball

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