DOCBOOK-APPS: OpenOffice and DocBook

[Bob Stayton <bobs@caldera.com>]

Mark Evans asked me to forward this message
about an open source DocBook editor.

----- Forwarded message from "M. Evans"  -----

Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 13:21:47 -0700
From: "M. Evans" 
Subject: OpenOffice WYSIWYG DocBook

You might be interested to know that OpenOffice Writer can serve as a
WYSIWYG DocBook editor. The support at this stage is somewhat
preliminary, but worth exploring (see below). OpenOffice.org can
always use more help if you care to participate in the project.

Native OpenOffice files are themselves XML, but the suite also
integrates support for DocBook XML. There is a mailing list,
http://xml.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=dev

Native DocBook and PDF import/export will feature in the next major
release of OpenOffice (a few months away).

DocBook is already possible in the current release 1.0.1, albeit not
'out of the box.' You must install add-on components.

OpenOffice is fully cross-platform and even runs on Mac.
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html

To a large extent OpenOffice can import legacy Word files. (Worst
case: RTF can bridge from Word to OpenOffice.)

Since OpenOffice itself uses XML file formats, the conversion to and
from DocBook involves XSL transformations. These we can inspect and
change if need be.

OpenOffice is free and open-source.


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
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