Re: [docbook-apps] DocBook Markup

[Denis Bradford <denis.bradford@verizon.net>]

By default, the docbook.xsl HTML stylesheets seem to use tables rather 
than css for some header and list elements. Likewise, CSS class 
attributes are not generated by default as you would need to do what you 
want. You can find some discussion about this in the docbook-apps mail. 
For example, this thread:

http://www.ecos.sourceware.org/ml/docbook-apps/2003-q1/msg00684.html

You might also check the HTML Parameter Reference 
(http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/doc/html/) for 
parameters that control the generation of tables or CSS support. For 
instance, one or more of these might help you.

Looking through HTML Parameter Reference , I find a bu (I haven't used 
'em, so can't say for sure):

   admon.style — CSS style attributes for admonitions

   annotation.css — CSS rules for annotations

   css.decoration — Enable CSS decoration of elements

   callout.list.table — Present callout lists using a table?

   table.borders.with.css — Use CSS to specify table, row, and cell 
borders?

  segmentedlist.as.table — Format segmented lists as tables?

  variablelist.as.table — Format variablelists as tables?

  make.graphic.viewport — Use tables in HTML to make viewports for graphics

Finally, you may choose to customize a few templates. For example, I 
customized the standard blockquote template like this:

<!-- eliminate table for blockquotes, simplify for CSS. Allow author to
specify a class by setting role attribute -->

<xsl:template match="blockquote">
   <xsl:variable name="class" select="@role"/>
   <div>
           <xsl:attribute name="class">
             <xsl:choose>
               <xsl:when test="@role">
                 <xsl:value-of select="$class"/>
               </xsl:when>
               <xsl:otherwise>
                 <xsl:value-of select="name(.)"/>
               </xsl:otherwise>
             </xsl:choose>
           </xsl:attribute>
     ...

   </div>
</xsl:template>

Russell Seymour wrote:
> Denis,
> 
> I want to write DIVs instead of Tables ultimately.  This is where web 
> pages are going as there are several problems with tables in HTML.
> 
> I am aslo having problems assigning 'class' tags to tables which makes 
> the layout difficult.  Using DIV allows mcuh more control through the 
> use of CSS.
> 
> Russell
> 
> Denis Bradford wrote:
>> Where do you want to generate divs?
>>
>> I haven't noticed a one-to-one mapping in the docbook HTML 
>> stylesheets: divs seem to be generated to put structure around all 
>> kinds of things that don't inherently have structure in HTML. For 
>> example:
>>
>>   <section>
>>     <title>title</title>
>>     <para>text</para>
>>   </section>
>>
>>   might become:
>>
>>    <div>
>>      <h2>title</h2>
>>      <p>text</p>
>>    </div>
>>
>> The other possible answer is that if you have a customization layer, 
>> you can make divs appear any place you want.
>>
>>
>> Russell Seymour wrote:
>>> I have been looking around on the web for a while and the excellent 
>>> www.sagehill.net site but I have been unable to work out what DocBook 
>>> markup can be used that will be converted to a DIV in the HTML output.
>>>
>>> Is there such an element that I can use for this?
>>>
>>> Thanks, Russell
>>>
>>
>