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Subject: Re: DOCBOOK: What should a <sidebar> look like?


Have you considered using a table with no row separator (lines) and
no column separator (and probably no header or footer rows)?

- Walt Joyce


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Foster" <jafoster@uwaterloo.ca>
To: <docbook@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 3:28 PM
Subject: DOCBOOK: What should a <sidebar> look like?


I've been asked to convert an existing textbook to DocBook for
publishing
in a variety of media.  The authors of the textbook tried to do
students a
favour by including summary notes in the margins throughout the
book.  An
example, if you're viewing this is a fixed-width font, is as
follows:

> This is a paragraph of important text. In
> this paragraph we give an example of how            This paragraph
is an
> example.
> including summary notes in the text margins
> can significantly enhance student enjoyment.
> Students are happier when they don't have           Students like
this
> approach.
> to make their own summary notes. Blah, blah,
> blah...

I had this crazy idea that the <sidebar> element would be
appropriate.  It'
s not perfect, as I don't think a <sidebar> can be a child of a
<para>
which means my sidebars will always line up with the top of a
paragraph,
but it's pretty close.  A fragment of my markup follows:

> <section>
> <title>
> A First Section
> </title>
> <para>
> Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative
> text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative
text.
> Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.
Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.
> </para>
> <sidebar>
> <title>
> A Sidebar
> </title>
> <para>
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar
content.
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar
content.
> Sidebar content.
> </para>
> </sidebar>
> <para>
> The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing
> flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative
text.
> The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of
the
> narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The
> continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of the
> narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The
> continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of the
> narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The
> continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of the
> narrative text.
> </para>
> </section>

When I ran this through the XSL:FO stylesheets in the
docbook-xsl-1.45
distribution (as the CVS stylesheets appear to require more than my
naive
knowledge to function) the result was something close to:

> Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.
Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some
> narrative text.  Some narrative text.  Some narrative text.
>
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar
content.
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar
content.
> Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar content.  Sidebar
content.
>
> The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of
the
> narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative text.  The
> continuing flow of the narrative text.  The continuing flow of the
> narrative text.  The continuing flow of the narrative text.

The sidebar content appeared to simply be embedded in the flow of
the
document.

Has anyone managed to achieve the effect I am looking for using the
stock
DocBook DTDs and stylesheets?

Thanks for your help!

Jason Foster





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