Re: DOCBOOK: Two columns

[Marcio de Oliveira Buss <marcio@ics.uci.edu>]

Bob Stayton wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Oct 17, 2002 at 08:25:13AM -0700, Marcio de Oliveira Buss wrote:
> > Bob Stayton wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 16, 2002 at 09:26:30PM -0700, Marcio de Oliveira Buss wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Folks,
> > > >
> > > > I am trying to write a technical paper using docbook.
> > > > How can I switch between one column text and two
> > > > columns text, in the same way Latex does this?
> > >
> > > Are you using the jade/DSSSL tools, or the XSL tools?
> >
> > I am using XSL stylesheets (xsltproc from Red Hat 7.3 and
> > xsl-stylesheets from /usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets).
> 
> Currently DocBook XSL has limited capabilities for
> switching between one column and two.  Generally it is
> achieved by using a two-column page master, and then
> creating an fo:block with the property span="all" to span
> that block across all the columns.
> 
> You can turn on two-column page masters in the current version
> by setting any of these parameters to "2":
> 
> <xsl:param name="column.count.titlepage" select="1"/>
> <xsl:param name="column.count.lot" select="1"/>
> <xsl:param name="column.count.front" select="1"/>
> <xsl:param name="column.count.body" select="1"/>
> <xsl:param name="column.count.back" select="1"/>
> <xsl:param name="column.count.index" select="2"/>
> 
> The span property is used twice in the stylesheets.
> The first is the index title.
> The index is by default two-column, so a span is used
> on the title of the index.  That's done by setting
> 'param:pagewide="1"' on the index title for recto
> pages in fo/titlepage.templates.xml.  The 'pagewide'
> parameter is used in the 'component.title' template
> in fo/component.xsl.  So that parameter can be used
> on any element listed in titlepage.templates.xsl
> as using the template 'component.title', such as
> chapter, appendix, article, glossary, etc.
> 
> But that's just the title. The pagewide parameter won't
> have any effect on other elements.
> 
> The second use of span is in table and informaltable.
> If the table's 'pgwide' attribute is set to '1', then
> the table will be put in a block that has the
> span="all" property.
> 
> Since figure and informalfigure permit the 'pgwide'
> attribute, the stylesheet should probably support
> this property there too.
> 
> So you can see that if you want any other
> switching between one and two columns, some
> customization to get span="all" into the appropriate
> fo:blocks is required.
> --
> 


What if I use openjade/DSSSL tools? I have the capability
the use them too.

Thank you,
Marcio.