RE: [docbook-apps] XML editor with a quesiton about the WordML style sheets

["scott" <scott.speights@o3sis.com>]

Hello,

Since this thread has been extended, I would like to ask if anyone has
an idea when the WordML to Docbook (vice-versa) style sheets are going
to be finalized. I guess this is related to the next style sheet
release. 
Is there some documentation about the concept behind DB to WML/WML to DB
and maybe what the limited subset that Steve talks about below? Should I
just go look in the source? What is the status of the WordML style
sheets in the DocBook CVS? 
My primary Goal here is to get the documents out of Word and into
docbook, but being able to go back and forth sounds very nice. It would
be a relief to have a quick and brilliantly thought out, comprehensive
way to do this.

As far as editors go, XML Mind works fine for me. I have never edited
with Oxygen (although I hear that it is excellent). 
As a writer, when I look for an editor I look for something that allows
me to see what I'm going to print (digital or hard copy) and something
that allows me to organize what I'm doing before I start writing (for
longer documents) and XML Mind has both with the style and tree views.
If I am documenting in DocBook, then I want a plain text editor as well
so I can modify the code within an xml doc the way I want it. I haven't
encountered this feature in XML Mind but this is the only thing I'm
really missing and can imagine it wouldn't be necessary for a lot of
writers. 
@ Tomas: do you know if XML Mind can do the same thing with FO
customization layers, whether it will read FO layers in real time and
use that formatting? That would be very nice. 

Thanks,
Scott


________________________________________
From: Tomas HAJEK [mailto:tomas.hajek@st.com] 
Sent: 24 October 2005 09:54
To: Supun Gunasena
Cc: Steve Ball; tom.kirkpatrick@virusbtn.com; ndecandu@rssd.dsa.int;
Thomas, Ludger; DOCBOOK-APPS; Polly Ball
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] XML editor

Hi all,

I just have to say that XMLMind editor (XXE) is very powerful because of
its real-time CSS2 styling. As it provides for many XXE-specific
extensions to CSS (like evaluating XPath expression in CSS generated
text), one can do real tricks in highlighting the document structure of
interest. 

User can also switch between various styles of view during editing - one
particular application which now comes on my XML mind is to use it to
highlight DocBook profiling information according to various criteria by
text background color. At one time I could choose to highlight according
to the "userlevel" attribute, then switch to highlighting according to
"os" attribute etc.

BTW - haven't anyone already did it? :-)

Best regards

          Tomas Hajek


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Supun Gunasena wrote: 
Hi Steve,
 
Your suggestions sound very interesting.  I have been waiting a long
time for a Docbook to WordML and WordML to Docbook stylsheet, or editor
that can do this.
I would love for someone to bring out a Docbook editor which is similar
to Word.
 
Right now, I am using XML Mind as my front end editor and other
technical writers are finding it very frustrating to use. It is very
similar to Word-Perfect back in the day!
 
Please keep me informed on your latest developments with this front-end
editor and stylesheets.
 
Thanks and regards
 
 
Supun Gunasena
Technical Writer 
 
Orion Systems International
Excellence in Health Innovation


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-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Ball [mailto:Steve.Ball@explain.com.au] 
Sent: Friday, 30 September 2005 10:18 a.m.
To: tom.kirkpatrick@virusbtn.com; ndecandu@rssd.dsa.int
Cc: Thomas, Ludger; DOCBOOK-APPS; Polly Ball
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] XML editor
 
Why not use MS Word as the front-end editor to your DocBook authoring
system?
 
Bob Stayton and I have been working on a series of XSL stylesheets that
allow roundtripping of DocBook documents through Word (or Apple's
Pages).  That is, a stylesheet transforms a DocBook document into WordML
(the XML format for MS Word 2003), and then another set of stylesheets
transforms WordML back into DocBook.
 
These transformations can be done without loss of information, but only
for a limited subset of DocBook (even more limited than Simplified
DocBook).  However, for simple documents I believe this is sufficient
for many authors.
 
I'm planning on these stylesheets shipping with the next DocBook XSL
stylesheet distribution.  My company is also working on applications and
tools to support use of these stylesheets, such as producing HTML and
PDF from freshly-authored DocBook - contact me for further details if
you're interested.
 
HTHs,
Steve Ball
 
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On 30/09/2005, at 1:43 AM, tom.kirkpatrick@virusbtn.com wrote:



I too am on the look out for a Docbook editor. My requirement is that
our editors - who know nothing of Docbook, need to be able to create and
edit Docbook documents as if they were typing a word document... ie.
easily... really easy

-- 
Tom Kirkpatrick
Web Developer - Virus Bulletin
 
On 30/09/2005, Nicola de Candussio <ndecandu@rssd.esa.int> wrote:
Hi all,
 
I am looking around for a XML editor able to provide some docbook
oriented features (such as the html or pdf creation ), the editor should
be oriented more to authors then developers.
 
Could you suggest me any good editor ?
 
Cheers
 
Nicola