Re: [docbook-apps] General question about creating docbook documents (maybe OT)

[Giuseppe Bonelli <peppo.bonelli@gmail.com>]

Hi Frank,
here the tools we use, assuming the creation of new content (for
converting existing content, we basically add a preprocess phase where
we 1. extraxt rtf from Xpress/InDesign; 2 normalize the extracted
files in word using an appropriate .dot template; 3. batch convert to
xml). It works well, but require that authors/editors learn new tools.
I work with book publishers, therefore your mileage may vary.

1. a (simple!) word template to write content in MSWord/OO;

2. batch conversion to xml (either from rtf or from the xml format of
MSWord/OO). Have a look at the roundtrip folder in the docbook xsl
distribution for inspiration.  For converting from rtf there are
various free/commercial tools available.

and/or

3. use Oxygen in author mode (WYSIWYG). This solution does have a
learning curve (admittedly not to steep), but has big advantages. We
have found that the sooner we leave Word/OO, the better. Oxygen in
Author mode is very user friendly and is far better than Word/OO for
real structured editing. For us, the Oxygen licence costs are
acceptable.

4. FOP/AntennaHouse formatter for producing PDF for print;

5. local customization of standard dc XSLT to generate other outputs;

6. we put almost everything (and definitely the xml files) under
revision control using cvs. It is quite easy to build a web upload
frontend for managing the commits/checkouts from non technical users.

regards
__peppo

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:02 AM, Frank Arensmeier <frank@nikemedia.se> wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> I would like to ask the list members: how do you create docbook-compilant
> XML documents? What does your workflow looks like so to say? Do you write
> XML files in a XML editor? A web interface? My apologies if this is slightly
> off topic.
>
> Regards,
> /frank