styling captions + spacing (FO + Docbook 5)

[Robert Nagle <idiotprogrammer@gmail.com>]

I'm in Docbook 5, using xep/pdf, and i'm looking for a way to style
captions and remove the space between the imageobject and the caption.

Chapter 18 covers how to customize the caption for FO (allegedly).

http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Captions.html

<xsl:template match="caption">
  <fo:block>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

Ok, there are multiple cobwebs  of my ignorance to untangle here. Let
me throw out what I think I know:

The book is saying that I need  to add my customizations inside this
fo:block statement.

Therefore, I would assume that this addition to my customization layer
 would have some effect. In fact it has none:

    <xsl:template match="caption">
        <fo:block font-size="9pt" color="blue" font-family="Gentium">
..... (something I copied from the Internet)
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </fo:block>
    </xsl:template>

To be honest, I don't think I even understand the XSL statement (as
basic as it is). I'm supposed to apply-templates whenever i find an
element that matches caption? Is there any need to put an xpath
statement somewhere? Does "caption" in this example in fact refer to
the element named caption, or is it a custom template called "caption"
which handles styling of the caption element?

As I mentioned, i want to reduce the space between the image and
caption (and maybe add spacing).



On the mailing list in 2007 Bob Stayton mentioned that text in caption
could stand alone, but in Docbook 5.0, a caption requires a <para> tag
inside for you to add text. That is adding extra space.

As it stands now, the caption seems almost closer to the paragraph
which follows than the image itself.

Thanks.

rj

P.s.  a parameter for this would really help!


-- 
Robert Nagle

htpt://www.robertnagle.info