Re: [docbook-apps] Conceptual problem formatting <preface> material

[Chris Ridd <chrisridd@mac.com>]

On 1 Nov 2010, at 16:49, Bob Stayton wrote:

> Hi Chris,
> I've done similar books like this using preface elements with role attributes, and then customizing the book template to output them in the order you want.  The titlepage template system is not really appropriate for that kind of extended information.

Right, thanks for helping me avoid that particular blind alley :-)

> For each special preface, I add a template with match="preface[@role = 'something']" to handle its formatting, and then add the following to the book template to apply it:
> 
> <xsl:apply-templates select="preface[@role = 'something']"/>
> 
> That way if a book instance does not have such a preface, this step is just skipped.
> 
> You'll also want to add an empty template in normal mode to prevent the preface element from being processed again in book order:
> 
> <xsl:template match="preface[@role = 'something']"/>

I'm confused now. Firstly I've got one <preface> with several sections, not multiple <preface>s. (Though we're amenable to creating multiple <preface>s if it makes things easier. It isn't /quite/ separating content from presentation though :-)

But I'm mostly confused about your contradictory suggestions in the 1st and last lines! ie

add a template with match="preface[@role='something']" to format it
add an empty template with match="preface[@role='something']"

Ah - there's a mode parameter?

> You'll need to decide which of these have their own fo:page-sequence, and call the template name 'page.sequence' with that as content.
> 
> And you'll need to customize the templates named 'page.number.format' and 'initial.page.number' to get the right page numbering scheme.
> 
> The trickiest part in this design is getting the copyright and "Contacting" information on the same page.  The copyright info is normally processed in the titlepage page-sequence.  For that case, I would customize the template named 'book.titlepage.verso' to apply templates to that preface element, and leave that one out of the book template.

I'm away from my stylesheets ATM, but will look at that tomorrow. I've already managed to remove the copyright stuff from my titlepage, and I *think* I've removed the preface from my book template, so I'm part the way there. The dratted preface still appears in my TOC, so some butchery is still needed...

Cheers,

Chris