docbook-apps

Hi all,

We're thinking in documenting our designs using Docbook. However, some
members of our team don't feel comfortable editing the XML directly
(they usually work with Word 2007). For this reason I took a look at
the roundtrip (wordml to docbook conversion) stylesheets and frankly,
they work very well for our purpose. The only thing I can't get
working is docbook attributes. I don't fully understand the paragraph
that comes in the specifications.xml document that explains how to do
it:

"XML attributes are encoded in Word comments (annotations). Some
dummy text (just a space, using a
character style that includes the hidden property) anchors the
comment. Within the comment text, character
types are used to indicate attribute names and values (these must
be paired). This approach keeps the
attributes separate to the main body and allows multiple
attributes to be encoded."

For example, if I want to include a xpointer attribute to a xi:include tag:

1) I apply the xinclude style to a line. The text in that line will be
the href attribute.
2) I select some dummy text in that line (for example an space) and
apply the "attributes" style to it.
3) With that space selected, I add a Word 2007 comment. Now, how I
indicate attribute names and values within that comment? How do I
split different attribute name/value pairs? Do I have to use the
"attribute-name" and "attribute-value" styles?

A working example would be greatly appreciated. I'm using 1.75.2
stylesheets and xsltproc.

Thanks for your support
Jorge

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:03:37 +0200, Jorge Martínez de Salinas
<jorge.marsal@gmail.com> wrote:
> We're thinking in documenting our designs using Docbook. However, some
> members of our team don't feel comfortable editing the XML directly
> (they usually work with Word 2007).

FWIW, there is a product--
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/
which puts a nice interface in front of the XML. Not quite WYSIWYG, but
nice. We use it for our grammars. Most of our grammar writers have never
used anything but Word before, but after a day or so they seem to be quite
comfortable with it. The company that makes it has a great mailing list,
and responds to each query.

(As a Word 2003-and-earlier-versions user, if you can stomach the jump to
Word 2007, you can do anything; XMLmind is a much easier jump, IMO.)

Mike Maxwell
CASL/ U MD