docbook-apps

Many times in my technical writing, I want a subordinate thought
expressed as a sub-paragraph.

I've tried using <longquote> - that's OK but it also indents the right
margin - I only want the left margin indented.

I've tried using <itemizedlist> - that works if I use an undocumented
"mark" attribute to turn off the bullet.
(Looking at docbook 1.72.0 I found you can set the "mark" attribute to
"none")

The best would be to allow <para> to have nested <para> elements, with
the semantics of the nested ones would be indented
relative to their (immediately) containing <para> nodes. This has less
"tag" overhead (meaning, the number
of elements / attributes needed to specify) than the other two
approaches above. Has this been considered?

-Marshall

Marshall Schor wrote:
>
> I've tried using <longquote> - that's OK but it also indents the right
> margin - I only want the left margin indented.

DocBook doesn't dictate formatting. The DocBook project happens to
distribute some XSL files that can be used to get a formatted output,
but there's no reason you're forced to use them, or take them as-is. If
you want a different look, customize the standard style sheets, or make
your own.

At this point, maybe you want to ask how you would do that
customization. But I wouldn't presume to ask questions on your behalf.