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Kate Stout wrote:
I'm considering using creating the document components in docbook...
1) Has anyone here used the docbook DTD before
2) What tools have you used to do the documentation editing?
3) What tools did you use for xml transforms?
4) Tell me what else I should know
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1. Yes, I've used it. Getting the DTD up and running was easy, getting the tools you need to make the DTD useful was a bit of a challenge. Don't worry about the complexity of the dtd. You'll probably only ever use a small subset of those tags and eventually you'll get to know it by heart. Also, certain editors have a feature that display the tags that you can use as you're writing and even drop in all of the required tags when necessary.
2. I used XMLSpy Home Edition. It's free. It provides a code view with colored text to indicate tags, attributes, content, etc. And it has that display I mentioned in #1.
3. http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html
This is actually a book--a masterpiece of documentation really--about docbook xsl, but it will explain everything you need to know and point you in the right direction. Much easier to understand than DocBook the Definitive Guide (that one just frustrated me and took me down the wrong path).
4. You might find it helpful to join one or two of the mailing lists out there. I don't have the URLs off hand, but this page http://www.dulug.duke.edu/~mark/docbookmarks/
has a list of useful links, including the mailing lists. One thing I couldn't figure out was how to easily create Web help. I couldn't find a utility or application that would do that. Sure, chunking was easy enough, and HTMLHelp was easy enough, but Web help was problematic. If you, or anyone else, has any idea how to create Web help easily (as easily as the HTMLHelp for example), let me know.
I think that's just about it. Having just gone through this, pitfalls are still fresh in my mind, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to send along an email.
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