Request Info on DocBook

[Gary Schnabl]

Garnier Garnier wrote:
> Hello Listers,
>  
> I am about to explore DocBook. I am sure some of the listers must be using it or have used it in the past. Could you please share your experience? Went through some of the details over the net and it seems a good tool to switch to but involves a very deep learning curve. Is there any plug-in available to make things easier? I need to know this as some of the writers are not keen to learn XML and would rather click buttons that would take care of what they want to generate. The company will definitely not invest in training nor am I aware of any institute/entity in India that imparts training in DocBook.
>  
> When I start exploring I will definitely join the DocBook user forum. Am writing to this list as I need some firsthand information about the tool.
>  
> Any kind of related information is welcome.
>  
> TIA
> B/R
> Garnier
>   

In order to do DocBook XML, all you need is FrameMaker 7.0 or higher in 
order to do it fairly effortlessly--once you have your plan of action 
clearly thought out. An XML editor might make some of the work 
easier--for doing various tasks or for studying DocBook XML.

The older (2002 or so) Adobe documentation has some (some limited, some 
fairly detailed...) information on how to start. Basically, you need to 
take a DocBook DTD of one of the available versions: say, 4.1.2, 4.x (up 
to 4.5), or use the incomplete DocBook 5.0 DTD to start with. You can 
download them from various sources--the best being DocBook itself.

Then, you set up a simple structure application, using the appropriate 
files (read/write rules file, DTD file, struct-app file, etc.). Then use 
FrameMaker to generate an EDD file. In my case, I generated the most 
general EDD file (huge) that covers practically everything that 
FrameMaker can do, which you can reduce afterwards in order to apply one 
of more concise, especially formatted EDDs for your project. Or just 
keep using the huge general EDD. Your choice.

Gary