[publican-list] Tips on How to best use Publican / Docbook

[Russell Dickenson]

On 27 March 2012 02:14, Frederic Monestel <fred.itfm at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> I am new to Publican and I am seeking some practical advice on how to best
> use Publican and Docbook.
> Could you please share your experience and any tips and tricks?
> Also another question is which IDE are you using?
> I am using emacs at the moment with nXML plugin but I have not found a quick
> and easy way to write tags and to maybe automatically close them...
>
> Many thanks for your help and keep up the good work!
> Regards,
>
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Frederic,

You've come to the right place because the Publican ML is very active.

My choice of editor is Geany because it offers all the functions I
need, has some very useful plugins, and is very easy to configure via
a GUI instead of text configuration files.

As a relative newcomer to Publican I'd suggest:

* Use a text editor which provides for autoclosing XML tags because
it's too easy to forget to close them and they can be frustrating to
find.
* Use a version control system so that you can easily revert changes.
This method is better than manually keeping older versions of files.
I'd suggest git but the choice is up to you.
* Get a tool like xmlformat
(http://www.kitebird.com/software/xmlformat/xmlformat.html) because it
can check the validity of your XML files, also reformat them according
to your configuration.
* Read the JBoss Documentation Guide because it has some great tips on
using Publican and DocBook, as well as general style tips -
http://www.jboss.org/pressgang/jdg.html.


-- 
Regards,

Russell Dickenson
Content Author and JBoss EAP Docs Team Lead
Red Hat