OpenOffice.org 1.9 (FC4t3)

[Paul W. Frields]

FWIW, I have been playing a little bit with the FC4test3 build, and as
of last night, OO.o now will create DocBook XML 4.1.2 documents "out of
the box," as long as the Java environment is installed.  This could be a
great step forward for our project since it would allow non-Emacs, non-
XML folks to write documents.  If I use OO.o styles as follows, the XSLT
stuff makes valid DocBook XML:

OO.o format: (OO.o styles are in [] brackets)
-=-=-=-
[Heading1]My Title[/Heading1]
[Body text]Some text.[/Body text]
[Heading2]Another Chunk[/Heading2]
[Body text]Some more text.[/Body text]

Produces this DocBook XML 4.1.2 text (although the indentation may not
match PSGML):
-=-=-=-
<sect1>
  <title>My Title</title>
  <para>Some text.</para>
  <sect2>
    <title>Another Chunk</title>
    <para>Some more text.</para>
  </sect2>
</sect1>

It's a great start, especially considering what a confusing PITA it is
for a newbie to install any DocBook functionality in OO.o 1.1.x.

I haven't fully investigated yet how well the XSLT stuff in OO.o works
to import documents.  In other words, will it serve well for
collaboration between people who are not using the same tool?  I don't
know, but the barrier certainly seems significantly lower for first-time
contributors, if they prefer to write in a full-featured WYSIWYG word
processor.  

Next up -- and after the IG is out and the DocG is revving up -- I may
look into creating an OO.o style template that would be even more
WYSIWYG than what's there now.  It would include properly formatted
admonitions with graphics, coloration to match the HTML build, etc.

This is just a mini-news bulletin, not a call for a new toolchain.
However, since the tool is available and may provide functionality for
new contributors, it will probably be addressed in the Documentation
Guide.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
 Fedora Documentation Project: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/docs/
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