[publican-list] Formatting Articles, a discussion of BZ #494147

[Jeffrey Fearn]

Ruediger Landmann wrote:
> On 12/03/2009 02:02 PM, Jeffrey Fearn wrote:
>> The difference you are talking about is user controlled content and 
>> not formatting, there is almost no difference in the way the same 
>> content is formatted.
>>
> 
> True. What I'd personally like to see in articles is even more minimal 
> front matter. Taking
> 
> http://docs.fedoraproject.org/readme-live-image/en-US.html
> 
> as an example, I'd prefer to see:
> 
> * the Product Name and Article Name combined into one line and reduced 
> in size

Or just the Article Name.

> * the logo gone or reduced in size

Remove it from, or comment it out in, Article_Info.xml

> * author names, affiliations, and email addresses collapsed into one line

Or just the name, which is an email link.

> * Table of Contents turned off (or at least turned off by default)

+1

> * Legal notice reduced in size and moved to the end of the article (or 
> maybe a footer)

Engaging legal discussion avoidance engine! ;)

> * Revision history reduced in size and perhaps limited to only the last 
> revision?

I'd just leave it out, it's required for building the RPM, but you can 
just leave out the xi:include.

> I think that this would better present a short piece (without the 
> formatting overwhelming such a short piece of writing) and that the 
> resulting doc would more easily lend itself to inclusion in a longer work.

There is no reason you can't format an article in a book differently 
than the same article when it's stand alone.

> Maybe I should mock this up to better illustrate what I have in mind?

Mock ups are always good :)

Don't forget
Cheers, Jeff.

-- 
Jeff Fearn <jfearn at redhat.com>
Software Engineer
Engineering Operations
Red Hat, Inc
Freedom ... courage ... Commitment ... ACCOUNTABILITY