Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
Gary Schnabl wrote,
So, what is possible using OOo (and/or the SDK) along these two lines:
(1) structured authoring and (2) XML-structured template programming
for producing templates for those users in part (1)?
Having a writer for XML would help fill a wide hole in OOo
documentation.
Gary,
You might have more luck getting an answer from one of the OOo
lists... though I don't know which one would be best. Someone at Docs
might be able to point you in the right direction, if no one there knows.
I certainly agree that this is something that needs to be written
about, including at the advanced user level (not just the techie
level), given the potential for OOo to replace FM and other tools used
by the technical publishing industry. I frequently receive questions
from techwriters on topics like this, but I have no answers -- I
barely understand the questions!
Web searching and checking various OOo projects came up with little
concerning current OOo and XML structured authoring with OpenOffice.
Much of what I did locate dealt with OOo version 1, and most were some
one to three years since last revised.
OTOH, FrameMaker was fairly well along, even a half dozen years ago,
with XML/FM authoring/template design. One such FM doc (XML structured
template design) back then was nearly 600 pages long, and there were a
number of shorter docs/tutorials. Adobe even had updated my ancient FM
7.0 to the DocBook 4.5 release last fall. OOo 2.3 is still at DocBook 4.1.2.
I'll keep looking and will try out some of those version 1 docs and see
how adequate they are or not. Some of those authors were pessimistic
about OOo and XML.
--
Gary Schnabl
2775 Honorah
Detroit MI 48209
(734) 245-3324
