Gerd F. wrote:
On the header/footer issue - I found how to do it and the XSLT file
(pagesetp.xslt). However, modification is thru using a basic text editor, and
this would be a very difficult approach. Looking at your website, you don't
have any XSL stylesheet editor, is that correct ?
We have the "XMLmind XSL Customizer" application, included in all
distributions of XMLmind XML Editor.
"XMLmind XSL Customizer" is not an XSLT editor. However it allows to:
- add or change attributes in some of the attribute sets supported
by the XSLT stylesheet,
- change the value of some of the parameters supported by the XSLT
stylesheet,
and this, without prior knowledge of XSLT.
More information in
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/help/com.xmlmind.xslcustom.Customizer.html
"XMLmind XSL Customizer" is a very useful tool provided that the XSLT
stylesheet has been DESIGNED to be customized using attribute sets and
parameters, which is not always the case.
But we could use a third party tool for that ? I'm thinking of testing the
Altova product - unless you have within your company a better tool ?
I'm sorry but no one here has ever used any XSL stylesheet editor.
Here we write all our XSLT stylesheets using emacs + nxml-mode + an XSLT
2.0 schema to parametrize the nxml-mode.
Of course, we don't use XMLmind XML Editor to do that as our XML editor
is designed to write prose and only prose.
This being said, all the XSL developers I know outside XMLmind Software
all use oXygen XML Editor for that (yes, oXygen *XML* Editor). See for
example https://www.oxygenxml.com/xml_editor/xslt_debugger.html
Do you know from your clients if they use both the DITA and DocBook styles for
writing technical manuals ? As I was new to both, I just started using DocBook
as it looked more natural to use (chapter/section/paragraph style), but maybe
DITA has more power and control over layout ?
Our clients use DITA OR DocBook for writing technical manuals. Never
both, because the investment in learning both these standards would be
too costly.
I would say that XMLmind DITA XSL stylesheets gives more control over
the layout than the DocBook XSL stylesheets. However I'm probably biased
in writing this as XMLmind Software is the author of the DITA XSL
stylesheets.
See for example, "XMLmind DITA Converter Manual", "Page headers and
footers",
http://www.xmlmind.com/ditac/_distrib/doc/manual/webhelp/pageHeaderFooter.html#pageHeaderFooter
Last question : in the demo folder of the personal edition, you have a
form-sampler xml file. Can something like this be used in a DocBook ? Or what
was the aim of it ?
XMLmind XML Editor has proprietary CSS extensions allowing to style
elements and/or attributes in order to render them as GUI components
(e.g. radio buttons, combo-boxes, checkboxes).
Example, excerpts from
XXE_install_dir/demo/form-sampler/form-sampler.css, render the "value"
attribute of element <colorA> as a button displaying a color chooser
---
colorA {
content: color-chooser(attribute, value);
}
---
Reference:
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/csssupport/color-chooser.html
The basic idea is that, for example, clicking a checkbox found in the
styled view of the document is quicker and easier for the user than
selecting "true" in the "Attributes" tool.
These CSS extensions have been used to style almost all the form
elements of XHTML. See
XXE_install_dir/addon/config/xhtml/css/xhtml_base.imp:
---
input[type=checkbox] {
content: check-box(attribute, checked,
checked-value, "checked",
allow-empty-checked-value, yes,
remove-value, yes);
}
---
Reference:
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/csssupport/check-box.html
These CSS extensions are also often used third-party XML consultants to
style some elements or attributes of their proprietary XML documents.
(Example: "A configuration for creating XLingPaper documents" by Andy
Black; http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_usercontrib/index.shtml)
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