Re: [docbook] DocBook and Publishing Software

[Dave Pawson <davep at dpawson dot co dot uk>]

On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 13:00 -0500, David White wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> The company I work for is making decisions about its plans for future 
> docbook publishing and the current situation that Framemaker is in.  
> Given that Frame may not survive, and that docbook / XML is the format 
> of choice for our publishing needs.  What are your opinions on software 
> solutions for a publishing department?  Granted the department has 
> individuals of different roles such as writers and editors etc.
> 
> The tools I have seen are two fold: WYSWYG publishing (ala frame) via 
> Adobe InDesign (which I hear isn't ready yet to replace Quark or Frame 
> yet, dont know its DocBook abilities at all).
> 
> OR the XMetal route where publishers essentially become programmers and 
> use something like Sernea from Syntext to be able to view their code.
> 
> Anyone willing to offer their suggestions from the Industry as to an 
> intelligent way to merge a department into the future of docbook publishing?

Personal opinion, one users view.

Our print people moved over from Quark to InDesign without much
hardship.
AFAIK Adobe's docbook capabilities are nil, unless you use
XEP or Antenna House to get from docbook to FO and then to PDF.

As for editors, you need to work through that with the people who
are going to use them all day long.
  If they are currently visual based, are they prepared to move
to a tag based editing situation. Some will, some won't. 
Its a peoples choice, not a technical one IMHO.

Adept (http://www.xml.com/pub/a/1999/09/adept/AdeptRvw.htm - review)
is the Rolls Royce of XML editors and seems to
provides everything for everyone.
Only one I've seen that met all our criteria.

Its expensive, but how how much is your guys time worth?

Many options for getting to printable documents,
Docbook is a good start though :-)

HTH 

-- 
Regards, 

Dave Pawson
XSLT + Docbook FAQ
http://www.dpawson.co.uk


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