The next version of the template will use several style names that are the same as what Doc Book would use for the same functions that we have used in the past. Using the same style names would be less ambiguous when working with XML authoring or for XML structured application programming for specialized templates.

These new style names will be listed here or in other threads, so you may encounter them more than once. There will be a step-by-step procedural tutorial about how to manually convert one of the Writer Guide chapters (Chapter 1) from unstructured OOo--as now--to the XML-structured version. It's advantageous for learning XML authoring to be able to gain a feel of the land for the XML DocBook tags and such.

Automated conversion of unstructured documents to XML can also be done, but first it's important to know how to do it manually for troubleshooting purposes. Furthermore, not every automated conversion works as it should the initial time it's used for a particular document. So, anybody editing and converting an unstructured document would most likely have to dig in and delete superfluous code and add/modify other tags.

Once an XML-based (DocBook, in this case) template is made available, using it to author a chapter or such would be somewhat different at first in that only allowable DocBook tags can be used in certain locations. After a short experience with them, you will anticipate what tags to use for various functions.

The OOoAuthors XML template tutorial will go into detail about when and how to employ the correct XML DocBook structure elements in your documents.

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Gary Schnabl
(Southwest) Detroit
Two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is...