Everything explained here applies not only to DocBook, but also to all the other document types (XHTML, DITA, your custom schema, etc) supported by XMLmind XML Editor.
Use DocBook v5+|Chapter, then click .
→ , selectThe text you see, Chapter 1
, 1
, etc, is automatically generated and cannot be modified. The square patterns you see are text placeholders.
Type the title of your chapter in the first placeholder. Click on (or tab to) second placeholder and type the title of the first section. Do the same for the first paragraph of the first section.
How do you know where you are? Answer: always keep an eye at the node path bar.
The node path bar shown above indicates that the caret[3] is located inside a text node contained in a para
element, itself contained in a section
element, itself contained in a chapter
element.
Select some text by dragging the mouse over it, as you would do it in any text editor.
You can now convert this text to an emphasis
element. For that, select the item from the menu of the toolbar button shown below.
You'll not find all the elements you want in this menu. For example, you'll not find citetitle
or uri
. In the general case, you'll have to use the → (Ctrl+T)[4] command to convert the selection. More on this command later.
Let's suppose you want to add a programlisting
element after the para
element. Click anywhere inside the para
element, except inside its emphasis
child element. Even if you don't see anything special about it, this para is now implicitly selected. This means that all the commands you may invoke will use this para
as their subject.
Use → (Ctrl+J). Doing this activates the
Edit tool. Type the first few letters of the name of the element you want to insert, then press Enter.
A programlisting
element has been inserted after the para
element. The caret is inside it. You can type some text in it right away.
Note that you have used command
and not command .Table 2.1. Edit tool commands
Command | Shortcut[4] | Description |
---|---|---|
![]() | Ctrl+R (R like Replace) | Replace the node selection by a newly created element. Example: you want to replace the |
![]() | Ctrl+H (I like Insert; H is before I) | Insert a newly created element before the node selection. |
![]() | Ctrl+I (I like Insert) | Insert a newly created element at caret position[a]. |
![]() | Ctrl+J (I like Insert; J is after I) | Insert a newly created element after the node selection. |
![]() | Ctrl+T (T like Transform) | If a single element is selected, convert this element to another element which has a compatible content. Example: convert an If multiple nodes are selected, wrap a newly created parent element around this nodes. Example: wrap a |
![]() | Ctrl+Shift+T | A variant of command . It always wraps a newly created parent element around the selected nodes.Example: a single |
[a] If the element containing the caret is not explicitly selected. If an element is explicitly selected, this command inserts a newly created child element after last child element. |
Let's suppose that you want now to insert a second section after the first one. If the programlisting
is implicitly selected, using , you'll be able to insert a subsection after it, but this is not what you want to do. And if you click inside the para to implicitly select it and use , the Edit tool will not suggest section at all.
You need to explicitly select the first section in order to be able to insert a second section after it. There are many ways to do that.
Repeatedly press Ctrl+↑, while keeping an eye on the node path bar, until you select the desired ancestor element. (Press Ctrl+↓ if you have gone too far.)
Repeatedly click inside an element while holding the Ctrl key down, without moving the mouse, until you select the desired ancestor element.
Directly click on the label of the desired element in the node path bar.
Click on the content generated for the element you want to select: the section number in the case of the title
of a section
, the bullet in the case of a listitem
, etc.
Note that unlike the implicitly selected element, explicitly selected nodes have a red box drawn around them.
A number of commands, 5] nodes.
, , , , , etc, can be applied to multiple sibling[The node selection can be extended to preceding sibling using → (Esc ←) and to following sibling using
→ (Esc →). All the child nodes of an element can be selected using → (Esc ↓) .
Alternatively, you can extend the node selection using the mouse by clicking elsewhere (in the direction you want to extend the selection) while holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys.
We have already seen that the DocBook toolbar contains a number of buttons which invoke the
command. Most the other buttons ( , , , etc) invoke the add command.The add command is very different from the three
commands. The add command will find out, where after the caret position, a given element may be inserted. If an insertion position is found, the add command will then insert this given element.For example, let's suppose that you want to insert an itemizedlist
after the first para
of the first section
. Click anywhere inside the para
, really anywhere, including inside any of its descendant elements (like its emphasis
child element), and press the button of the DocBook toolbar.
The → (Ctrl+C),
→ (Ctrl+X),
→ (Ctrl+V),
→ (Backspace, Del or Ctrl+K) commands work as expected for both the node and the text selection.
Note that in addition to the → (Ctrl+U) and
→ (Ctrl+W) commands.
Also notice that the current content of the clipboard is displayed at the bottom/left of the main window.
Pressing Ctrl+Enter anywhere inside a list item (whatever its element type) or a paragraph allows to quickly add the same element after it.
Pressing Enter anywhere inside a paragraph splits this paragraph in two parts at caret position. This is the most common form of command → (Esc Enter).
Pressing Backspace at the beginning of a paragraph preceded by an element of the same type, merges the two elements. Same behavior if you press Del at the end of paragraph followed by an element of the same type. These are the most common forms of command → (Esc Backspace).
Pressing Ins allows to quickly add a text node. This is mainly useful in the following situation: you are typing some text in a para
. You insert a literal
at caret position and continue typing some text inside the newly inserted literal
.
Now you want to resume typing text inside the para
. You press Ins to quickly add a text node after the literal
and then type text in the newly inserted text node.
Press Ctrl+SPACE to insert a non-breaking space at caret position.
Implicitly or explicitly select an element and use the Attributes tool to add or modify one or more of its attributes. For example, select the
chapter
root element, click in the cell containing the value of its status
attribute (found in Value, the right column of the attribute table), type draft
and then press Enter.
However, in most case, you'll want to use the small form found at the top of the attribute table. Example: give an ID to the first section
:
Select the section
.
Press → (Ctrl+E). This activates the Attributes tool.
Type in the first text field (attribute name) the first few letters of the name of the attribute you want to add or modify. Example: type "xml:id
".
Press Enter to select the name and move the keyboard focus to the second text field (attribute value).
Type the value of the attribute. Example: type "introduction
".
Press Enter to apply the change and move the keyboard focus back to the document view. After that, you can resume the normal editing of your document.
Let's suppose you are authoring a book
but want to edit its chapter
s separately (because coworkers are working on other chapter
s of the same book
or simply because working on small documents is more convenient). How to assemble the separate chapter
s to form the book
?
Open the document containing the chapter
in XMLmind XML Editor.
Use DocBook v5+|Book, then click . This will create the book
master document. Now you need to include your chapter
document module in the master document.
Switch to the document view containing the chapter
by clicking on its tab.
Select the chapter
root element and press → → (Ctrl+Shift+C).
Command reference to the root element of a document or to any element having an ID.
allows to copy to the clipboard aSwitch back to the document view containing the book
by clicking on its tab.
Select the first, empty, chapter
of the newly created book
.
Use → (Ctrl+V) to replace this empty
chapter
by a reference to the chapter
contained in the separate document.
Notice how the chapter
included in the book
is displayed. It has a dimmed blue-gray background, which means that it cannot be edited from within the book
document[6].
If you open the modular book
and want to edit one of its chapter
modules, click anywhere in an included chapter
and then use → → (Ctrl+Shift+E). This will switch you to the (editable) document view containing the
chapter
. From here, you can switch back to the master document view by using → → (Ctrl+Shift+B).
[3] The caret is also called the insertion cursor.
[4] On the Mac, use the Command key instead of the Ctrl key.
[5] Nodes having the same parent element.
[6] The contents of the included chapter
cannot be directly modified from within the master document view. However you can freely modify the contents of the book
. For example, you can remove the chapter
reference from the book
or you can cut and paste it elsewhere in the book
.