Contents

  1. Authoring tools
  2. Publishing tools
  3. Convenience tools
  4. Tools for "up conversion" of non-XML formats to DocBook (N-converters)
  5. Content and document management systems
  6. Other tools
  7. Packages

Authoring tools

Information on editing applications and other authoring tools is maintained on the DocBookAuthoringTools page.

Publishing tools

Information on XSLT and DSSSL tools and other publishing tools for transforming DocBook to other formats is maintained on the DocBookPublishingTools page.

Convenience tools

Scripts, utilities, and web services that act as easier-to-use "front ends" to DocBookPublishingTools.

  • docbook-utils, a RPM package that includes front-end utilities for using the Openjade DSSSL engine; also available as a Debian Package

  • xmlto, TimWaugh's front-end for using XSLT processors (but currently only understands how to use xsltproc)

  • sgml2x, front end for Jade/Openjade and Jadetex, written in Perl

  • Docbook Transformer, web transforming service from Docbook to html, you can send a url or upload a local file from your system. You can request using GET method too. By Cartesia.org.

  • Goshaky DocBook Online Tools Upload a DocBook-XML-File, Validate it and transform it to HTML or PDF online

  • DocMan (The DocBook Toolchain Manager), a GUI application that makes it easier to convert DocBook XML source files to PDF, HTML, XHTML, and HTML Help. Available for Windows and Linux.

  • DocBook Formatting Service, the web application to demonstrate abilities of RenderX web engine.

  • susedoc, a small documentation system which is used by SUSE. It consists of Makefiles and various scripts to convert DocBook XML sources into PDF, HTML or Manpages. Available for Linux only.

Note that the front-end convenience tools the docbook-utils and sgml2x packages provide (the various docbook2* and docbook-2-* utilities such as docbook2html) are, like the older db2* utilities, (mostly) just scripts that act as "wrappers" around Openjade. So if you run into problems using the docbook2* or docbook-2-* or db2* wrapper scripts, you may want to consult the Openjade documentation and use Openjade directly instead.

Tools for "up conversion" of non-XML formats to DocBook (N-converters)

A variety of free and commercial tools exist for doing "up conversion" of non-XML formats to DocBook. The SGML Buyer's Guide calls these types of conversion tools N-converters (short for "Non-SGML/XML source document converters").

  • doclifter, converts troff documents (e.g. man pages); from Eric Raymond

  • DocBook Doclet, converts HTML and generates DocBook from Java source code

  • Html2DocBook, converts XHTML

  • DocParse, converts HTML (commercial software) 2006-04-14: seems to be defunct; no product information at http://www.commandprompt.com

  • table.el, converts ASCII tables to CALS (DocBook) and HTML tables

  • wt2db, converts plain text (Wiki text); see the Wt2Db page at this site for more info

  • DocBookClass.py, converts StructuredText

  • aptconvert, converts a form of "structured" plain text

  • AsciiDoc, converts text documents to DocBook articles, books and man pages.

  • txt2docbook, converts plain text

  • The makeinfo tool converts GNU Texinfo documents to a variety of formats, including DocBook

  • texi2db, converts Texinfo; see the Texi2Db page at this site for more info

  • In http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/help-texinfo/2002-December/000851.html is described a method for going from latex to Texinfo. Then you can use the above two tools to get a transformer from latex to Texinfo.

  • Tex4ht can transform LaTeX documents to DocBook. The command for this is dblatex.

  • ooo2sdbk, converts OpenOffice Writer documents to SimplifiedDocbook (site in French)

  • SO-to-DocBook converts StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer documents to DocBook; written in Common Lisp

  • MajiX, converts Microsoft Word documents to SimplifiedDocbook. Version 2.0 released 2004-10-29

  • Logictran R2Net, converts RTF files to DocBook, XHTML, and OEB format (commercial)

  • upCast converts Microsoft Word documents to XML. It comes with a filter (an xslt stylesheet) that outputs the document as a DocBook article. upCast is commercial but they do offer a free version for non-commercial use. The free non-commercial license is somewhat hidden on their website. Go to the Licenses page and scroll down to the "Private Licences" heading.

  • Wordplay is a Word-to-XML converter. Comes with an XSLT stylesheet to easily export Docbook-compliant XML from Word (commercial).

  • YAWC is a plug-in for Microsoft Word (97, 2000 and XP) that can generate XML according to any XML DTD. YAWC ships with support for the Simplified DocBook XML DTD, but any other DTD can be supported with a small amount of configuration work. Pro (commercial) and Lite (free) versions available.

  • x4o is a plug-in for Microsoft Word (97, 2000 and XP) that can generate XML according to any XML DTD. Commercial.

  • ROBODoc generates DocBook from documentation headers extracted from source files (these can be in C, Perl, Lisp, TclTk, C++, FORTRAN, and many other languages).

  • Exegenix converts into DocBook-based XML any file that can be printed to PostScript.

  • LyX can export a LyX document of the "DocBook SGML article/book" document class to DocBook. See also Document processing with LyX and SGML.

Content and document management systems

Information about Content and document management tools is maintained on the ContentManagementTools page.

Other tools

Packages

DocBook authoring and publishing support is available in easy-to-install-and-maintain packages for almost all widely used operating-system distributions:

DocBookTools (last edited 2007-09-30 15:46:22 by DavidCramer)