How does one specify a section-like entity without a title in a docbook article?

Question

I have an article that I'm converting to Docbook format. The article contains small lightweight sections that group together a few (simple) paragraphs. The sections do not contain titles.

I cannot find an element in Docbook that denotes this structure. All section-like elements I've found require a title.

A close example of what I want to do is like how in a chapter or short story sometimes to denote a break in setting, two paragraphs will be separated by blank lines or ** * ** or some other visual cue connoting discontinuation. I looked at the book element to see how this would implemented in a book but couldn't find any suitable element there.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Would <bridgehead>** * **</bridgehead>, as a separator between paragraphs, work?

I realize that's not the same as a title-less section-like container, but I believe it's the closest DocBook gets to what you're after.

Answer 2

Would ** * **, as a separator between paragraphs, work?

This appears to be what I want. In reading the Docbook documentation for the bridgehead element, I see that Docbook isn't so much designed to do old-fashioned, non-hierarchical layouts.

Some documents, usually legacy documents, use headings that are not tied to the normal sectional hieararchy. These headings may be represented in DocBook with the BridgeHead element.

BridgeHeads may also be useful in fiction or journalistic works that don't have a nested hierarchy.

But such legacy documents are at least supported. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!