I experimented with DocBook XML a while back, and also used it professionally for documenting a few software projects, but since the tool support at the time was not very good, I soon abandoned it in favor of hand-written LaTeX, and later LyX.
Now I'm considering taking another look at DocBook, and I was wondering, what are the best tools for working with DocBook XML documents today?
I don't have much personal experience with DocBook itself, but I know that the recent versions of OpenOffice.org Writer allow you to save to this format.
If you mean a dedicated GUI editor, I'm not sure if there is one.
But there are plenty of other tools: http://docbook.sourceforge.net/
And the external links section on this Wikipedia article would probably have some more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook
I looked for some GUI tools a few years ago, and chose XMLmind.
It's not perfect but it's better than directly editing the docbook XML.
It doesn't hide the underlying docbook structure, which can be confusing for someone used to MS Word. However, I like it that way, because it allows to concentrate on the document's structure instead of fighthing with the formatting (like you have to with most MS Word "legacy documents").
It still gives a preview of the formatting, but the final formatting is something that can be dealt with later in a uniform way with XSLT/CSS.
For a full graphical interface, oXygen XML editor provides full docbook syntax directed editing, has a host of other xml based support tools and is ready with support for docbook v5 which uses Relax NG as its schema. Available on Linux and Windows. For a more general purpose editor, emacs takes some beating, but it takes a while to get used to it.
This question has been asked and answered many times on the docbook-apps mailing list if you'd like to search the archives.
All docbook questions will be answered on the lists. See the wiki at http://wiki.docbook.org/topic/DocBookAppsMailingList
Despite OpenOffice.org Writer offering support for import and export of DocBook, I wouldn't suggest it. The support is highly outdated and works properly only for <article> style documents; everything else comes out poorly, if at all.
I've had success using Notepad++ and some plugins for editing, as well as eDe for processing of the DocBook files. I've written up my how-to here: http://steves-wiki.wikispaces.com/DocBook.
The fastest way I found to write documentation in docbook format was using VEX (http://vex.sourceforge.net/). It is built into Eclipse IDE and provides semi-wysiwyg authoring, but the real power is on the element auto suggestion when pressing ctrl+space. It lacks extended editing like tables and images...but you can always switch to "code mode".
I'm using: http://www.oxygenxml.com/ Just started with it, but it's extremely easy. Maybe a bit overkill if you plan on just writing some books.
I'm just looking into docbook now as a potential format for writing documentation so take what I say with a grain of salt. However, I'm just now playing with Serna WYSIWYG XML editor which seems pretty promising. And best of all, they have a free open source version:
We had a look at several tools, as we work in a multiple OS environment (developers mostly working on some Linux or OSX; technical writers mostly using Windows).
One of the first promising tools we looked at was XML Mind - XML Editor.
But soon we discovered an even more friendly tool Serna XML Editor. This last one, really feels as if you are just using a text editor it should be (aka MS-Office Word; Open-Office Word-Processor; OSX - iWork Pages; OSX NeoOffice). Just creating content! And if you want, you can just view into the under laying xml docbook structure. But that is not the normal user view.
Both editor are cross platform (Windows, Linux, Solaris, OSX).
At Sun, people used Emacs, Adobe Framemaker and Arbortext Editor. (And Sun used DocBook for all manuals, almost all man pages, etc.) If WYSIWYG is your thing, and you can afford to spend some money, then it's probably worth to take a look at the last one. If you are more comfortable with WYGIWYW (What You Get Is What You Want), then you're better of using Emacs.
For you programmers, all these tools are great. Use several myself. For writers who have only ever seen Word, I wouldn't put them in that position. (Heck, they never even saw Word Perfect and it's "show codes".) It's a hard enough learning curve for them that gets worse if you try to turn them into programmers before they're ready for it. Depends on your business requirements, really. Generally speaking, I'd say that if you're trying to get a writer to be productive, give them Arbortext.
Everyone,
Times have changed and Docbook v5 is written with Relax NG and Schematron rules. Many of the editors mentioned above don't support Relax NG, so in place validation and auto-suggestion no longer work with Docbook v5.
If you're comfortable with emacs, try the new nML mode which isn't too hard to get working.
Some of the editors do support Relax NG XML, not compact format, so you have to use trang to convert between the two forms, and then you may get editing support, if you write an XML catalog file to help resolve XIncludes. My advice is to query the vendor for support before trying it out, since you'll also get a good indication how responsive the vendor is. Here's a response from oxygen:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting us.
- Yes, Oxygen does support Relax NG Compact form.
- Yes, it does support include.
Yes Oxygen does include path support so that a line like "include href="publishers.rng" can be interpreted. You have to create an Oasis XML Catalog 1.1(File -> New -> From Templates) and in it indicate the right path to your file. Then add this catalog to the list of XML catalogs in Oxygen: Options -> Preferences -> XML / XML Catalog, New and browse for the created catalog (it should already be in the combo list if it is open).
No limitations other than the 30 day use limit on the free trial.
Let us know if you need further assistance or information.