EUAIN Demonstrator

Guidelines for Structuring in Open Document Format

The ODF template

This template provides the necessary styles to prepare ODF documents suitable to produce structured XML DTBook documents.

Download the template now! (for registered users only)

The custom styles provided are:

1. frame styles:
• imggroup represents «imggroup» elements of DTBook (an imggroup is a container for one or more image associated with its caption and prodnotes)
• prodnote represents «prodnote» elements of DTBook (a prodnote contains language added to the alternative-format version by the producer; commonly used to:
  • provide descriptions of one or more visual elements such as charts, graphs, etc.
  • supply operating instructions
  • describe differences between the print book and the adapted version.
• sidebar represents «sidebar» elements of DTBook (a sidebar contains information supplementary to the main text and/or narrative flow and is often boxed and printed apart from the main text block on a page. )
2. paragraph styles:
• prodnote-attributes: this paragraph style should be used in a prodnote frame to identify its author and its showin attribute.
3. characters styles:
• abbreviation: designates an abbreviation, a shortened form of a word
• abbreviation-expension: contains the expended form of an abbreviation (must be placed just after an abbreviation, otherwise it is not )
• acronym: marks an acronym
• acronym-expension: marks an expended form of an acronym (must be places just after an acronym)
• pagenum: contains one page number as it appears from the print document, usually inserted at the point within the file immediately preceding the first item of content on a new page.
• prodnote-author: the author of a production note
• prodnote-showin: an attribute of a production note to identify the kinds of display appropriate for the production note. Possible values are (these values are defined by the DTBook format):
  • "xxx" hide
  • "xxp" print only
  • "xlx" largeprint only
  • "xlp" largeprint and print
  • "bxx" braille only
  • "bxp" braille and print
  • "blx" braille and largeprint
  • "blp" braille, largeprint, and print

Guidelines for built-in styles and functionalities

In addition to the set of custom styles provided by the template, OpenOffice.org built-in styles and functionalities should be used. Please refer to the OOo documentation for more information about these functionalities.

It is particularly adviced to use the following functionalities of OOo to improve the level of structure of the files produced:

• semantic structures should not be conveyed by fonts properties (as bold, font size ...) or page components layout (notes references should not be only a number between square brackets and notes a paragraph at the bottom of the page)
• headings should be used to convey the hierarchical structure of documents,
• endnotes and footnotes should be added using the built-in OOo function,
• internal links should be realised using the bookmark / hyperlink mechanism

DTBook specific features

Metadata

OpenDocument Format allows to store some properties of the document: its title, its subject, some keywords and comment.

In addition, the odf4dtbook template allows to specify the original author of the document and an universal identifier (as specified in the DTBook format). These properties can be set in the "properties" dialog (File > Properties) in the 'User Definied' tab.

Production notes

Step 1: insert a new frame ('Insert' > 'Frame' > 'Ok')

Step 2: select the newly created frame and apply the frame style 'prodnote' to it

Step 3: add specific information to this production note (optional):

Step 3.1: apply the paragraph style 'prodnote-attributes' to the first paragraph of this frame

Step 3.2: add the name of the production note's author and the value of the showin attribute (see above)

Step 3.3: apply the character style 'prodnote-author' to the name of this author and the style 'prodnote-showin' to the showin value

Step 4: add the content of the production note

Example:

Abbreviations and acronyms

Step 1: apply the 'abbreviation' (resp. 'acronym') style to the abbreviation (resp. acronym)

Step 2: add the expended form just after the abbreviation (resp. acronym)

Step 3: apply the 'abbreviation-expension' (resp. 'acronym-expension') style to the expended form

Example:

Original page numbers

Step 1: add the page number where the page starts in the original document (it can be anywhere in the document except in tables)

Step 2: apply the character style 'pagenum' to it

Example:

Illustrations and imggroup

Step 1: insert a new frame ('Insert' > 'Frame' > 'Ok')

Step 2: select the newly created frame and apply the frame style 'imggroup' to it

Step 3: cut and paste the illustration in the imggroup frame

Step 4: (optional) add a caption to the illustration (right-click on the image > caption)

Step 5: (optional) add a production note in the imggroup frame (see above), this production note will be a long description of the illustration

Example: