[oXygen-user] Docbook 5 Author mode: way to add indexterm elements?

[Adrian Buza]

Hello,

First, you don't have to go to Text mode just to input a few elements, 
you can already do this in Author mode.
Press Enter(or Ctrl+Space) at the appropriate location in the editor and 
a small window appears with the list of elements that can be inserted at 
that location. You can filter the elements in this list by typing the 
starting characters of the element you are looking for.
e.g. press Enter when the caret is inside a "para" element, then type 
'ind' and the list is filtered and the only visible element in the list 
remains "indexterm". Press Enter on that element and it will be inserted 
in the editor and the caret will be positioned inside it. Press Enter 
again and you can simply navigate with the arrow keys and choose "primary"

Second, the actions you see on the DocBook toolbar can be configured and 
customized. So if you want you can create your own custom action that 
introduces an "indexterm".
This isn't that difficult to do:

1. Go to Options -> Preferences -> Document Type Association, select the 
DocBook 4/5, Edit it, you will be asked if you want to duplicate it, say 
Yes.
2. In the Document type editing dialog go to the 'Author' tab from the 
tab group located below, and from the list from the left click on Actions.
3. You should see a list of actions, add a new one(+ sign).
4. In the action editing dialog, specify an ID, and a name, a 
description could also be useful.
5. Press the Choose button from the row with the label "invoke the 
operation"
6. From the Operation list choose either 
InsertOrReplaceFragmentOperation or SurroundWithFragmentOperation. The 
main difference is that the former operation will replace the selection 
while the latter will surround it with the fragment provided.
7. Edit(double-click) the fragment argument from the argument list and 
type there the fragment you want to insert.
e.g:
<indexterm  xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
  <primary></primary>
  <secondary></secondary>
</indexterm>
Note: xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" is needed for DocBook 5
8. Back in the Document type editing dialog select Toolbar from the list 
on the left in the same Author tab.
9. Select your action from the list of 'Available actions' on the left 
and a destination in the 'Current actions' tree on the right(will be 
added after it if it's an action) and press the 'Add as sibling' button 
between the lists.
10. OK in all dialogs and you should already see the action you just 
added on the toolbar when you open a Docbook document.

Let me know if you need further information.

Regards,
Adrian

Adrian Buza
Oxygen XML Editor support

Robert Nagle wrote:
> I have been using Author XML for months now to  make a docbook book.
> Really loving it. It's very powerful and makes me productive.
>
> However, I am surprised to find that there's not a Docbook toolbar
> button or context menu option to create an indexterm element. An
> indexterm is necessary to build a decent index for your book.
> http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/indexterm.singular.html
>
>  usually it looks like this: <indexterm> <primary>Abraham Lincoln
> </primary> <secondary>Gettysburg Address </secondary> </indexterm>
>
> I am having to drop out of Author mode into XML mode to add
> <indexterm> every two paragraphs or so.
>
> Am I missing this feature or is it something which the developers just
> haven't gotten around to yet?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Robert Nagle
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