Is there a tool that helps writing a Book with DocBook Code?

Question

DocBook seems to be nice, but is there a tool that helps using it? I mean something that would instantly show how it looks or allows editing more easily by selecting a word and then hitting a button to format it somehow, or to enter a paragraph, a index, a footnote, whatever.

Answer 1

Take a look at asciidoc. It's a simplified language that gives you access to most docbook features without needing to write directing in Docbook's verbose tag structure.

Answer 2

Try dbkeditor. It's intended to help someone learn how to write docbooks XML format. It's not too fancy, but does help with some of the complexity. Runs as a standalone jar.

Answer 3

Get Yelp. It opens Docbook files natively, renders them nicely, shows a browseable tree-view of the document on the left, and reloads instantly when you hit control-R.

Answer 4

LyX is what you're looking for.