This booklet was meant as a tutorial that can give you an introduction on how to use all the power and effectiveness of DocBook. It aims at getting you introduced to this matter in the shortest delay, hence then name of "Crash-course to DocBook".
Even if you have never used either DocBook or other markup languages (like LinuxDoc) before, you should be able to become proficient in it just by reading through this guide and using the online or the paper version of [DocBook - The Definitive Guide] published by O'Reilly & Associates.
 | Please note that this crash course is designed to be used along with, not instead of, the DocBook Reference. There are a number of cases where it is much easier to refer to the reference rather than trying to rehash what it already covers. Use this guide to understand what DocBook is about and to have a general overview on how to use those tags. |
This tutorial will teach you enough DocBook to write basic documentation. You will learn:
What DocBook is about
How to get the DocBook-Tools up and running
The format of a DocBook tag
How to structure your documents properly
How to use lists and tables to organize data
How to describe GUI elements and Unix Commands
How to include graphics in your documentation
How to link to URL's and create cross-references
In appendix, one can find a short description of the Emacs psgml mode.
This material comes from the fusion of three documents:
the "Introduction to DocBook" by Mark Galassi
the "KDE crash-course to DocBook" by David Rugge
parts of Eric Bischoff's tutorial about DocBook