xmlhack: DocBook XSL stylesheets 1.54.1 released

The DocBook Open Repository project have released version 1.54.1 of the DocBook XSL stylesheets distribution, a set of stylesheets for use in converting DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO, Microsoft HTML Help, JavaHelp, and man pages. This release provides a number of significant enhancements.

The list of changes includes:

a new option to generate back-of-book FO indexes with page-number ranges in place of sequences (e.g., 1-4 instead of 1,2,3,4), enabled by the new parameter: make.index.markup
experimental support for generating ToCs/LoTs as separate HTML chunks, enabled by the new parameter chunk.tocs.and.lots
a new option to generate HTML Help indexes using HHK files, allowing see-also processing and referencing of exact locations of index terms, enabled by the new parameter htmlhelp.use.hhk
Olink processing tweaks
improvements in graphic and table processing
additions and workarounds for better compatibility with FO engines (FOP, PassiveTeX, XEP)
bug fixes for FO profiling, indexing of Refentrys, support for Refsection, and a spurious-character problem that was causing errors with the 1.54.0 release

Norman Walsh designed the DocBook XSL stylesheets and continues to actively develop and maintain them with contributions from members of the DocBook Open Repository project, where the stylesheets are now maintained.

Documentation for the stylesheets is available in the distribution and online. Although there are some known issues related to using the stylesheets with certain XSLT engines (for example, XT and Xalan) they are known to work reliably with both xsltproc and Saxon.

More information and resources related to DocBook are available at the DocBook Wiki, at the official DocBook site at OASIS, in the DocBook FAQ, and at the DocBook Open Repository project page.

Note: The author of this news item, Michael Smith, is a member of the DocBook Open Repository project and the DocBook Technical Committee.