279 lines
5.4 KiB
HTML
279 lines
5.4 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Markup: A General Overview</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
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REL="HOME"
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TITLE="LDP Author Guide"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="UP"
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TITLE="Markup"
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HREF="ag-markup.html"><LINK
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REL="PREVIOUS"
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TITLE="Markup"
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HREF="ag-markup.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="DocBook: What it is and why we use it"
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HREF="docbook-why.html"></HEAD
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><BODY
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CLASS="section"
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BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
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TEXT="#000000"
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VLINK="#840084"
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><TR
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><TH
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COLSPAN="3"
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ALIGN="center"
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>LDP Author Guide</TH
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="ag-markup.html"
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="80%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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>Chapter 5. Markup</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="docbook-why.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="section"
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><H1
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CLASS="section"
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><A
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NAME="markup"
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></A
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>5.1. Markup: A General Overview</H1
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><P
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> A markup language is a system for marking or tagging a document to
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define the structure of the document. You may add tags to your document
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to define which parts of your document are paragraphs, titles,
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sections, glossary items (the list goes on!).
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There are many markup languages in use today. XHTML and HTML will be
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familiar to those who author web documents. The LDP uses a markup
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language known as DocBook. Each of these markup languages uses its own
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<SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"controlled vocabulary"</SPAN
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> to describe documents. For
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example: in XHTML a paragraph would be marked up with the tagset
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<p></p> while in DocBook a paragraph would be marked up
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with <TT
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CLASS="sgmltag"
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><para></TT
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><TT
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CLASS="sgmltag"
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></para></TT
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>. The tagsets are defined in a quasi
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dictionary known as a Document Type Definition (DTD).
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</P
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><P
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> Markup languages also follow a set of rules on how a document
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can be assembled. The rules are either SGML (Standard Generalized
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Markup Language) or XML (eXtensible Markup Language). These rules are
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essentially the <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"grammar"</SPAN
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> of a document's markup. SGML and
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XML are very similiar. XML is a sub-set of SGML, but XML requires more
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precise use of the tags when marking up a document.
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The LDP accepts both SGML and XML documents, but prefers XML.
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</P
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><P
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>There are three components to an XML/SGML document which is read by a
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person.</P
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><P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><DIV
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CLASS="formalpara"
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><P
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><B
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>Content. </B
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>
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As a TLDP author it is good to remember
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that this is the most important piece. Many authors will
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write the content first and add their markup later. Content
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may include both plain text and graphics. This is the only part that
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is required of LDP authors!
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</P
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></DIV
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></LI
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><LI
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><DIV
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CLASS="formalpara"
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><P
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><B
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>Markup. </B
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>
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To describe the structure of a document a controlled
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vocabulary is added on top of the content. It is used to
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distinguish different kinds of content: paragraphs,
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lists, tables, warnings (and so on). The markup must also conform to
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either SGML or XML rules. If you are not comfortable
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adding markup to your document, a TLDP volunteer will do it for you.
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</P
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></DIV
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></LI
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><LI
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><DIV
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CLASS="formalpara"
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><P
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><B
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>Transformation. </B
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>
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Finally the document is transformed from DocBook to PDF, HTML,
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PostScript for display in digital or paper form. This transformation is controlled
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through the Document Style Semantics and Specification
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Language (DSSSL).
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The DSSSL tells the program doing the transformation how to
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convert the raw markup into something that a human can read.
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The LDP uses a series of scripts to automate these transformations.
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You are not required to transform your own documents.
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</P
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></DIV
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></LI
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></UL
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><DIV
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CLASS="note"
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><P
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></P
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><TABLE
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CLASS="note"
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="25"
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ALIGN="CENTER"
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VALIGN="TOP"
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><IMG
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SRC="../images/note.gif"
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HSPACE="5"
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ALT="Note"></TD
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><TH
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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VALIGN="CENTER"
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><B
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>Content, markup and transformations</B
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></TH
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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> </TD
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><TD
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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VALIGN="TOP"
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><P
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>Steve Champeon does a great job of
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explaining how content, markup languages, and transformations all fit
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together in his article <A
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HREF="http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/42/index4a.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>The
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Secret Life of Markup</A
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>. Although he is writing from an HTML
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perspective, the ideas are relevant and there is an example of DocBook markup.</P
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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></DIV
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
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SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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CELLPADDING="0"
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CELLSPACING="0"
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="ag-markup.html"
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="index.html"
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ACCESSKEY="H"
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>Home</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="docbook-why.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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>Markup</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="ag-markup.html"
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ACCESSKEY="U"
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>Up</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
|
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ALIGN="right"
|
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VALIGN="top"
|
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>DocBook: What it is and why we use it</TD
|
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></TR
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></TABLE
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></DIV
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></BODY
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></HTML
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> |