# Using DocBook XML for documentation

## Introduction

DocBook XML is a XML application, and is derived from SGML DocBook. It can be used to generate HTML, plain text, PDF and even more formats of output from a single source.

We use DocBook XML to write the complete documentation for moregroupware, so if you want to help, you should just go ahead and have a look at the XML files in the `docs/docbook/` directory of the moregroupware distribution. The central place for more information is http://www.docbook.org/ .

## Compiling XML to HTML, PDF, ...

The XML source can be transformed using various tools. For the time being the "official" way is to use the `convert.sh` script. It uses `xsltproc` for the hard work, along with `mgw-manual.xsl` that sets some variables that influence the resulting HTML.

So to compile the sources, just do this:

          cd docs/
          convert.sh

to generate HTML output in the HTML directory under `docs/`.