IDocBook Element Reference

Table of Contents
  • dcterms:* — The Publishers schema allows a large selection of elements from the DCTerms namespaceV1.0 Publishers
  • *:* — Any element from almost any namespace
  • abbrev — An abbreviation, especially one followed by a period
  • abstract — A summary
  • acknowledgements — Acknowledgements of a book or other componentV5.0
  • acronym — An often pronounceable word made from the initial (or selected) letters of a name or phrase
  • address — A real-world address, generally a postal address
  • affiliation — The institutional affiliation of an individual
  • alt — A text-only annotation, often used for accessibility
  • anchor — A spot in the document
  • answer — An answer to a question posed in a qandaset
  • appendix — An appendix in a book or article
  • area (db.area) — A region defined for a callout in a graphic or code example
  • area (db.area.inareaset) — A region defined for a callout in a graphic or code example
  • areaset — A set of related areas in a graphic or code example
  • areaspec — A collection of regions in a graphic or code example
  • article — An article
  • artpagenums — The page numbers of an article as published
  • attribution — The source of a block quote or epigraph
  • audiodata — Pointer to external audio data
  • audioobject — A wrapper for audio data and its associated meta-information
  • author — The name of an individual author
  • authorgroup — Wrapper for author information when a document has multiple authors or collaborators
  • authorinitials — The initials or other short identifier for an author
  • bibliocoverage — The spatial or temporal coverage of a document
  • bibliodiv — A section of a bibliography
  • biblioentry — A raw entry in a bibliography
  • bibliography — A bibliography
  • biblioid — An identifier for a documentV5.0
  • bibliolist — A wrapper for a list of bibliography entries
  • bibliomisc — Untyped bibliographic information
  • bibliomixed — A cooked entry in a bibliography
  • bibliomset — A cooked container for related bibliographic information
  • biblioref — A cross-reference to a bibliographic entry
  • bibliorelation — The relationship of a document to another
  • biblioset — A raw container for related bibliographic information
  • bibliosource — The source of a document
  • blockquote — A quotation set off from the main text
  • book — A book
  • bridgehead — A free-floating heading
  • callout — A called out description of a marked area
  • calloutlist — A list of callout s
  • caption — A caption
  • caution — A note of caution
  • chapter — A chapter, as of a book
  • citation — An inline bibliographic reference to another published work
  • citebiblioid — A citation of a bibliographic identifier
  • citetitle — The title of a cited work
  • city — The name of a city in an address
  • co — The location of a callout embedded in text
  • collab — Identifies a collaborator
  • colophon — Text at the back of a book describing facts about its production
  • colspec — Specifications for a column in a table
  • confdates — The dates of a conference for which a document was written
  • confgroup — A wrapper for document meta-information about a conference
  • confnum — An identifier, frequently numerical, associated with a conference for which a document was written
  • confsponsor — The sponsor of a conference for which a document was written
  • conftitle — The title of a conference for which a document was written
  • contractnum — The contract number of a document
  • contractsponsor — The sponsor of a contract
  • contrib — A summary of the contributions made to a document by a credited source
  • copyright — Copyright information about a document
  • coref — A cross reference to a co
  • country — The name of a country
  • cover — Additional content for the cover of a publicationV5.0
  • danger — An admonition set off from the text indicating hazardous situationV5.2
  • date — The date of publication or revision of a document
  • dedication — The dedication of a book or other component
  • dialogue — A container for speeches and other forms of communication involving dialogueV1.0 Publishers
  • drama — A container for plays and other forms of dramatic presentationV1.0 Publishers
  • edition — The name or number of an edition of a document
  • editor — The name of the editor of a document
  • email — An email address
  • emphasis (db._emphasis) — A limited span of emphasized text
  • emphasis (db.emphasis) — Emphasized text
  • entry — A cell in a table
  • entrytbl — A subtable appearing in place of an entry in a table
  • epigraph — A short inscription at the beginning of a document or component
  • equation — A displayed mathematical equation
  • example — A formal example, with a title
  • fax — A fax number
  • figure — A formal figure, generally an illustration, with a title
  • firstname — A given name of a person
  • firstterm (db._firstterm) — The first occurrence of a term, with limited contentV5.1
  • firstterm (db.firstterm) — The first occurrence of a term
  • footnote — A footnote
  • footnoteref — A cross reference to a footnote (a footnote mark)
  • foreignphrase (db._foreignphrase) — A limited word or phrase in a language other than the primary language of the documentV5.1
  • foreignphrase (db.foreignphrase) — A word or phrase in a language other than the primary language of the document
  • formalgroup — A group of formal objects, for example subfiguresV5.2
  • formalpara — A paragraph with a title
  • givenname — The given name of a personV5.1
  • glossary — A glossary
  • glossdef — A definition in a glossentry
  • glossdiv — A division in a glossary
  • glossentry — An entry in a glossary or glosslist
  • glosslist — A wrapper for a list of glossary entries
  • glosssee — A cross-reference from one glossentry to another
  • glossseealso — A cross-reference from one glossentry to another
  • glossterm (db._glossterm) — A glossary termV5.1
  • glossterm (db.glossterm) — A glossary term
  • holder — The name of the individual or organization that holds a copyright
  • honorific — The title of a person
  • imagedata (db.imagedata) — Pointer to external image data
  • imagedata (db.imagedata.mathml) — A MathML expression in a media object
  • imagedata (db.imagedata.svg) — An SVG drawing in a media object
  • imageobject — A wrapper for image data and its associated meta-information
  • imageobjectco — A wrapper for an image object with callouts
  • important — An admonition set off from the text
  • index — An index to a book or part of a book
  • indexterm (db.indexterm.endofrange) — Identifies the end of a range associated with an indexed term
  • indexterm (db.indexterm.singular) — A wrapper for an indexed term
  • indexterm (db.indexterm.startofrange) — A wrapper for an indexed term that covers a range
  • info (db.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other blockV5.0
  • info (db.titleforbidden.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block without a titleV5.0
  • info (db.titleonly.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with only a titleV5.0
  • info (db.titleonlyreq.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with only a required titleV5.0
  • info (db.titlereq.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with a required titleV5.0
  • informalequation — A displayed mathematical equation without a title
  • informalexample — A displayed example without a title
  • informalfigure — A untitled figure
  • informaltable — A table without a title
  • inlineequation — A mathematical equation or expression occurring inline
  • inlinemediaobject — An inline media object (video, audio, image, and so on)
  • inlinestagedir — An inline stage directionV1.1 Publishers
  • issuenum — The number of an issue of a journal
  • itemizedlist — A list in which each entry is marked with a bullet or other dingbat
  • itermset — A set of index terms in the meta-information of a document
  • jobtitle — The title of an individual in an organization
  • keyword — One of a set of keywords describing the content of a document
  • keywordset — A set of keywords describing the content of a document
  • label — A label on a question or answer
  • legalnotice — A statement of legal obligations or requirements
  • line — A line of dialogue or other form of communicationV1.0 Publishers
  • lineage — The portion of a person's name indicating a relationship to ancestors
  • linegroup — A grouping of lines in dialogue or other form of communicationV1.0 Publishers
  • link — A hypertext link
  • listitem — A wrapper for the elements of a list item
  • literal — Inline text that is some literal value
  • literallayout — A block of text in which line breaks and white space are to be reproduced faithfully
  • mathphrase — A mathematical phrase that can be represented with ordinary text and a small amount of markup
  • mediaobject — A displayed media object (video, audio, image, etc.)
  • member — An element of a simple list
  • meta (db.meta.content) — A generic metadata elementV5.2
  • meta (db.meta.empty) — A generic metadata elementV5.2
  • mml:* — Any element from the MathML namespace
  • multimediaparam — Application specific parameters for a media playerV5.1
  • note — A message set off from the text
  • olink — A link that addresses its target indirectly
  • optional — Optional information
  • orderedlist — A list in which each entry is marked with a sequentially incremented label
  • org — An organization and associated metadataV5.0
  • orgdiv — A division of an organization
  • orgname — The name of an organization
  • otheraddr — Uncategorized information in address
  • othercredit — A person or entity, other than an author or editor, credited in a document
  • othername — A component of a person's name that is not a first name, surname, or lineage
  • pagenums — The numbers of the pages in a book, for use in a bibliographic entry
  • para — A paragraph
  • part — A division in a book
  • partintro — An introduction to the contents of a part
  • person — A person and associated metadataV5.0
  • personblurb — A short description or note about a person
  • personname — The personal name of an individual
  • phone — A telephone number
  • phrase (db._phrase) — A limited span of text
  • phrase (db.phrase) — A span of text
  • pob — A post office box in an address
  • poetry — A container for poetryV1.0 Publishers
  • postcode — A postal code in an address
  • preface — Introductory matter preceding the first chapter of a book
  • primary — The primary word or phrase under which an index term should be sorted
  • printhistory — The printing history of a document
  • procedure — A list of operations to be performed in a well-defined sequence
  • productname — The formal name of a product
  • productnumber — A number assigned to a product
  • pubdate — The date of publication of a document
  • publisher — The publisher of a document
  • publishername — The name of the publisher of a document
  • qandadiv — A titled division in a qandaset
  • qandaentry — A question/answer set within a qandaset
  • qandaset — A question-and-answer set
  • question — A question in a qandaset
  • quote (db._quote) — A limited inline quotationV5.1
  • quote (db.quote) — An inline quotation
  • releaseinfo — Information about a particular release of a document
  • remark — A remark (or comment) intended for presentation in a draft manuscript
  • result — A wrapper for identifying the results of a procedure or stepV5.1
  • revdescription — A extended description of a revision to a document
  • revhistory — A history of the revisions to a document
  • revision — An entry describing a single revision in the history of the revisions to a document
  • revnumber — A document revision number
  • revremark — A description of a revision to a document
  • row (db.entrytbl.row) — A row in a table
  • row (db.row) — A row in a table
  • secondary — A secondary word or phrase in an index term
  • section — A recursive section
  • see — Part of an index term directing the reader instead to another entry in the index
  • seealso — Part of an index term directing the reader also to another entry in the index
  • seriesvolnums — Numbers of the volumes in a series of books
  • set — A collection of books
  • setindex — An index to a set of books
  • shortaffil — A brief description of an affiliation
  • sidebar — A portion of a document that is isolated from the main narrative flow
  • simpara — A paragraph that contains only text and inline markup, no block elements
  • simplelist — An undecorated list of single words or short phrases
  • simplesect — A section of a document with no subdivisions
  • spanspec — Formatting information for a spanned column in a table
  • speaker — Designates a person who is giving a speech or lectureV1.0 Publishers
  • stagedir — A stage directionV1.1 Publishers
  • state — A state or province in an address
  • step — A unit of action in a procedure
  • stepalternatives — Alternative steps in a procedure
  • street — A street address in an address
  • subject — One of a group of terms describing the subject matter of a document
  • subjectset — A set of terms describing the subject matter of a document
  • subjectterm — A term in a group of terms describing the subject matter of a document
  • subscript — A subscript (as in H₂O, the molecular formula for water)
  • substeps — A wrapper for steps that occur within steps in a procedure
  • subtitle — The subtitle of a document
  • superscript — A superscript (as in x², the mathematical notation for x multiplied by itself)
  • surname — An inherited or family name; in western cultures the last name
  • svg:* — Any element from the SVG namespace
  • table — A formal table in a document
  • task — A task to be completed
  • taskprerequisites — The prerequisites for a task
  • taskrelated — Information related to a task
  • tasksummary — A summary of a task
  • tbody (db.cals.entrytbl.tbody) — A wrapper for the rows of a table or informal table
  • tbody (db.cals.tbody) — A wrapper for the rows of a table or informal table
  • templatename — The identifier for a template, in the generic programming senseV5.2
  • term — The word or phrase being defined or described in a variable list
  • termdef — An inline definition of a term
  • tertiary — A tertiary word or phrase in an index term
  • textdata — Pointer to external text data
  • textobject — A wrapper for a text description of an object and its associated meta-information
  • tfoot — A table footer consisting of one or more rows
  • tgroup — A wrapper for the main content of a table, or part of a table
  • thead (db.cals.entrytbl.thead) — A table header consisting of one or more rows
  • thead (db.cals.thead) — A table header consisting of one or more rows
  • tip — A suggestion to the user, set off from the text
  • title — The text of the title of a section of a document or of a formal block-level element
  • titleabbrev — The abbreviation of a title
  • toc — A table of contents
  • trademark — A trademark
  • uri — A Uniform Resource Identifier
  • variablelist — A list in which each entry is composed of a set of one or more terms and an associated description
  • varlistentry — A wrapper for a set of terms and the associated description in a variable list
  • videodata — Pointer to external video data
  • videoobject — A wrapper for video data and its associated meta-information
  • volumenum — The volume number of a document in a set (as of books in a set or articles in a journal)
  • warning — An admonition set off from the text
  • wordasword — A word meant specifically as a word and not representing anything else
  • xref — A cross reference to another part of the document
  • year — The year of publication of a document

This reference describes every element in DocBook V5.0.

1Organization of Reference Pages

The description of each element in this reference is divided into the following sections:

Synopsis

Provides a quick synopsis of the element. The content of the synopsis varies according to the nature of the element described, but may include any or all of the following sections:

Content Model

Describes the content model of the element, the mixture of things that it can contain. See Section 1.1, “Understanding Content Models”.

Attributes

Provides a synopsis of the attributes on the element. For brevity, common attributes are described only once, in this introduction. Likewise, common linking attributes are described once.

Additional Constraints

Provides a synopsis of any additional constraints on the element. These constraints are expressed using Schematron in the RELAX NG grammar.

Description

Describes the semantics of the element.

Processing expectations

Summarizes specific formatting expectations of the element. Many processing expectations are influenced by attribute values. Be sure to consult the description of element attributes as well.

Future changes

Identifies changes that are scheduled for future versions of the schema. These changes are highlighted because they involve some backward incompatibility that may make currently valid DocBook documents no longer valid under the new version.

Attributes

Describes the semantics of each attribute.

See Also

Lists similar or related elements.

Examples

Provides examples of proper usage for the element. Generally, the smallest example required to reasonably demonstrate the element is used. In many cases, a formatted version of the example is also shown.

All of the examples in the book are valid according to the RELAX NG grammar.

Formatted examples are indicated using a vertical bar.

1.1Understanding Content Models

Each element synopsis begins with a description of its content model. Content models are the way that grammars describe the name, number, and order of other elements that may be used inside an element.

1.1.1Content models and validity

A validator uses the content models to determine if a given document is valid. In order for a document to be valid, the content of every element in the document must match the content model for that element.

In practical terms, match means that it must be possible to expand the content model until it exactly matches the sequence of elements in the document.

For example, consider the content model of the epigraph:

epigraph ::= (info?db.titleforbidden.info, attribution?,(literallayout | Paragraph elements)+)

Does the following example match that content model?

  |<epigraph>
  |<para>Some text</para>
  |</epigraph>

Yes, it is valid because the following expansion of the content model exactly matches the actual content: choose zero occurrences of info, choose zero occurrences of attribution, choose the alternative para from the Paragraph elements choice, and choose to let the one or more match once.

By the same token, this example is not valid because there is no expansion of the content model that can match it:

  |<epigraph>
  |<para>Some text</para>
  |<attribution>John Doe</attribution>
  |</epigraph>

2Common Attributes

There are many common attributes that occur on every DocBook element. They are summarized here for brevity and to make the additional attributes that occur on many elements stand out.

NameType
*:*text
annotationstext
dir
Enumeration:
ltr
rtl
lro
rlo
remaptext
revisionflag
Enumeration:
changed
added
deleted
off
roletext
trans:idfixup
Enumeration:
none
suffix
auto
trans:linkscope
Enumeration:
user
local
near
global
trans:suffixtext
versiontext
xml:baseanyURI
xml:idID
xml:langtext
xreflabeltext
*:*

Any attribute in any other explicit namespace. Any number of attributes that are in an explicit namespace other than the DocBook, XML, XLink, or transclusion namespaces are allowed.

annotations

Identifies one or more annotations that apply to this element.

dir

Identifies the direction of text in an element.

ltr

Left-to-right text

rtl

Right-to-left text

lro

Left-to-right override

rlo

Right-to-left override

remap

Provides the name or similar semantic identifier assigned to the content in some previous markup scheme.

revisionflag

Identifies the revision status of the element.

changed

The element has been changed.

added

The element is new (has been added to the document).

deleted

The element has been deleted.

off

Explicitly turns off revision markup for this element.

role

Provides additional, user-specified classification for an element.

While role is a common attribute in the sense that it occurs on all DocBook elements, customizers will find that it is not part of any of the “common attribute” patterns. It is parameterized differently because it is useful to be able to subclass role independently on different elements.

trans:idfixup

The transclusion ID fixup strategy.

none

No ID fixup strategy

suffix

ID fixup by concatenating suffixes

auto

ID fixup by creating unique values

trans:linkscope

The transclusion link scope adjustment.

user

No link scope adjustments are made

local

The link scopes are adjusted with the suffix property

near

The link scopes are adjusted based on proximity

global

The link scopes are adjusted based on document order

trans:suffix

The transclusion suffix to use when the suffix ID fixup strategy is employed.

version

Specifies the DocBook version of the element and its descendants.

xml:base

Specifies the base URI of the element and its descendants.

xml:id

Identifies the unique ID value of the element.

xml:lang

Specifies the natural language of the element and its descendants.

xreflabel

Provides the text that is to be generated for a cross reference to the element.

2.1Common Effectivity Attributes

The common attributes include a collection of effectivity attributes. These attributes are available for authors to identify to whom a particular element applies. Effectivity attributes are often used for profiling: building documents that contain information only relevant to a particular audience.

For example, a section might be identified as available only to readers with a top-secret security clearance or a paragraph might be identified as affecting only users running the implementation provided by a particular vendor.

NameType
archtext
audiencetext
conditiontext
conformancetext
ostext
outputformattext
revisiontext
securitytext
userleveltext
vendortext
wordsizetext
arch

Designates the computer or chip architecture to which the element applies.

audience

Designates the intended audience to which the element applies, for example, system administrators, programmers, or new users.

condition

provides a standard place for application-specific effectivity.

Many DocBook users observed that in order to add an effectivity condition that was unique to their environment required abusing the semantics of one of the existing attributes, or adding their own, making their customization an extension rather than a subset. Thecondition attribute is a general-purpose effectivity attribute with no specified semantics.

Thecondition attribute provides a standard place for application-specific effectivity.

conformance

Indicates standards conformance characteristics of the element.

These characteristics are application-specific; DocBook provides no default semantics.

os

Indicates the operating system to which the element is applicable.

outputformat

Indicates the output format (for example, print or epub) to which the element applies.

revision

Indicates the editorial revision to which the element belongs.

security

Indicates something about the security level associated with the element to which it applies.

userlevel

Indicates the level of user experience for which the element applies.

vendor

Indicates the computer vendor to which the element applies.

wordsize

Indicates the word size (width in bits) of the computer architecture to which the element applies.

The names of the effectivity attributes are suggestive of several classes of common effectivity information. The semantically neutral condition attribute was added to give authors a place to put values that don’t fit neatly into one of the other alternatives.

In authoring environments where many different kinds of effectivity information are required, it’s not uncommon to see local extensions that add new attributes. It’s also not uncommon to see attributes used without regard to the class of information suggested by the name.

2.2Common RDFa Lite Attributes

The RDFa Lite attributes incorporate support for RDFa into DocBook.

NameType
prefixtext
propertytext
resourcetext
typeoftext
vocabanyURI
prefix

The RDFa Lite prefix.

property

The RDFa Lite property.

resource

The RDFa Lite resource.

typeof

The RDFa Lite typeof.

vocab

The RDFa Lite vocab.

See RDFa Lite 1.1 for more details about the RDFa Lite attributes.

3Common Linking Attributes

The following attributes occur on all elements that can be the start of a link. They are summarized here once for brevity and to make the additional attributes that occur on many elements stand out.

NameType
linkend/linkendsIDREF/IDREFS
xlink:actuate
Enumeration:
onLoad
onRequest
other
none
xlink:arcroleanyURI
xlink:fromNMTOKEN
xlink:hrefanyURI
xlink:labelNMTOKEN
xlink:roleanyURI
xlink:show
Enumeration:
new
replace
embed
other
none
xlink:titletext
xlink:toNMTOKEN
xlink:typetext
linkend/linkends

Points to an internal link target by identifying the value of its xml:id attribute.

xlink:actuate

Identifies the XLink actuate behavior of the link.

onLoad

An application should traverse to the ending resource immediately on loading the starting resource.

onRequest

An application should traverse from the starting resource to the ending resource only on a post-loading event triggered for the purpose of traversal.

other

The behavior of an application traversing to the ending resource is unconstrained by this specification. The application should look for other markup present in the link to determine the appropriate behavior.

none

The behavior of an application traversing to the ending resource is unconstrained by this specification. No other markup is present to help the application determine the appropriate behavior.

xlink:arcrole

Identifies the XLink arcrole of the link.

xlink:from

Specifies the XLink traversal-from.

xlink:href

Identifies a link target with a URI.

xlink:label

Specifies the XLink label.

xlink:role

Identifies the XLink role of the link.

DocBook uses the XLink role value http://docbook.org/xlink/role/olink to identify linking elements with OLink semantics. That means the part of xlink:href before the number sign (#) is to be interpreted as equivalent to the olink targetdoc attribute value, and the part after the number sign as the olink targetptr attribute value.

xlink:show

Identifies the XLink show behavior of the link.

new

An application traversing to the ending resource should load it in a new window, frame, pane, or other relevant presentation context.

replace

An application traversing to the ending resource should load the resource in the same window, frame, pane, or other relevant presentation context in which the starting resource was loaded.

embed

An application traversing to the ending resource should load its presentation in place of the presentation of the starting resource.

other

The behavior of an application traversing to the ending resource is unconstrained by XLink. The application should look for other markup present in the link to determine the appropriate behavior.

none

The behavior of an application traversing to the ending resource is unconstrained by this specification. No other markup is present to help the application determine the appropriate behavior.

xlink:title

Identifies the XLink title of the link.

xlink:to

Specifies the XLink traversal-to.

xlink:type

Identifies the XLink link type.