Jade, RTF and Dual Column - Any Life Lines?

["Zahn, Lee A." <Lee.Zahn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm trying to transform an XML document to RTF. 
> 
> Being new to the whole DSSSL thing I've been swimming (drowning may be
> more accurate) in a sea of information.  I've been to James Clark's web
> pages concerning Jade and all over the DSSSL archive.   It seems like Jade
> will do the trick but being very new to the XML/SGML/Style sheet community
> I thought I'd post some questions and hope for some life lines to be
> thrown my way.  Here are my questions:
> 
> 1.  What are some of the best tried and true resources to begin with for
> incrementally building an understanding of Jade and DSSSL? I have a basic,
> beginners understanding of SGML, XML, DTDs, and style sheets. (I've
> written some XSL style sheets for use with the msxsl ActiveX control and
> have been following the new XSL specification)   With all the information
> that is available it is a bit like drinking from a fire hydrant.  Where
> should I begin?  (I've read Paul Prescod's tutorials and been through the
> Hamlet tutorial as well - both good stuff)  
> 
> 2.  Are there any other solutions to the XML to RTF transformation other
> than Jade?  Any recommendations?  (I'm on an NT platform) 
> 
> 3.  One of the biggest things I want to produce in the RTF is dual column
> formatting.  I'm not talking about a table with 2 cells.  I'm talking
> about newspaper-column like formatting where the text 'snakes' from one
> column to the next based upon physical page breaks. (You get this affect
> in a word processor by formatting the text into columns.)  Could I produce
> this with DSSSL and Jade?  Does anyone have a DSSSL example that does this
> or have an idea how this might be done?   
> 
> 4.  Where's the best place to find some good DSSSL examples of other
> simple formatting things like creating a table and general text
> formatting?  
> 
> Lee Zahn 
> lee.zahn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 


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