InWords - the open documentation company, today announced that it will be providing services to assist customers in porting their existing technical documentation and training material file formats to Docbook XML.

InWords has a long history of using Docbook XML for technical writing as the source format in which to develop documentation for customer projects. DocBook is an XML vocabulary that lets you create documents in a presentation-neutral form that captures the logical structure of your content. Using free tools along with the DocBook XSL stylesheets, you can publish your content as HTML pages and PDF files, and in many other formats.

"We have always given customers access to our Docbook sources, so customers have always been aware that we use Docbook XML. Despite this, customers have usually been more interested in the final presentation formats produced, than the source itself,” states Sean Wheller, director for InWords. "We are starting to see an increase in the number of customers wanting to use Docbook and have several requests to convert existing file formats to Docbook XML and assist them in creating custom layer stylesheets that mirrors their existing layouts and formatting. I think this is a sign of increased market awareness in the technical writing niche as to the benefits of using open and standards-based formats such as Docbook."