Lynn,

It is very possible to render the text you are working using OSIS XML
documents as the source and XSLT transformations to render the output.

We have a "scripture portion XSLT" in process (which is pretty much what
you need) and there are other XSLT files that render whole books or
chapters.

Because you seem to be rendering out large blocks the existing XSLT
transformations may serve you well.

Some opensource XSLTs we make available can be found
http://www.virtualstorehouse.org/xslt.html

Todd
[...]

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the helpful feedback
Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at
the right time! Prov 15:23 WEB
[...]
what[...]

Is this "XSLT in process" not yet available, but being developed? Is
it different from what is now on the virtualstorehouse website? Is it
available?

I haven't been able to find an example/tutorial that fits all that
closely with what I have in mind doing. The existing ones seem mostly
oriented to marking up an actual Bible that consist solely of Bible
verses. Perhaps it falls into the "concentric circle" of "Virtual
Extra-Biblical" ?

As far as I can tell, my application roughly corresponds to the ccel's
"Luther's Commentary on Galations"  at:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/galatians.html
These pages seem to use a mixture of ThML and osis 1.1. I'm unclear if
they are an appropriate example to use as a model.

A "sharing booklet" will be folded, duplexed sheets, which results in
the number of pages in the booklet being a multiple of 4. Each page
will typically have some non-Bible text before and/or after actual
Bible verses. One or more "sharing verses" will be highlighted to
stand out from the "context verses."  Here's an example rendered as
php/html.
http://shrbible.sourceforge.net/c2h32/Sb2Intro001.php

I'm fuzzy on how to get started and proceed. My impression is that I
markup the text to conform to osis. This file MyTestOsis.xml will have
a reference to an existing (?) .xsl osis stylesheet transform. Somehow
or other this is processed via one or more steps/app-chains to become
either pdf or html.

Sorry for the uninformed questions and thanks for your patience.

Dear Lynn,

I was checking out The Apache XML Project - FOP (http://xml.apache.org/fop/index.html)
that is linked from the Virtual Storehouse (http://www.virtualstorehouse.org/xslt.html).

This led me to a pair of articles on xml.com that go into detail on doing page
layout and using XSLT to transform content into XSL-FO.  Here is a link to the
first part:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/17/xsl-fo/index.html

God bless you in your efforts.
 [...]

David,
The link was VERY helpful.

Todd,
The viewable php pages are to provide a more or less rough idea of
what the .pdf and/or .doc and/or Microsoft Publisher .pub file look
like. Here are links to word-4-windows .doc files that provides a
better idea of what I'm trying to do:

(bifold duplex quarter page sized 4.2" x 5.5" for general use)
http://shrbible.sourceforge.net/download/SharingBible_12.doc

(bifold duplex half page sized 8.5" x 5.5" for nursing home use with
larger fonts)
http://shrbible.sourceforge.net/download/CruisingToHeaven_40_Large.doc

(Microsoft publisher format 4.2" x 5.5")
http://www.bibleinverse.org/cruising/download/CruisingToHeaven_32.pub

My "vision" is that there would be a "repository" of xml pages (cover,
permissions, intro, sharing, discipleship, prayer, conclusion) that
could be put together (XInclude?) in various ways:
* 8 pages without intro or discipleship pages
* 20 pages with intro and without discipleship pages
* 40 pages with intro and discipleship pages
* etc.

The xslt would generate the corresponding hmtl/php and/or pdf
documents for download. What is happening now is that I've got
multiple source documents in various formats.  If there is a
typo/change, I try to make the appropriate changes throughout. That
hasn't been working very well, although it sort of worked with Word
master documents (but not really).

For now, I've downloaded free/trial versions of XmlSpy and Oxygen and
using them to learn more about transforms. I'm just starting the
encoding because I wasn't clear whether osis was viable to use for
this application.

Thanks again for your assisance, encouragement, and patience with this
novice xml'er.

Blessings,
Lynn A.

> I will be working on a few examples this week and next week so I may
be[...]
are[...]
pretty[...]

Thought I'd check on the status of the examples you are working on.
Did you get a link to the Word documents for the Sharing Bible? Was it
helpful?