Introduction to Elements

This section describes each element in the NCBI Book DTD and in the NCBI Collection DTD. Although the elements are declared in many different modules, they are described here in alphabetical order of their tag names (i.e., element type names). The tag name is the shorter machine-readable name used in tagged documents, DTD fragments, and by software; for example, the tag name <p> is used for the element named Paragraph.

Each element is described by a separate HTML page, where the heading for the page displays the element’s tag name followed by its longer descriptive name. The rest of the element description page discusses aspects of the element and its usage. These sections within the page always appear in the following order, although any given element description may not contain all the sections:

Definition

This section defines the element and may provide information on its usage. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary definition, but more to provide information about an element and how it may be used.

Remarks

This section (when present) provides additional information about the element, explanations of similar or contrasting elements, or instructions for element usage. (See also Related Elements described below.)

Conversion Notes are explicit and sometimes very technical instructions to people who are mapping between the NCBI Book DTD (or NCBI Collection DTD) and other DTDS, or who are building conversion software to convert between another DTD and a DTD written from this DTD Suite. They may be more technical than a general reader will need to worry about.

Authoring Notes are usage instructions aimed at persons writing or editing books according to an authoring DTD written from this DTD Suite.

Implementor’s Notes are instructions written to persons creating or maintaining DTDs based on the DTD Suite, for example, information explaining that the Chemical Markup Language has not been included in the base DTD Suite and where and how it might be included.

Attributes

For an element that may take attributes, this section contains an alphabetical list of those attributes. Each line contains the identification for one attribute: first, the attribute’s name as it appears in the DTD, then a longer, more descriptive name. Full attribute definitions are not provided; instead, each attribute is linked to its description in the Attribute Section, which follows the Element Description Section in this Tag Library.

Related Elements

This section contains information about elements associated with the current element. For example, a <def-list> has many components: an optional title, possibly headers for both the term and definition columns, and multiple wrapper elements, each containing a single term and its definition. In order to better understand the relationship of such components, information about all of them will be provided in the Related Elements section for each element comprising a <def-list>. (See also Related Elements.)

Model Information

Content Model

The content of the element shown as a declaration (in XML syntax) as given in the DTD. For those users not versed in XML syntax, a description of the content in plain English follows.

Description

The content of the element (that is, what is allowed to be inside the element). For example, whether the element may contain text, other elements, or both text and others elements in some combination. This content description contains the same information in plain English phrasing that the DTD provides in XML syntax. For example, the description of an element may contain, “text, numbers, and special characters”, which means it contains ordinary text. If an element contains other elements, their names are listed here.

Context Table Section

The Context Table (further along in this Tag Library) provides information about where each element can be used. This section contains that portion of the context table relevant to the element being discussed. Basically, this section is a list of the elements which may contain the element under discussion. For each element, both the long and short names are given.

Tagged Example

This portion of the element description page provides an excerpt of a tagged XML document, showing use of the current element. Usually an element is shown in context, with its surrounding elements, and the current element is highlighted in bold.

Module (Implementor Information)

Names the base DTD Suite module or NCBI BOOK DTD module in which the element is defined. If an element is defined only in the base Suite, the base module name is given. In those instances in which this DTD over-rides the Suite’s declaration for an element, the name of the DTD-specific over-ride module is given instead.