Introducing AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc is a text document format for writing notes, documentation, articles, books, ebooks, slideshows, web pages, man pages and blogs. AsciiDoc files can be translated to many formats including HTML, PDF, EPUB, man page.

AsciiDoc is highly configurable: both the AsciiDoc source file syntax and the backend output markups (which can be almost any type of SGML/XML markup) can be customized and extended.

AsciiDoc is free software and is licenced under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2).

Using AsciiDoc

You write an AsciiDoc document the same way you would write a normal text document, there are no markup tags or weird format notations. AsciiDoc files are designed to be viewed, edited and printed directly or translated to other presentation formats using the asciidoc(1) command.

The asciidoc(1) command translates AsciiDoc files to HTML, XHTML and DocBook markups. DocBook can be post-processed to presentation formats such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, DVI, LaTeX, roff, and Postscript using readily available Open Source tools.

AsciiDoc, and JBoss Community

A growing number of projects are finding the simplicity of AsciiDoc to be favourable in open source projects.

Enthusiastic community contributors find using AsciiDoc natural because they do not need to think about mark-up while writing a contribution.

Project teams appreciate the simplicity of the git-hosted text editor, which releases projects from the confines of platform-specific toolchains.

AsciiDoc is also one of the few text document formats with a supported transformation toolchain.

 

AsciiDoc Assistance

The JBoss Community has passionate AsciiDoc users who are happy to help you get into the wonderful world of fun and easy documentation writing.

If you ever need a hand with AsciiDoc, head on over to the PressGang forum and ask for assistance.

Filter by Categories and Tags > AsciiDoc Discussions to see all discussions relating to AsciiDoc.

The Discussions area is monitored by members of the JBoss Community, so answers or help is never far away.

 

Reach out to AsciiDoc users

IRC

You can connect with us using IRC in the #JBossPressGang freenode.org room.

We are in the room during normal Brisbane (Australia) office hours (GMT +10.00), although some of us might be there after hours.

If you want to quickly ask a question, then this is the place to go.

Forums

The JBoss Community forums are a great place to go if you want to start a discussion about anything documentation related. Visit the JBoss Community PressGang site to start talking documentation.

Twitter

You can also follow our tweets at http://www.twitter.com/PressGang

We're not going to spam you to death, so follow us with confidence.

Google+ Circle the G+ page for release updates and other news. Low traffic, just like Twitter.