Roadmap

XSL-FO is the last piece of the XSL puzzle, bringing the stylesheet technology full circle from using XML on the Web to using XML in print (as PDFs). You've now seen how XSL Stylesheets are put together, and how you can use technologies like XSLT to transform your XML documents from plain XML into HTML, XHTML, and finally into an XSL-FO sheet. These XSL-FO sheets can then be used to generate PDF files which could be printed or downloaded by your organization's clients and customers.

XSL-FO really rounds out the last of the presentation technologies that are associated with XML. However, we've already touched on some of the technologies that will be covered now. For example, XSLT makes use of XPath to locate various elements and attributes within your XML documents. In Part III, “XML Location Technologies,” we will take a closer look at the tools you can use with XML to locate XML components within larger documents, or to assemble document fragments into a single document. As we've already seen, location technologies go hand-in-hand with presentation technologies, and they will fit together with other pieces of the XML jigsaw puzzle as well.