I've used DocBook in the past and I love the idea behind the separation of content from presentation. I am very comfortable editing XML directly. In my extensive search to find the best documenting solution for my needs I am always coming back to this one solution:

DocBook -> Build system (ant, make, etc.) -> Output

I have seen lots of information concerning the best WYSIWYG, XML, Text editors for writing DocBook including alternative markup languages like asciidoc. All these solutions focus on the creation of DocBook or the nightmare of the DocBook tool chain. No one ever addresses the Output side other then to say "Just use XSL" or "Custom scripts"

When tasked to make a document or manual I don't want to worry about spending countless hours attempting to reprogram, customize, and modify the XSL, CSS, and shell scripts (i.e. O'Riely books). That is a very arduous task.

My query: is there a tool that makes the customizing easier? And is there anything that could be similar to say Pages or Word in that the user creates a template and the tool chain does the rest? Attempting to do a visual task like pretty logos and fixing all the broken layouts that the default XSL comes up with (pagination is a mess) is very difficult from a text editor. Content is easy. Editing DocBook XSL was truly a nightmare when I did it in the past. I've searched and I find lots of info on XML editors but nothing on XSL editors.

Or am I lacking a key understanding of the process. Thanks.