| DocBook: The Definitive Guide 2.0.17 (Alpha)

# screen

$Revision$

$Date$

screen — Text that a user sees or might see on a computer screen

## Synopsis

### Mixed Content Model

    screen ::=
    (#PCDATA|footnoteref|xref|biblioref|abbrev|acronym|citation|
     citerefentry|citetitle|citebiblioid|emphasis|firstterm|
     foreignphrase|glossterm|termdef|footnote|phrase|orgname|quote|
     trademark|wordasword|personname|link|olink|ulink|action|
     application|classname|methodname|interfacename|exceptionname|
     ooclass|oointerface|ooexception|package|command|computeroutput|
     database|email|envar|errorcode|errorname|errortype|errortext|
     filename|function|guibutton|guiicon|guilabel|guimenu|guimenuitem|
     guisubmenu|hardware|interface|keycap|keycode|keycombo|keysym|
     literal|code|constant|markup|medialabel|menuchoice|mousebutton|
     option|optional|parameter|prompt|property|replaceable|
     returnvalue|sgmltag|structfield|structname|symbol|systemitem|uri|
     token|type|userinput|varname|nonterminal|anchor|author|
     authorinitials|corpauthor|corpcredit|modespec|othercredit|
     productname|productnumber|revhistory|remark|subscript|
     superscript|inlinegraphic|inlinemediaobject|inlineequation|
     synopsis|cmdsynopsis|funcsynopsis|classsynopsis|fieldsynopsis|
     constructorsynopsis|destructorsynopsis|methodsynopsis|indexterm|
     beginpage|co|coref|textobject|lineannotation)*

### Attributes

Common attributes

Name | Type | Default
width | CDATA | None

linenumbering

Enumeration:
numbered
unnumbered

None

language | CDATA | None

xml:space

Enumeration:
preserve

None

continuation

Enumeration:
continues
restarts

None

format

Enumerated notation:
linespecific

"linespecific"

startinglinenumber | CDATA | None

## Description

A `Screen` is a verbatim environment for displaying text that the user might see on a computer terminal. It is often used to display the results of a command.

Having less specific semantic overtones, `Screen` is often used wherever a verbatim presentation is desired, but the semantic of `ProgramListing` is inappropriate.

### Processing expectations

This element is displayed “verbatim”; whitespace and linebreaks within this element are significant. `Screen`s are usually displayed in a fixed width font.

### Future Changes

The `InterfaceDefinition` element will be discarded in DocBook V4.0. It will no longer be available in the content model of this element.

### Future Changes

The `xml:space` attribute is automatically provided in the XML DTD.

### Parents

These elements contain screen: `answer`, `appendix`, `article`, `bibliodiv`, `bibliography`, `blockquote`, `callout`, `caption`, `caution`, `chapter`, `colophon`, `constraintdef`, `dedication`, `entry`, `example`, `figure`, `footnote`, `glossary`, `glossdef`, `glossdiv`, `important`, `index`, `indexdiv`, `informalexample`, `informalfigure`, `itemizedlist`, `legalnotice`, `listitem`, `msgexplan`, `msgtext`, `note`, `orderedlist`, `para`, `partintro`, `preface`, `procedure`, `qandadiv`, `qandaset`, `question`, `refsect1`, `refsect2`, `refsect3`, `refsection`, `refsynopsisdiv`, `revdescription`, `screenco`, `sect1`, `sect2`, `sect3`, `sect4`, `sect5`, `section`, `setindex`, `sidebar`, `simplesect`, `step`, `taskprerequisites`, `taskrelated`, `tasksummary`, `td`, `textobject`, `th`, `tip`, `variablelist`, `warning`.

### Children

The following elements occur in screen: `abbrev`, `acronym`, `action`, `anchor`, `application`, `author`, `authorinitials`, `beginpage`, `biblioref`, `citation`, `citebiblioid`, `citerefentry`, `citetitle`, `classname`, `classsynopsis`, `cmdsynopsis`, `co`, `code`, `command`, `computeroutput`, `constant`, `constructorsynopsis`, `coref`, `corpauthor`, `corpcredit`, `database`, `destructorsynopsis`, `email`, `emphasis`, `envar`, `errorcode`, `errorname`, `errortext`, `errortype`, `exceptionname`, `fieldsynopsis`, `filename`, `firstterm`, `footnote`, `footnoteref`, `foreignphrase`, `funcsynopsis`, `function`, `glossterm`, `guibutton`, `guiicon`, `guilabel`, `guimenu`, `guimenuitem`, `guisubmenu`, `hardware`, `indexterm`, `inlineequation`, `inlinegraphic`, `inlinemediaobject`, `interface`, `interfacename`, `keycap`, `keycode`, `keycombo`, `keysym`, `lineannotation`, `link`, `literal`, `markup`, `medialabel`, `menuchoice`, `methodname`, `methodsynopsis`, `modespec`, `mousebutton`, `nonterminal`, `olink`, `ooclass`, `ooexception`, `oointerface`, `option`, `optional`, `orgname`, `othercredit`, `package`, `parameter`, `personname`, `phrase`, `productname`, `productnumber`, `prompt`, `property`, `quote`, `remark`, `replaceable`, `returnvalue`, `revhistory`, `sgmltag`, `structfield`, `structname`, `subscript`, `superscript`, `symbol`, `synopsis`, `systemitem`, `termdef`, `textobject`, `token`, `trademark`, `type`, `ulink`, `uri`, `userinput`, `varname`, `wordasword`, `xref`.

## Attributes

format

  The `Format` attribute applies the `linespecific` notation to all `Screen`s. All white space and line breaks must be preserved.

linenumbering

  Line numbering indicates whether or not the lines of a `Screen` are to be automatically numbered. The details of numbering (every line or only selected lines, on the left or right, etc.) are left up to the processing application. Be aware that not all processors are capable of numbering lines.

width

  `Width` specifies the width (in characters) of the longest line in this `Screen` (formatters may use this value to determine scaling or rotation).

## See Also

`computeroutput`, `lineannotation`, `literallayout`, `programlisting`, `screenshot`, `synopsis`, `userinput`.

## Examples

    <!DOCTYPE screen PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
              "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
    <screen>
     Volume in drive C is SYSTEM         Serial number is 2350:717C
     Directory of  C:\

    10/17/97   9:04         &lt;DIR&gt;    bin
    10/16/97  14:11         &lt;DIR&gt;    DOS
    10/16/97  14:40         &lt;DIR&gt;    Program Files
    10/16/97  14:46         &lt;DIR&gt;    TEMP
    10/17/97   9:04         &lt;DIR&gt;    tmp
    10/16/97  14:37         &lt;DIR&gt;    WINNT
    10/16/97  14:25             119  AUTOEXEC.BAT
     2/13/94   6:21          54,619  COMMAND.COM
    10/16/97  14:25             115  CONFIG.SYS
    11/16/97  17:17      61,865,984  pagefile.sys
     2/13/94   6:21           9,349  WINA20.386
    </screen>

     Volume in drive C is SYSTEM         Serial number is 2350:717C
     Directory of  C:\

    10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    bin
    10/16/97  14:11         <DIR>    DOS
    10/16/97  14:40         <DIR>    Program Files
    10/16/97  14:46         <DIR>    TEMP
    10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    tmp
    10/16/97  14:37         <DIR>    WINNT
    10/16/97  14:25             119  AUTOEXEC.BAT
     2/13/94   6:21          54,619  COMMAND.COM
    10/16/97  14:25             115  CONFIG.SYS
    11/16/97  17:17      61,865,984  pagefile.sys
     2/13/94   6:21           9,349  WINA20.386

For additional examples, see also `lineannotation`, `screenco`.

sbr |  | screenco

Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.