Re: Are You Converting Publications to Web Pages for a BIG Site?

[Nancy Hayes <nancyh -at- PMAFIRE -dot- INEL -dot- GOV>]

In article <199506161255 -dot- AA22113 -at- interlock -dot- halnet -dot- com>,
LaVonna Funkhouser  <lffunkhouser -at- halnet -dot- com> wrote:
>The downside is that they want the info "dumped"--not properly
>chunked and linked.

>I would also like those who are converting manuals and other docs
>to HTML to contribute to the thread.

We've been converting manuals and other documents to HTML for some time.
Right now, the process is mostly dumping the information out there w/
hypertext links for the "see" "per" and "GO TO" references.  It's better
than no hypertext.

Our lead programmer is working on a method to have the "translator"
program actually break the document into chunks, add the hypertext links,
and add most of the code.  It will be interesting to see how this works
out.  He's trying to make the translation process as painless as possible
(considering he'll be doing ninety percent of the work).

Basically, what we're trying to do is avoid the problem of having to
discrete documents (the paper and the online); automate everything to the
point that when a document change comes through, the online version also
gets changed; and set some other configuration controls.

Another thing we're =considering= is having the authors break things into
smaller files (master and subdocuments) so that we don't have to figure
out how to do the chunking.

Anyone have any ideas they've tried that have worked (or not worked--so
we know what to avoid)?

Nancy Hayes (nancyh -at- pmafire -dot- inel -dot- gov)