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Subject:Re: Single Sourcing HTML Followup From:David Demyan <dbdemyan -at- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 22 Aug 1996 16:38:58 +0000
Lee:
Some answers below. In all cases, the tools I'm describing are HTML
Transit and Netscape Gold 3.0.
Dave.
At 01:43 PM 8/22/96 +0000, you wrote:
>Techwhirlers:
>Based on the responses to my recent query, quite a few word
>processor-to-HTML conversion tools exist (many Frame). Thanks for your
>detailed replies.
>Here are my follow-up queries:
>(1) Do these conversion tools allow the user to set up a type of document
>style or template to be converted to? Say, certain levels of headers,
>spacing, etc. Or have you had to go to an editor or a WYSIWYG editor to
>create a style more to your liking?
HTML Transit handles both. Style tags to be converted have flexible
(within the limits of HTML 3.0) formatting options. This allows you
to emulate the original look of the document.
To post-process with HTML Transit, you specify the editor you want to
use in clean-up. I like to use Netscape Gold 3.0, which allows table
editing. HTML Transit does not offer a lot of flexibility in translated
tables, so I like to "tweak" them in NS Gold. Also, NS Gold allows you
to fix links easily, re-import graphics, fix line spacing, change fonts,
apply color, etc. etc. The decision to re-convert with Transit or just
fix it up in the post-processor depends on how often you will need to
translate same or similar documents (hopefully based on the same word
processor template). This way, if you need a conversion template that
will work in the future with similar documents, you can build it as
you go.
>(2) Do these conversion tools have editors for the clean up that invariably
>follows conversion?
See previous comment.
>(3) Do these conversion tools have WYSIWYG editors for the clean up that
>invariably follows conversion?
No, but HTML Transit does allow you to specify the post-processor you
want to use. I chose Netscape Gold 3.0 because it is WYSIWYG (more so
than most others I have used).
>(4) Has anyone had any experience dealing with converting programming
>source code and done so successfully?
Limited experience going to Acrobat. It worked well because Acrobat did
not change the font or indents and presented source pretty much as it
originally looked with the headings I added before comments.
Regards,
......................................................................
David B. Demyan Mendem Concord, Inc.
Toll Free: (888) 753-8500 Technical Writers
FAX: (908) 756-0129 Document Conversions
dbd -at- mendem -dot- com http://www.mendem.com
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