Re: Single-Source HTML: Anything new?

[Alessandro Bottoni <bottoni -at- CADLAB -dot- IT>]

[Answering to Matt Danda about single-sourcing from HTML to Word]

We tried, and failed.

Actually, the file conversion from HTML (plain 3.2 HTML, no frames, no
DHTML, no other tricky things) to Word 97 was not so bad.

The problem was that we had to re-assembly a real paper document from a
messy set of ex-HTML documents. We tried to use a master document to put
together all the pieces and organize them but it did not work. We were not
able to get a readable Table of Contents, nor to print the composed document
(error message from the printer...).

Printing the single documents was another nightmare: the converted documents
lost the original layout because the style conversion and we were not able
to reconstruct it (in a global way, using style sheets) despite our efforts.
We realized that the only way to get a readable document would have been to
re-create the layout by hand...and we gave it up.

IMHO : if you have to translate small, simple, plain HTML 3.2 documents to
stand-alone paper pages, no matter how well printed, this method can be
used. In other cases, convince your boss to adopt a different tool or to
change his goal (only HTML documents, for example).

Hope this help

BTW: Matthew, all vegetal and animal fats are flammable at some degree: they
contains hydrogenated compounds that can be oxidized (that is: burn) by the
oxigen of atmosphere. It is just a matter of temperature. What happens when
you fry your chips/steak and some oil/butter go over the flame? This does
not mean that not-dairy cream is made from crude oil (or at least I hope
so...).

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Alessandro Bottoni ( bottoni -at- cadlab -dot- it )
Technical Writer
Cad.Lab SPA ( www.cadlab.com )
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