Re: TECHWR-L Digest - 21 Jun 1998 to 22 Jun 1998

[Craig Sanders <csanders -at- ONLYXLNT -dot- COM>]

Hi Karen, Paul!

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about WebWorks Publisher and what it can and cannot do, so perhaps this will help.

Publisher 4.10 converts FrameMaker files to a variety of online formats (HTML, HTMLHelp, and WinHelp, with JavaHelp due be the end of summer, hopefully). The application accomplishes this by mapping FrameMaker paragraph, character, and marker styles to
corresponding styles in the selected online format. Publisher ships with a variety of "readymade" templates that you can use for your conversions. All of these templates are fully editable, or you can create your own custom templates if so desired. Any graphics
contained in the Frame files (embedded or linked) are also converted into the appropriate format. JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP are currently available.

As a general rule, you do NOT need to do any special preparation of the Frame files for conversion, nor should you have to do any post-conversion touch-up work if your Publisher templates are properly designed. And here is the primary source of confusion:

You can do certain things in Frame that you cannot do in HTML, HTMLHelp, and WinHelp. Therefore, when you develop your Publisher templates, you must constrain them to the capabilities of the format you have chosen. For example, WinHelp can only handle a two-level
index, so it makes no sense to have a three-level index in your frame book. Another (and more common) example, it is next to impossible to get multi-column formatting in HTML without using cascading style sheets and a number of other goodies, but this capability
is readily available in Frame.

Therefore, the key issue is not so much what you have to do to prepare your Frame files, it is having realistic expectations about what you can do with HTML.

However, for the most part, you can successfully convert typical page design scenarios. For example, a Frame file containing various lists (numeric and otherwise) will convert successfully, including maintaining proper indention and number sequencing, plus any
character styles applied in the Frame doc will also convert (bolding, italicization, etc.). Publisher is very capable in this area. Additionally, all Frame interfile and intrafile cross-references are also converted directly to hypertext links.

If you so desire, you can also set up Publisher to automatically embed JavaScript, Java applets, and a wide variety of other goodies at the time of conversion. If you would like to see an example of what I mean by this, send me an email and I will point you to a
fairly complex one.

Hope this helps,
Craig Sanders

Date:    Mon, 22 Jun 1998 19:46:44 -0700
From:    Karen Kay <karen -at- WORDWRITE -dot- COM>
Subject: Re: frame and web works publisher

Paul Carr said:
> Some folks have commented that frame docs require extensive preparation
> or special configuration before they will submit to a conversion properly
> in web works publisher.
>
> Can anyone out there comment in some detail what sorts of changes and
> "special needs" our frame docs may have should we go to web works
> publisher?

The problem here isn't Frame or Quadralay, the problem is HTML. HTML
doesn't have as many format options as Frame does, so formats tend to
get blurred in the conversion. If your Frame document is badly
designed for conversion, the result will be, umm, messy, as indention
and bolding and numbered-lists-within-numbered-lists all get leveled.

Karen
  karen -at- wordwrite -dot- com