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Re: Text only documents

Subject: Re: Text only documents
From: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:18:09 +0500

This exactly the problem I have :(. The user manual has been created and
maintained in MSWord. It is an old manual so I couldnt really plan as to
what tool would suit me better. I don't really have a choice :(.

On 2/15/07, Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> wrote:


Khizran Kaleem wrote:
> I need HTML output.

You need a method for producing both a Word document and an HTML
document from a maintained single source. Your design for this process
was to use Word as the source, and I'm afraid that is not the best
choice. Word has a reputation for producing HTML that is overburdened
with stuff that is there to help Microsoft (rather than to help Khizran)
and that is hard to identify and modify.

You might think about making a filter that will automatically and
reliably remove the unneeded parts from the HTML that you get from Word.
The difficulty here is that when you change your Word source, you cannot
be sure that your filter will still work on Word's corresponding new
HTML. Also, if you upgrade to a new version of MS Word, its HTML might
be substantially different, requiring a fully rewritten filter.

If it were my project, and I had the time and/or budget, I would
investigate maintaining the source as XML, and designing or purchasing
software for creating the required MS Word and HTML output. It is
extremely likely that someone has already solved this problem.

If someone else is requiring that the single source be MS Word, then you
are stuck with a poor situation. You might think about outputting MS
Word to a plain text file and writing a filter that will add HTML markup
that is more or less ok, and then editing the HTML by hand to make it
right. You'll probably be better off using CSS in designing your HTML
markup.



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Follow-Ups:

References:
Text only documents: From: Khizran Kaleem
RE: Text only documents: From: Gordon McLean
Re: Text only documents: From: Khizran Kaleem
Re: Text only documents: From: Edgar D' Souza
Re: Text only documents: From: Khizran Kaleem
Re: Text only documents: From: Peter Neilson

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