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Subject:Creating HTML docs in MS Word From:Jay Cherniak <CHERNJC1_at_TEAPOST -at- TEOMAIL -dot- JHUAPL -dot- EDU> Date:Fri, 21 Jul 1995 08:32:27 EST
Hello Folks,
We code our HTML documents using a text processor (MS Word 6.0), without a
specialized HTML editor, the way Robert Crews describes.
However:
(1) We also use a Word macro created by someone in-house. It does most
everything any editing tool does, including tables for Netscape 1.1.
(2) We sav e the text documents simply as "text only" documents.
(3) We also do a lot of hard coding because the copy and paste feature in MS
Word is sometimes faster than any editor or macro could ever be!
(4) We incorporate gif and jpeg files in our html documents depending on the
gradients in the original pict files and the actual number of graphics we want
to use in any one html file (we are always sensitive to the amount of time
required for downloads).
(5) We create all of our documents on Macintosh workstations which then
reside on either a Unix or a Macintosh server. However, since we often create
html documents that our internal "customers" are ultimately responsible to
maintain themselves, and because some of our customers update their documents
from different types of workstations (Macs, Windows for DOS, and PCs), we always
need to be mindful of what happens to those documents across various platforms.
For example, if we create a document on a Mac with a four-letter extension
(e.g., .html) that will ultimately be updated on a DOS, we are in real trouble.
Also, if we create a document in Simple Text or Teach Text format, put it on a
Unix server, and it is then accessed on a DOS, the file names will all be
corrupted (and all of the internal links will then be broken). This is why we
try to keep it simple (Word, saved as Text only) and name all our files the
same, no matter who the customer is (eight-character alphanumeric prefix and a
three character extension, e.g., funny.htm, funny.gif, funny.jpg).
Lucinda Halbrook
Jay Cherniak
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Laurel, Maryland
