TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Moving Files for Hardcopy to PDF and HTML From:"Ridder, Fred" <F -dot- Ridder -at- DIALOGIC -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 29 Jan 1998 08:58:37 -0500
Joe,
You don't say what tool you are using to write and edit your
single-source files. The answer to your question is dependent
on the tool you use for HTML conversion, and that choice is
dependent on what your primary authoring tool is. If you are
an MS-Word shop, like the (unhappy?) majority of listmembers,
I'd suggest that you investigate the HTML Transit tool from
InfoAccess ( http:www.infoaccess.com ) which automatically
generates hypertext links for Word cross-reference fields. (Of
course, this assumes that your source documents use
programmed cross-references to section heading or captions
rather than hard-coded text.) The "Figure 2.3" in your example
will be tagged as the link point for a hypertext link (using the
<A HREF...> tag) so that it will be highlighted by the reader's
browser, and the anchor of that link (an <A NAME...> tag)
will be added to the actual caption of the figure. This works
much better than in a hard copy manual because you don't
even have to turn a page.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Miller [SMTP:joemiller -at- CANBERRA -dot- COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 1998 11:56 AM
> Subject: Moving Files for Hardcopy to PDF and HTML
>
> Hi, all you 'whirlers.
>
> We're thinking of providing our user's manuals in PDF format
> HTML format, or both, using one set of source files to produce
> a manual's hardcopy version, PDF version and/or HTML version.
>
> I'm hoping one of you knows how to get around HTML's lack of
> support for captions. Without them, a textual reference to
> "See Figure 2.3" won't be much help. I don't want my group to
> have to do a massive search and replace with editing every time
> we create HTML files, but I do want to produce usable docs.
>
> Is there a workaround, do you omit figures entirely, or do you
> just leave the textual cross-references in place as an exercise
> for the reader?
>
> --Joe
> joemiller -at- canberra -dot- com
