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Department of Engineering |
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Editors for HTML production
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the format used for WWW documents.
Most word processors can directly produce HTML output. Quality varies
depending on the version of the software you're using and the type
of document, but it's worth a try. Look through the available styles,
template/stationery options and documentation for mention of HTML
Word's HTML output may try to emulate the spacing of the paper
output, which usually isn't what you want. You can go through
manually and remove the excess HTML code (look out for the
tags that mention 'Mso'). Or you can use Paste Special and choose the 'Normal
Paragraphs' option, but that will remove all formatting codes,
including fundamental ones like bold and italics etc.
Dreamweaver 3 from Macromedia has a feature ('cleanup Word HTML')
specifically designed to remove the excess HTML, but it's not cheap.
Newer version of OpenOffice let you save/export in an HTML format.
- Netscape Navigator Gold 3.01 has a WYSIWYG-ish HTML editor which
is easy to use.
- PageMill (by Adobe. See the
pagemill
site)
- Home Page
- Front Page (by Microsoft).
- BBEdit (by Bare Bones Software.
- HoTMeTaL PRO 6.0
A new university-wide site licence should be in place for the latest
version of HotMetal PRO. This product
will be provided for the cost of the media only.
- Macromedia Dreamweaver.
For writing short or simple documents it's possible to
write HTML directly using a simple text editor - see one of the many
HTML tutorials available.
Paper documents can be scanned straight into HTML or
PDF (Acrobat)
with the
appropriate OCR software.
For existing electronic documents with exacting page layouts and font requirements,
the best solution may be to put them online as Postscript or
PDF (Acrobat)
files.
A free viewer for PDF
files exist for most platforms. For information
on viewers and convertor see Adobe's
Acrobat page.
If you have a version of a word processor that can produce HTML files,
then you can load old files in and 'Save As' HTML to convert them.
If you have many files to convert, a conversion program will be necessary.
We have various conversion programs to convert existing documents to HTML.
rtftohtml, for instance, converts RTF files (produced by Word)
to HTML. Especially if the document uses the Normal template,
NORMAL.DOT, conversion should result in a readable document.
But unless the original document contains
structural information (the kind of structure an outliner provides,
for instance) and cross-references, the resulting HTML will be
impoverished. Always proof-read the resulting files.
Much of CUED's WWW material is maintained in LaTeX format. The
advantages of this are that
- Many WWW pages with cross-links can be produced from a
single, easily managed, LaTeX source file using the
html package.
- 'flat' hardcopy can be produced (the URLs being optionally
displayed as footnotes).
- A LaTeX document has sufficient structural information for
a conversion program to make a good job of HTML and PDF production -
see Producing HTML and PDF files with LaTeX. It's free, and you can use any editor.
