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Computer Taming

Guidelines for Submitting Your Text in RTF.

I can turn your Word Processor documents, that may contain cross references, index entries and footnotes, into documents which may be read from within the World Wide Web. The format of these documents is called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). I am able to automatically convert documents stored in RTF (Rich Text Format) to HTML. Most word processors in use on UNIX, Macintosh, PC or NeXT systems can export their documents in RTF format (hint: have a look at the "Save as..." dialog box of your favorite word processor).

Conversion of RTF text to HTML markup is based on three characteristics. These are:

1. The destination of the text. Example destinations are header, footer, footnote, picture.
2. The paragraph style. Paragraph styles are user-definable entities, but some are pre-defined by the word processing package. For Microsoft Word examples are "Normal" and "heading 1".
3. The text attributes. Examples of text styles are bold, courier, 12 point.

There are built-in rules for dealing with destinations. I can produce reasonable HTML output for most documents (see my sample styles.) Here is what you can expect:

• Bold, italic and underlined text should appear as formatted.
• Courier font text should appear as monospaced, i.e., "Typewriter Text".
• Tables will be formatted as they appear (only plain text is supported in tables.)
• Footnotes will appear in a separate document with hypertext links to them.
• Table of contents, indexes, headers and footers are discarded.
• Automatic generation of a hyperlinked Table of Contents. Table of Contents entries and paragraphs with the style "heading 1..6" will generate a hypertext Table of Contents in a separate file. Each table of contents entry will link to the correct location in the main document.
• Automatic generation of a hyperlinked Index.
• Use the "heading 1" paragraph style to determine where to split the file into separate HTML documents.
• Each graphic in your file will be written out to a separate file. These files will have to be "converted" since most WWW browsers do not understand the "wmf" or "pict" format used by your Word Processor. This will entail additional charges for conversion of the file to either "gif" or "jpeg" format that is recognized.
• Text that is connected with copy/paste-link constructs, or tagged with some special text attributes will generate hyperlinks. If email addresses and URIs are colored red in the RTF file, an HTML hyperlink will automatically be generated.
• Fully customizable navigation panels on top and bottom of each page.
• Support for a few of Netscape's HTML extension, such as the <center> tag and background images.

In order for this conversion to take place you need to create a "template" or "style sheet" to use for your Web pages.  The following are rough definitions of the HTML paragraph styles (see my "sample styles" to see how they look on your browser):

Normal

The Normal <P> style is used to indicate paragraphs. It should be flush-left with no first-line indent and with a blank line above the text. Use the same font and size you have defined for "Body Text" in your Web Browser.

heading 1..6

• The level 1 heading <H1> is the most important header in the document. It should be rendered more prominently than any other header. It is usually used to indicate the title of the document.
• The level 2 heading <H2> is the second most important header in the document. It should be rendered more prominently than a <H3>, but less prominently than a <H1>. It is often used to mark up chapters in a document.
• The level 3 heading <H3> is the third most important header in the document. It should be rendered more prominently than a <H4>, but less prominently than a <H2>. It is often used to mark up sections inside a chapter in a document.
• The level 4 heading <H4> should be rendered more prominently than a <H5>, but less prominently than a <H3>. It is often used to mark up subsections in a document.
• The level 5 heading <H5> is the second least important header in the document. It should be rendered more prominently than a <H6>, but less prominently than a <H4>. Because it is often rendered in a small font, it is not used very often. It should be used to divide sections inside a <H4>.
• The level 6 heading <H6> is the least important header in the document. It should be rendered less prominently than a <H5>, but more prominently than normal text. Because it is often rendered in a small font, it is not used very often. It should be used to divide sections inside a <H5>.

numbered list 1..5

The numbered list <OL> marks up an ordered list of items. Each item should be displayed with a number in front of it.

bullet list 1..5

The bullet list <UL> creates an unordered list. Every item in a list is marked a bullet of some sort in front of it.

dir

The <DIR> style is similar to the bullet list. It represents a list of short items, typically up to 20 characters each. Items in a directory list may be arranged in columns, typically 24 characters wide.

menu 1..5

The <MENU> style produces a list like the bullet list, but it should be rendered in a more compact manner. Not all browsers make this distinction, and some render it without a bullet at all.

small gloss 1..5

<DL> is used to provide a list of items with associated definitions. Every item should be put in a TERM <DT>, and its definition goes in the DEF <DD> directly following it. This list is typically rendered without bullets of any kind.

glossary 1..5

<DL> is used to provide a list of items with associated definitions. Every item should be put in a TERM <DT>, and its definition goes in the DEF <DD> directly following it. This list is typically rendered without bullets of any kind.

pre

<PRE> is used to include sections of text in which formatting is critical. Unlike in the other HTML containers, text in a PRE pair will only be wrapped at the line breaks in the source, and spaces will not be collapsed. You can even use tabs, although it is better to use multiple spaces since those will always be the right number. Text inside this tag will be displayed in a monospaced font to retain the formatting. For this reason font-changing tags cannot be included inside PRE text. Images are also excluded because they can introduce problems with alignment. An image can't be translated to a certain number of characters.

blockquote

If more than a few lines from a document are being quoted, use a <BLOCKQUOTE> to indicate this. Block quotations are often rendered with indented margins, and possibly in italics, although a rendering with the standard quotation symbol for E-mail, ">", is of course also possible.

address

The <ADDRESS> style should be used to enclose contact information, addresses and the like. It is often rendered with a slightly indented left margin and italics.

hr

<HR> is used to draw horizontal rules across the browser window. If the margins are currently smaller, for example because of images which are placed against the margins, the rule will extend to these margins instead of the whole window. A horizontal rule is typically used to separate sections within a document.

HTML

Literal, you may include HTML markup in this paragraph.

Special Text Attributes:

• double-underline/not hidden: hot text for hyperlink (below)
• double-underline/hidden: hyperlink URL<A HREF="...">
• hidden/shadow: literal, text not changed, used for HTML markup
• hidden/strikethru: literal, text not changed, used for HTML markup
• hidden/outline: internal hyperlink destination<A NAME="...">
• hidden/SuperScript: internal hyperlink destination<A NAME="...">
• monospace fonts (Courier, Monaco): typewriter text<TT>
• italic/underline: short citation<CITE>
• outline/shadow: emphasized text<EM>

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Prepared by Peter Conrad Cumminsky, consultant, ASEE, CET, Team OS/2 (707) 987- 9484

(C) Copyright 1993-1997 Peter Conrad Cumminsky