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Re: Text only documents

Subject: Re: Text only documents
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: Khizran Kaleem <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:57:50 -0500

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

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