Re: Mosaic and Standards (was: Format for standards tables)

[Valerie Archambeau <varchamb -at- MIDWAY -dot- UCHICAGO -dot- EDU>]

Matt--

Thank you for your clarification.  But I wasn't trying to make a general
statement about WWW and creating documents for all browsers.

Lavonna asked specifically about the Mosaic browser, and my comments sought
to address her concern.  Yes, there are other browsers, but at this
"historical moment" Mosaic is the most widely used.

It is important to note, however, that my audience is a limited, definable
one--a university--and that my department recommends and supports Mosaic
for our user community.

The WWW style sheet I downloaded contained these styles.  The archive also
contained an RTF to HTML converter.  In order to make the conversion
easier, I have used only these styles in my documents:

Address Style
Block Quote Style
Bullet List
Bullet List One
Bullet List Two
Glossary
Glossary one
Glossary Two
Heading One
Heading Two
Heading Three
Heading Four
Heading Five
Heading Six
HR
Normal
Numbered List
Numbered List One
Numbered List Two
pre

Thanks for your input :)
Valerie--Still Without Her Morning Coffee--Archambeau
varchamb -at- midway -dot- uchicago -dot- edu

=============================================
>> You see, Mosaic provides a limited number
>> of styles that you *must* use (in your original word processing doc) in
>> order for the text to be properly converted into the program screen.

>1. No. _Mosaic_ provides _no_ styles. The DTD for HTML defines a limited
>   number of styles. Mosaic is just one of many browsers that understands
>   and displays these styles. DO NOT confuse Mosaic with the WWW (World
>   Wide Web) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Mosaic is not the
>   WWW, anymore than all tissues are Kleenex.

>2. In general, your original document can include as many different
>   styles as you want, but during the conversion, they will have to be
>   mapped onto the more limited set of HTML styles. For example, you
>   might have lists labeled with roman numerals, arabic numerals, and
>   letters--you would set your conversion program to map all three of
>   these styles to the HTML style "ordered list" (<OL><LI></OL>), which
>   would cause them all to be displayed with arabic numerals. Admittedly,
>   not all converters allow you to do this, but all the good ones should.

>> It would be possible, however, to create a page that had links to various
>> industries/professions standards (i.e., "Click here to view our standards
>> among programmers."  "Click here to view our writing standards among
>> student help-desk assistants").

>   Again, because not all browsers are Mosaic browsers, you should not
>   create links of the form "Click here for..." Not all browsers are
>   mouse driven, so you do not always click on a link. For many users
>   (particularly those users who are accessing your HTML pages over slow
>   connections with text-based browsers like Lynx), "click here" doesn't
>   make much sense. Something along the lines of "This link takes you
>   to..." would be better. Of course, there is some debate as to whether the
>   link takes you somewhere, or brings something to you (does the data
>   or the window move).

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>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Matt Hicks, Tech. Writer, Unidata * I may not agree with what you
>Boulder, CO, (303)497-8676, ******* say, but I'll defend to the
>matt -at- unidata -dot- ucar -dot- edu ************* death my right to mock you.