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This README provides information about the psiconv HTML4 output generator. |
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Output files generated using the option `-t HTML4' use cascading style sheets |
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(CSS1) with embedded style rules to specify all text formatting information, |
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rather than using the more commonly-used HTML version 2.0 and 3.2 elements such |
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as <FONT>, <B>, <CENTER> etc. Output files can thus only be properly displayed |
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on the more recent web-browsers such as Netscape 4.x and IE 4.0, but the output |
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is a much more accurate conversion from the original Psion document than is |
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possible with HTML 2.0 or 3.2. Browsers that do not support cascading style |
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sheets will show the text but no character or paragraph formatting. |
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Output files that do not contain user-written HTML constructs should comply |
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with W3C's HTML 4.0 Strict DTD [not checked yet; anj 20-Jun-1999]. |
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The text on the first line of the document header is used as the page title. |
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Hard page-breaks are converted into a horizontal rule <HR>. Unfortunately in |
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Netscape 4.51 any text following in the same paragraph loses its styling, so |
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this should really only be used at the end of a paragraph. |
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Paragraph borders using the types dot-dash and dot-dot-dash are converted to |
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dashed and dotted respectively, as these two Psion types do not have a direct |
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equivalent in HTML 4.0. However Netscape 4.51 only seems to display borders as |
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solid, and in only one color (black). |
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Netscape also doesn't seem to handle superscript and subscript properly using |
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the style sheet approach, so the reason these don't work is due to their bug, |
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not mine. |
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Bullets are supported, but the output is not quite the same as on the Psion. |
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HTML lists don't allow you to pick your own character for the bullet like the |
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Psion does (you could use an image of the relevent character, but you'd have to |
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create it on-the-fly to get the right foreground color for full support), and |
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they're not particularly straight-forward to use, so I don't. |
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Short HTML constructs such as hyperlinks and images can be entered in the Word |
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document by using the Psion characters CTRL+139 and CTRL+155 (the single |
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angle-quote characters lsaquo and rsaquo), which are converted into < and > |
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respectively in the output file. Longer constructs such as tables would |
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probably interact with the paragraph formatting to the detriment of both, |
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although if kept "on one line" (ie within a single Psion paragraph) they may be |
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feasible. |
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The only major facilities provided by Psion Word that are missing from the |
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HTML4 output are support for tabs and embedded objects. Tabs look to be |
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impossible to implement properly because HTML does not provide an equivalent |
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construct (tables are not suitable for anything other than superficial support. |
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The classical typewriter model of tabs needs to know the current print position |
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in order to work out which tab stop to align to next; the print position of a |
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particular character will depend upon the font in use). Embedded objects need |
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the relevent stream formats to be documented and suitable converters |
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implemented (embedded Sheet files could be converted into tables, and Sketches |
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into inline images). |
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- Andrew Johnson <anjohnson@iee.org> |
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