/[public]/psiconv/trunk/docs/html4
ViewVC logotype

Diff of /psiconv/trunk/docs/html4

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log | View Patch Patch

Revision 2 Revision 200
1This README provides information about the psiconv HTML4 output generator. 1This README provides information about the psiconv HTML4 output generator.
2 2
3Output files generated using the option `-t HTML4' use cascading style sheets 3Output files generated using the options -T HTML use only HTML 4.01 to
4(CSS1) with embedded style rules to specify all text formatting information, 4format their text. This has some drawbacks, as several layout options are
5rather than using the more commonly-used HTML version 2.0 and 3.2 elements such 5not available in plain HTML. The good news is that almost any browser
6as <FONT>, <B>, <CENTER> etc. Output files can thus only be properly displayed 6should accept the generated HTML and render the page in an acceptable way.
7on the more recent web-browsers such as Netscape 4.x and IE 4.0, but the output
8is a much more accurate conversion from the original Psion document than is
9possible with HTML 2.0 or 3.2. Browsers that do not support cascading style
10sheets will show the text but no character or paragraph formatting.
11 7
12Output files that do not contain user-written HTML constructs should comply 8Note that tabs, headers and footers are not rendered at all. Especially
13with W3C's HTML 4.0 Strict DTD [not checked yet; anj 20-Jun-1999]. 9the omission of tabs can cause ugly layouts. Unfortunately, there is not
14 10a real solution for this.
15The text on the first line of the document header is used as the page title.
16
17Hard page-breaks are converted into a horizontal rule <HR>. Unfortunately in
18Netscape 4.51 any text following in the same paragraph loses its styling, so
19this should really only be used at the end of a paragraph.
20
21Paragraph borders using the types dot-dash and dot-dot-dash are converted to
22dashed and dotted respectively, as these two Psion types do not have a direct
23equivalent in HTML 4.0. However Netscape 4.51 only seems to display borders as
24solid, and in only one color (black).
25
26Netscape also doesn't seem to handle superscript and subscript properly using
27the style sheet approach, so the reason these don't work is due to their bug,
28not mine.
29
30Bullets are supported, but the output is not quite the same as on the Psion.
31HTML lists don't allow you to pick your own character for the bullet like the
32Psion does (you could use an image of the relevent character, but you'd have to
33create it on-the-fly to get the right foreground color for full support), and
34they're not particularly straight-forward to use, so I don't.
35
36Short HTML constructs such as hyperlinks and images can be entered in the Word
37document by using the Psion characters CTRL+139 and CTRL+155 (the single
38angle-quote characters lsaquo and rsaquo), which are converted into < and >
39respectively in the output file. Longer constructs such as tables would
40probably interact with the paragraph formatting to the detriment of both,
41although if kept "on one line" (ie within a single Psion paragraph) they may be
42feasible.
43
44The only major facilities provided by Psion Word that are missing from the
45HTML4 output are support for tabs and embedded objects. Tabs look to be
46impossible to implement properly because HTML does not provide an equivalent
47construct (tables are not suitable for anything other than superficial support.
48The classical typewriter model of tabs needs to know the current print position
49in order to work out which tab stop to align to next; the print position of a
50particular character will depend upon the font in use). Embedded objects need
51the relevent stream formats to be documented and suitable converters
52implemented (embedded Sheet files could be converted into tables, and Sketches
53into inline images).
54
55- Andrew Johnson <anjohnson@iee.org>

Legend:
Removed from v.2  
changed lines
  Added in v.200

frodo@frodo.looijaard.name
ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26