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Creating documents for print as well as WWW, using common PC software: pitfalls and expectations

Creating documents for print as well as WWW, using common PC software: pitfalls and expectations. Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen Erik Buelinckx Professional desktop publisher Belgium

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Creating documents for print as well as WWW, using common PC software: pitfalls and expectations

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  1. Creating documents for print as well as WWW, using common PC software:pitfalls and expectations Paul Nieuwenhuysen Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen Erik Buelinckx Professional desktop publisher Belgium Presented at Internet Librarian International ‘99 in London, England, 30 March 1999

  2. Creating documents for both printing and computer-based distribution Many documents should be distributed • by using the classical form of printed material, as well as • by using more recent methods based on computers and networks, for instance • through the WWW, • through an intranet, • on CD-ROM,...

  3. Creating documents for both printing and computer-based distribution Here we discuss the case of relatively simple, classical documents that are normally created by software for word processing, for instance • not databases • not video • not ...

  4. Creating documents: which software to use? • For the distribution based on computers, hypermedia based on HTML are increasingly used.These documents can be read/viewed by using one of the common, popular WWW browsers. • Ideally, the application software used to create both types of documents should be • already known by the document creators, or easy to learn • available free of charge, or already available to create documents anyway, or cheap to buy

  5. Creating documents: an ideal, simple, neutral scheme In this ideal scheme, no preference is given to any format: author microcomputer neutral, well-structured, computer-based master document printer printed document document on WWW or intranet or CD-ROM or...

  6. Creating documents: problems with the ideal scheme • Which application software is available today that can produce the ideal, neutral, well structured, computer-based master document, that forms the ideal basis for later printing and distribution using computers and networks? Can such an ideal computer program exist? • Which file format is suitable for such a master document: SGML? XML? An advanced version of HTML? A proprietary format? A combination of all these?

  7. From SGML to HTML and XML SGML XML advanced HTML HTML Complexity Time / History Now|

  8. Creating documents: giving priority to either printing either hypermedia In view of the problems with an ideal, neutral, well structured master document, many authors of documents prefer to create a computer-based document that is suitable • either primarily for printing • either primarily for the creation of hypermedia

  9. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: scheme author microcomputer computer-based document in a format optimal for printing(for instance DOC, PPT,...) printer conversion to HTML (or no conversion) printed document hypermedia document on WWW or intranet or CD-ROM or...

  10. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: application programs Examples of application software that create documents that are primarily suitable for printing or for other non-hypermedia output are • word processing software (like Microsoft Word) • page-layout software / desktop publishing software • spreadsheets • presentation software (like Microsoft PowerPoint)

  11. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: conversion to hypermedia The files created with application software that is primarily focused on generating documents for printed output, can also be used for distribution as hypermedia • after conversion to a HTML file, to make the documents better suitable as hypermedia • after “freezing” the documents and making them suitable for various computer platforms (for instance to Adobe’s Portable Document Format) • directly, without conversion

  12. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: conversion to hypermedia • Document files that have been created primarily for printing can be • “converted to HTML” • “saved as HTML” • “exported to HTML” to make them better suitable as hypermedia.

  13. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: conversion to hypermedia • Examples of common, popular programs that can convert documents to HTML+GIF+JPG hypermedia: • for word processing: Microsoft Word 97,... • for the creation of slides for presentations: Microsoft PowerPoint 97,... • However, this does not work ideally and without problems.

  14. Word processing software to create printed or hypermedia documents (1) author microcomputer + word processing software computer-based document in a format good for printing printing conversion to HTML printed document A hypermedia document A hypermedia document B printing printed document B

  15. Word processing software to create printed or hypermedia documents (2) Comment to the scheme: ideally printed document A = printed document B hypermedia document A = hypermedia document B However, this is not the case.

  16. Word processing software to create documents: focus on Microsoft We focus on the word processing software by Microsoft: Word 97Word 2000because the Office software suite by Microsoft dominates the market of office software suites, with a share of about 80%.

  17. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: software for export to HTML • The concrete conversions executed by Word depend on the software installed for export to HTML. • The import as well as export software used by Word is contained mainly in 1 file named html32.cnv

  18. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: the HTML conversion software • The import and export software is normally installed in the directory\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Textconv • The version of the conversion software depends on updates using Microsoft Word Internet Assistant software (and of other software such as Microsoft FrontPage?)

  19. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: identifying the conversion software

  20. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: export software and quality • As the software for conversion to HTML is more or less independent of Word 97, the quality of the conversion is less dependent of Word 97 than of this separate conversion software.

  21. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: problems with heading styles • When formatting styles from a proprietary stylesheet are present in the Word97 document, then these styles are converted by Microsoft Word 97 to HTML character formats. However, Word 97 heading styles (used to structure a document) are not converted to HTML heading styles. • Does Word 2000 convert the proprietary Word heading styles better to HTML heading styles?

  22. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: problems with graphics When images are present in the Word 97 document file, then each of these is converted to a separate graphics file in GIF format, that is linked to the master document file in HTML format. However, in hypermedia JPG files are better used for photographs for instance.

  23. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: the problem of the HTML Title • The concept of a title does not exist in classical document file formats, but it is required in HTML documents. • Word 97 gives a title to the resulting HTML document anyway, and this is not always appropriate and may even confuse the reader. • Word 2000 allows the user to asign a title and to change this later.

  24. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: problems with hyperlinks • The resulting set of hypermedia files contain links. These links must be adapted, when changes occur in the URL of the internal or external documents to which these links refer. • In the original Word 97 software without updates, no software is available to take care of this. • Since 1997, an update for Word 97 is available free of charge from Microsoft, that provides link management software. • Word 2000 includes link management software.

  25. Converting Word 97 files to HTML: problem with long documents In our experience, a long document with a lot of formatting can not be converted to a HTML file, using either Microsoft Word 97, either FrontPage 98.

  26. Converting PowerPoint 97 files to HTML: problems • Besides the slides similar to the original ones, a plain text version is saved, but this is often meaningless or even confusing, due to the absence of the clarifying or essential images. • Presentation files that contain animations created by PowerPoint 97cannot be saved as HTML files. • A detail: Instead of 3 dots (...) in a slide title, another symbol is shown in the HTML document Title.

  27. PowerPoint 2000 and HTML • PowerPoint 2000 allows saving presentation slides as HTML in a more refined way than PowerPoint 97. • For instance: PowerPoint 2000 allows the creation of animations that are coded in dynamic HTML for better transfer to the Web.

  28. Creating documents: giving priority to printing: conclusion • Several problems arise in the conversion to hypermedia. • We hope that next generations of word processing software will solve these problems.

  29. Creating documents: giving priority to hypermedia: scheme author microcomputer computer-based document in a hypermedia format (for instance HTML + GIF + JPG +...) printer printed document hypermedia document on WWW or intranet or CD-ROM or...

  30. Creating documents: giving priority to hypermedia: suitable free programs Examples of software to create hypermedia documents based on HTML, available free of charge: • All kinds of text editors (not recommended) • Microsoft FrontPage Express:included with the Internet program Internet Explorer starting from version 4 • Netscape Page Composer: included with the Internet program Netscape Communicator • ...

  31. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files The following problems occur in many printouts in our experience with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 and beta version 5, used with Windows 95 and a PostScript printer:

  32. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files - At the start of a page, sometimes the upper part of the first line is not printed. - At the end of a page, sometimes the lower part of the last line is not printed. - A table that cannot be printed completely anymore on the same page is split in 2 parts. - Formatting that is seen well in the browser is not well printed. - Transparent GIF images are not printed well, as the transparent part is printed also.

  33. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files Using Netscape Navigator or Netscape Page Composerwith Windows 95 and both a PostScript or a PCL printer, we observed that: + A table that cannot be printed completely anymore on the same page is not split in 2 parts, but nicely transferred to the next page. - A tiled background JPEG image is not printed tiled, but only once.

  34. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files Using Microsoft Word 97 with Windows 95 and both a PostScript or a PCL printer, to print an imported HTML file, we observed that: - A table that cannot be printed completely anymore on the same page is split in 2 parts. - The background image is not printed.

  35. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files Using Microsoft FrontPage Express 2 with Windows 95 and both a PostScript or a PCL printer, we observed that - Texts are not printed well (inappropriate spaces,...). - Background images are not printed. - GIF images are not printed well.

  36. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing HTML files Using Microsoft FrontPage 98 with Windows 95 and both a PostScript or a PCL printer, we observed that - Transparent GIF images are not printed well, as the transparent part is printed also. - The colours in GIF images are not printed well in black and white. - Some parts are printed too large.

  37. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with printing large images Using Windows 95 and • Netscape Navigator 4.5 • Microsoft Explorer 4 • Microsoft FrontPage 98 we observed that in the case of large GIF images, only the left part is printed on the page; the part on the right that does not fit on that page anymore is simply not printed. Programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft PhotoEditor perform better.

  38. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with page breaks in printing • Page breaks during printing cannot be controlled as with proprietary commercial word processing software that uses proprietary suitable file formats! • The next versions of HTML will include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS-2), that allow us to define precisely how a Web document should look in print: • by inserting page breaks! • by setting margins,...

  39. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with creating documents • HTML editors are not suitable for the creation of “long” documents. • Even a specialized program for HTML editing and site management like Microsoft FrontPage (97 or) 98 does not make it easy - to add HTML meta fields to a HTML document (for instance with keywords and descriptors) - to specify alternative fonts besides the first choice font specified by the author in the HTML character formatting

  40. Giving priority to hypermedia: problems with maintaining documents The programs that are available free of charge like • Microsoft FrontPage Express • Netscape Page Composer do not offer automated control of links to detect “dead links”. • This function is provided by more specialized programs like FrontPage (97 or) 98.

  41. Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: conclusion • A simple and cheap solution does not exist (yet). • As a consequence, in practice the same information is now in many cases stored in 2 ways: • using 1 file format for 1 program in a combination that is good in printing • as HTML + GIF + JPG +... files for distribution through the WWW or an intranet or on CD-ROM

  42. Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: conclusion Unfortunately, in comparison with managing the information in only 1 document version, using 2 document versions - requires more expertise - costs more work to create the documents initially - requires double work in the case of changes in contents - causes the danger of differences in the contents, in the message of the 2 document versions (for instance: prices, dates, regulations, ...)

  43. Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: formats Proprietary word processing file formats Portable Document Format (PDF) HTML Advanced HTML! good for printing + + - + independent of computer platform; good for hypermedia - + + + open standard; not proprietary - - + +

  44. Creating documents as both print-outs and hypermedia: future? Future generations of common office software packages will be better • in creating hypermedia based on (advanced) HTML • in converting documents to HTML hypermedia • in integrating word processing with a more specialized program for Web creation and maintenance • in viewing and creating documents formatted according to advanced HTML or XML (with more advanced structures and formats)

  45. Thank you.Any questions?

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