Re: FAQ in HTML-format / Standards & Tools ?

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Don't think so. I've only seen one standard for how to format FAQs and I hated
it deeply. :)

>What tools can I use to convert HTML to ASCII? (non-interactive mode)

I, of course, have no idea on what platform you run, but heres how I do things
on my Windows PC. (Other platforms: press delete now!)

Sine writing directly in HTML is slightly ugly, I use Word for Windows, with
the Internet Assistant for Word, which is a template and an HTML filter. With
this I can save my FAQs in HTML format (see http://www.traffic.is/, go down in
tech support and there you can find them.) I can also print out my FAQs to a
printer to copy them up, or print them to the fax driver to send them as faxes.
Both ways are really the same, and both ways look good, and similar to the HTML
documents. You do have to change the font size of the HTML template though. The
'Normal' font is only 9pts big, which is too small. I use 11pts.

I can also print to the TTY printer in Windows, which gives me text files!
Theres a couple of hangups there.
1. You can't use bold. That fucks the whole thing up, since the printer makes
bold by printing it three times! :)
2. You have to change the 'Normal' paragraph setup, from 6pts space before
paragraphs and 6pts space after, to 12before and 0 after, or you get empty
lines in wierd places.
3. You also get the wrong combinations of line-feeds and carriage returns. But
setting up emacs to automatically convert that stuff on load, it only requires
you to load the file and then save it with emacs, and thats fixed. What you
then have is a text file that can be viewed on an 80 column screen, and can be
dumped directly to a printer, and it comes out good! The form-feeds are still
there, and you get margins!

It took me some time to end up with this solution, but it works very well, and
I can maintain HTML, text, hard copy, and fax formats from the same place. I
could also make PostScript formats if I'd like without any effort at all.

• Next message: David Alex Lamb: "Re: Where is FAQ charter?"
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• Maybe in reply to: pshuang@MIT.EDU: "FAQ in HTML-format / Standards & Tools ?"
• Next in thread: Larry W. Virden, x2487: "Re: FAQ in HTML-format / Standards & Tools ?"

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