$_$_END_BLOCK
1 Introduction
==============
This document describes the "policies" used by AscToHTM and related programs
(AscToRTF, AscToTab) when converting unformatted text files into HTML or RTF
output files.
The policies take the form of rules or instructions that the program
must follow. They fall broadly into two types.
- *Analysis Policies*. These describe rules for how the input text
file is to be understood. In many cases these rules will be
determined by a process of analysis. In other cases (or when the
analysis goes wrong), these policies may need to be set by hand.
- *Output Policies*. These describe rules and extra information to
be used when generating the output HTML or RTF files. In almost
all cases these have to be set manually by the user.
When regularly converting the same, or similar, files it is possible to
load a set of policies from file. These are called "policy files", and take
the form of ordinary text files, with one policy per line. This allows users
to easily edit such files and their policies.
2 Policy Name, values and scope
===============================
2.1 Policy Names and descriptions
Each policy has a name, which also acts as a short description. This
description is used in the policy files, and must be matched *exactly* in
the policy file if the policy is to be recognised. This means that if
the policy text is misspelt, then you must normally match the misspelling.
However there is an exception to this rule...
2.1.1 British and American spellings of Colour
Although the program is developed by a British Author, as far as possible
I've tried to support use of British and American English in the policy names.
So, for example, the word "colour" may usually be spelt "color" in the
following policies :-
- [[GOTO "Active Link Colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Background Colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
- [[GOTO "Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS"]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
- [[GOTO "Default TABLE border colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Default TABLE colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Headings Colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Scope COLOUR tags globally"]]
- [[GOTO "Suppress all colour markup"]]
- [[GOTO "Text Colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Unvisited Link Colour"]]
- [[GOTO "Visited Link Colour"]]
- [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Header frame text colour]]
- [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]]
- [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]]
2.2 Policy values
Each policy has a data value. The type of values a policy can take will vary
from policy to policy.
For most policies the special value "(none)" will be accepted, meaning that
this policy should be ignored and/or assigned a suitable default value.
2.2.1 Yes/No values
The commonest type of data value is simple a "Yes/No" value. That is the
value is either "Yes" or "no". In practice only the first letter is required.
For backwards compatability the values "true" and "false" may also be used.
2.2.2 Numerical values
Many policy values require numeric values. Sometimes the value will be
constrained, e.g. must be positive, or it must lie within a certain range.
Values that lie outside the accepted range will be reported in error, and
the policy will be ignored.
2.2.3 Text strings
Many policies are simple text strings, e.g. the Title of the HTML pages being
produced. In such cases the whole value will be used, but any spaces before
or after the value will be ignored.
2.2.4 HTML colours
Some policies accept colour values. These values should be HTML colours
which - for example - may be placed in the various attributes of the
tag.
You can enter any value acceptable to HTML. Normally a value is expressed as
a 6-digit hexadecimal value in the range 000000 (black) to FFFFFF (white), but
certain colours such as "white", "blue", "red" etc may also be recognised
by HTML. The program simply transcribes your value into the output file.
A value of "none" signals the defaults are to be used. By default
AscToHTM changes the background colour to be white (the true HTML default is
a light gray whose value is "C0C0C0").
2.2.5 Section/Heading levels
Some policies require section or heading level values. The program numbers
heading levels as follows :-
Chapter headings 1
Major sections 2
sub-sections 3
sub-sub-sections 4
In a document with numbered sections "1" would be a chapter, "1.2" a major
section, "1.2.3" a sub-section and "1.2.3.4" a sub-sub-section etc.
In documents with underlined sections the heading level is determined
by the underlining character.
Chapters '*'
Major sections '+','=' or'/'
Sub-sections '-','_' or '~'
Sub-sub-sections '.'
2.2.6 Lists of names
A few policies require a list of named values. In such cases the values are
either :-
- *space-separated*. Each value should contain no white-space
characters, but may contain underscores etc.
- *Comma-separated*. Each value should be separated by a comma. The
values may contain white-space. If they also include a comma then
place the value in double quotes.
2.3 Policy scope
Each policy has its own scope. Policies are scoped in two different ways:-
- *Analysis or Output*. Policies may apply to the analysis of
the input text or the generation of the output files.
- *Fixed or Dynamic*. A _Fixed_ policy may not be varied during the
conversion of the file, that is it is applied equally to all parts
of the file being converted. A _Dynamic_ policy may be changed
a number of times during the conversion (by embedding changes of
values in the source document itself). This can be used to alter
the conversion process locally in different parts of the file.
2.3.1 Dynamic analysis policy
Dynamic analysis policies are policies that affect the analysis of the file,
that may be varied during the processing of the file. This is achieved by
embedding new values in the file itself (see 3.4)
For example adding the line(s)
$_$_BEGIN_PRE
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Look for short lines : no
...
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Look for short lines : yes
$_$_END_PRE
uses the policy [[GOTO look for short lines]] to prevent the software looking
for short lines for the enclosed part of the document.
2.3.2 Dynamic output policy
Dynamic output policies are policies that affect the generation of the
output file(s) that may be varied during the processing of the file. This
is achieved by embedding new values in the file itself (see 3.4)
For example adding the lines
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : (none)
$_$_BEGIN_PRE
uk.railways
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : uk
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : uk
uk.railways
$_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : (none)
$_$_END_PRE
to your source uses the policy [[GOTO Recognised USENET groups]] to switch on
the recognition of "uk.railways" as a newsgroup for a few lines, where this
is normally disabled by default.
2.3.3 Fixed analysis policy
Fixed analysis policies are policies that affect the analysis of the file,
and that may not be varied during the processing of the file, usually because
what they describe should apply to the whole file.
For example the indentation pattern used in the file is usually fixed in this
way.
2.3.4 Fixed output policy
Fixed output policies are policies that affect the generation of the output
file, and that may not be varied during the processing of the file, usually
because they must be consistent, or because they're output near the top
of the document.
For example the [[GOTO Active Link Colour]] is put in the portion of
the HTML file, and cannot be varied throughout the file.
3 Ways of specifying policy values
==================================
You can specify policies in a number of different ways used separately or
in combination.
3.1 Placing policies in a "policy file"
One of the more useful ways to use policies is to save them to a "policy file",
which you can then later reload. In this way your customizations for a
particular document or type of document can be saved and reused.
3.1.1 Saving and loading policy files
The program allows you to save policies to file so that you can later
reload them. This allows you to easily define different ways
of doing conversions, either for different types of files, or to
produce different types of output.
The policy files have a .pol extension by default, and are simple
text files, with one policy on each line. You can, if you wish,
edit these policies in a text editor... this is sometimes easier
that using all the dialogs in the Windows version.
When editing policies, it is important not to change the key phrase
(the bit before the ":" character), as this needs to be matched exactly
by the program.
For best results, it is advisable to put in your policy file only
those policies you want to fix. This leaves the program to calculate
document-by-document policies that suit the files being converted.
Note: Avoid using "full" policy file for your conversions. Such
files prevent the program from adjusting to each source
file, often leading to unwanted results.
3.1.2 policy files for your document
The normal way to create a policy file is by setting options and them
saving them using the "save policy file" dialog. This will offer you
the choice of creating a partial policy file or a full policy file
(see 3.1.3 and 3.1.4).
Alternatively, you can set the [[GOTO "Output policy file"]] policy or
the /POLICY= command line qualifier which will generate a full
policy file resulting from the analysis of the converted document.
Once a file is generated you can either edit it in a text editor -
deleting policies that are of little interest to you, and editing those
that are - or reload them into the program, change them and save them
again.
3.1.3 Partial policy files
Partial policy files are files which have values for some, not all, policies.
Typically only those policies that have been changed will be saved into the
file.
These are recommended, because the unstated policies can be set by
the program, allowing it to adapt to the details of the document being
concerned.
For example, you should only set the indentation policy if you *know*
what indents you are using, or if you want to override those calculated
by the program. Normally it is best to omit this policy, and allow
the program to work it out itself.
When you save a policy file from inside the program, a partial policy file
will contain
- all policies loaded from the current policy file (if any)
- all policies changed in the program during the current session (if any)
3.1.4 Full policy files
A "full" policy file contains a value for every possible policy.
Such files are usually only useful for documentation and analysis
reasons, and should almost never be expected to be reloaded as input
into a conversion, as this would totally fix the conversion details.
3.1.5 Naming policy files
Whenever the "Output policy file" policy is set (see 6.3.3.11), the
generated "full" policy file is usually called
.pol
where is the name of the file being created. When this
happens any existing file of that name will be overwritten.
For this reason we *strongly* advise you adopt a naming convention of the form
in_.pol or i.pol
or place your input policies in a different directory and ensure they
are backed up.
3.2 Changing policies via the user interface
In the Windows version of the program many (but not all - see 3.6) policies
can have their values changed via options available from the
_"Conversion Options"_ menu. This menu divides policies into "analysis"
and "output" policies, and further sub-divides the policies into related groups.
3.3 Changing policies by using command line options
A small number of policies can be set from the command line. These include
Command line Equivalent policy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/CONTENTS [[GOTO Add contents list]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
/CU [[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
/DOS [[GOTO Use DOS filenames]]
/FRAMES [[GOTO Place document in frames]]
/INDEX[=filename] [[GOTO Make Directory]]
/LIST[=filename] [[GOTO Generate diagnostics files]]
/LOG[=filename] [[GOTO Create a log file]]
/OUT=[filespec] [[GOTO Output directory]]
/POLICY[=filename] [[GOTO Output policy file]]
/RULESET="name" [[GOTO Rule set to be used]]
/SILENT [[GOTO Display messages]]
/SIMPLE [[GOTO Keep it simple]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
/TAGS [[GOTO Show Tags in output]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
3.4 Changing policies by using preprocessor directives
A number of policies have equivalent preprocessor directives. These directives
are special keywords and values placed in your source text at some point to
influence the conversion at that point, or from that point onwards. See
the main documentation for full details.
Directives all begin with the text "$_$_" followed by the keyword placed at
the start of a line. The directive appears on a line by itself, and the rest
of the line is interpreted as the directive's data value.
In addition to individual directives, the CHANGE_POLICY directive can be
used to embed policy changes into your document to apply from that point
onwards. The effect of attempting to the change the same policy multiple
times via repeated CHANGE_POLICY directives will depend on whether the
policy is "dynamic" or "Fixed" (see [[GOTO "Policy Scope"]]). This can be
a useful alternative to using policy files, as it places the relevant
policies into the file itself.
Here is a list of the more general policy-related directives :-
Directive keyword(s) Related policies
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BASEHREF [[GOTO Document Base URL]]
BEGIN_CODE,END_CODE [[GOTO Expect code samples]]
BEGIN_CONTENTS,END_CONTENTS [[GOTO Expect Contents List]]
BEGIN_PRE,END_PRE [[GOTO Minimum automatic
size]]
CHANGE_POLICY (any policy)
CONTENTS_LIST [[GOTO Add contents list]]
DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT [[GOTO HTML fragments file]]
DESCRIPTION [[GOTO Document Description]]
KEYWORDS [[GOTO Document keywords]]
SECTION [[GOTO Include document section(s)]]
STYLE_SHEET [[GOTO Document Style Sheet]]
TITLE [[GOTO Document Title]]
A special case are table directives. Table directives if added to the top
of the file will apply to all subsequent detected tables. However, if you
want to control an individual table, place $_$_BEGIN_TABLE...$_$_END_TABLE
commands around the table text, and place the $_$_TABLE_xxx directive between
the BEGIN_TABLE...END_TABLE directive. Usually just after the BEGIN_TABLE
command.
This approach is often more flexible that setting the equivalent policy in a
policy file, as that would apply to all tables in the conversion. This is
why many of these policies have descriptions that begin "Default TABLE...".
$_$_BEGIN_DELIMITED_TABLE
$_$_TABLE_ALIGN CENTER
Directive keyword(s) Related policies
------------------------------------------
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ADD_TOTAL_WIDTH]] [[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ALIGN]] [[GOTO Default TABLE alignment]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BGCOLOR]] [[GOTO Default TABLE colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BORDER]] [[GOTO Default TABLE border size]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BORDERCOLOR]] [[GOTO Default TABLE border colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CAPTION]] [[GOTO Default TABLE caption]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELLPADDING]] [[GOTO Default TABLE cell padding]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELLSPACING]] [[GOTO Default TABLE cell spacing]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELL_ALIGN]] [[GOTO Default TABLE cell alignment]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_COLO(U)R_ROWS]] [[GOTO Colour data rows]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CONVERT_XREFS]] [[GOTO Convert TABLE X-refs to links]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_EVEN_ROW_COLO(U)R]] [[GOTO Default TABLE even row colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_HEADER_COLS]] [[GOTO Default TABLE header rows]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_HEADER_ROWS]] [[GOTO Default TABLE header cols]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_IGNORE_HEADER]] [[GOTO Ignore table header during analysis]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_LAYOUT]] [[GOTO Default TABLE layout]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE]] [[GOTO Expect sparse tables]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_MIN_COLUMN_SEPARATION]] [[GOTO Minimum TABLE column separation]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ODD_ROW_COLO(U)R]] [[GOTO Default TABLE odd row colour]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_USE_PERCENTAGES]] [[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_WIDTH]] [[GOTO Default TABLE width]]
$_$_END_DELIMITED_TABLE
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
The use of "$_$_" can be changed via the policy [[GOTO "Directive delimiter"]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
3.5 Changing policies by using the Settings menu
A few policies are made available via the program's Settings Menu, rather than
the Conversion Options menu. These are typically policies that control message
generation
3.6 Changing policies by editing a Policy file
Some policies can *only* be changed by editing the policy file. These are:-
$_$_SECTION CSS
[[GOTO Add FONT face markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Add FONT markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Add FONT size markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Add FONT style markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]] [[BR]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
[[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO CENTER whole document]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Directive delimiter]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO End tag delimiter]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Indent whole document]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Label style classes]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Remove redundant tags]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Start tag delimiter]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]] [[BR]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
[[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Add emphasis and bold markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Apply FONT to empty table cells]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Avoid tag breaks]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Colour REDLINE sections]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Contents anchors level]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Folio block sequence]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Indentation markup code]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO List markup code]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Show Tags in output]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Suppress markup for headings]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]] [[BR]]
$_$_SECTION_ALL
[[GOTO Add mail headers to contents list]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Contents style code]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Column boundaries have zero width]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Default TABLE caption]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Default TABLE layout]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Default TABLE header cols]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Display messages]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO First line indentation (in blocks)]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Font stretch factor (in percent)]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO HTML version to be targeted]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Lines to ignore at end of file]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Lines to ignore at start of file]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Monitor tag generation]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Number of words to include in filename]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Output log filename]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Scope COLOUR tags globally]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Suppress all font markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Could be blank line separated]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use .. markup]] [[BR]]
[[GOTO Use and markup]] [[BR]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
3.7 Changing policies by using Rulesets
As a convenience pre-defined combinations of policies and their values can be
collected together as a "ruleset". This allows certain types of documents to
be converted in a defined way, without a large supporting policy file.
This allows any policy file that is used to contain only incremental changes on
the base ruleset.
The ruleset to be used can be specified via the /RULESET="rulename" command
line qualifier, or the [[GOTO "Rule set to be used"]] policy.
$_$_SECTION ALL
4 Change history
================
4.1 Policies added in Version 4.2
All
- [[GOTO Look for underlined text]]
HTML
- [[GOTO Shortcut Icon URL]]
RTF
- [[GOTO Characters to use for bullets]]
- [[GOTO Use original bullet text]]
Detagger
- [[GOTO Concatenate results into one file]]
4.2 Policies added in Version 4.1
*Analysis policies*
- [[GOTO Look for character encoding]]
*HTML generation policies*
- [[GOTO Character encoding]]
- [[GOTO Table Font]]
- [[GOTO Heading Font]]
- [[GOTO Table of contents Font]]
- [[GOTO Fixed Font]]
- [[GOTO Only allow pages to be viewed in frames]]
*RTF generation policies*
- [[GOTO Make Windows Help source file]]
- [[GOTO Scope for font tags]]
- [[GOTO Style File]]
4.3 Policies added in Version 4
*Analysis policies*
- [[GOTO Look for diagrams]]
- [[GOTO Check indentation for consistency]]
- [[GOTO Input file contains PCL codes]]
- [[GOTO Input file contains Japanese characters]]
- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at end of file]]
- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at start of file]]
- [[GOTO Column boundaries have zero width]]
- [[GOTO Check domain name syntax]]
- [[GOTO Create telnet links]]
- [[GOTO Expect Embedded Headings]]
- [[GOTO heading key phrases]]
*HTML generation policies*
- [[GOTO HTML fragments file]]
- [[GOTO Preserve new paragraph offset]]
- [[GOTO Number of words to include in filename]]
- [[GOTO Omit and from output]]
- [[GOTO Comment generation code]]
- [[Goto Document Base URL]]
- [[GOTO "Suppress all colour markup"]]
- [[GOTO "Suppress all font markup"]]
_Frames_
Frames support is added in version 4, so there are a large number
of policies in support of this new feature.
- [[GOTO Place document in frames]]
- [[GOTO Output frame name]]
- [[GOTO Header Frame depth]]
- [[GOTO Footer Frame depth]]
- [[GOTO Contents Frame width]]
- [[GOTO Use main header in header frame]]
- [[GOTO Use main footer in footer frame]]
- [[GOTO Add contents frame if possible]]
- [[GOTO Add Frame border]]
- [[GOTO Open frame links in new window]]
- [[GOTO New frame link window name]]
- [[GOTO Add NOFRAMES links]]
- [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]]
- [[GOTO Number of levels in contents frame]]
- [[GOTO First frame page number]]
- [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Header frame text colour]]
- [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]]
- [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]]
- [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]]
*RTF generation policies*
- [[GOTO Mirror margins]]
4.4 Policies added in Version 3.3
The following policies were introduced since V3.2 of AsctoHTM was released
- [[GOTO Check indentation for consistency]]
- [[GOTO Default TABLE layout]]
- [[GOTO Default TABLE alignment]]
- [[GOTO Ignore table header during analysis]]
- [[GOTO Table extending factor]]
- [[GOTO Column merging factor]]
- [[GOTO Could be blank line separated]]
- [[GOTO Input file has change bars]]
- [[GOTO Input file contains DOS characters]]
- [[GOTO Input file contains MIME encoding]]
- [[GOTO Treat each line as a paragraph]]
- [[GOTO Preserve line structure]]
- [[GOTO Preserve file structure using
]]
- [[GOTO Allow email beginning with numbers]]
- [[GOTO Only allow explicit FTP links]]
- [[GOTO HTML version to be targeted]]
- [[GOTO Default Font]]
- [[GOTO Use CSS to implement fonts]]
RTF-related policies
- [[GOTO Language (for proofing)]]
- [[GOTO Use Landscape mode]]
- [[GOTO Top margin (in cm)]]
- [[GOTO Bottom margin (in cm)]]
- [[GOTO Left margin (in cm)]]
- [[GOTO Right margin (in cm)]]
- [[GOTO Font stretch factor (in percent)]]
- [[GOTO Document category]]
- [[GOTO Document comments]]
4.5 Policies added in Version 3.2
The following policies were introduced in V3.2 of AsctoHTM
- [[GOTO Create a log file]]
- [[GOTO Output log filename]]
- [[GOTO First line indentation (in blocks)]]
- [[GOTO Default TABLE cell alignment]]
- [[GOTO Input file has page markers]]
- [[GOTO Page marker size (in lines)]]
- [[GOTO Input file is double spaced]]
- [[GOTO Look for MAIL and USENET headers]]
- [[GOTO Look for bullets]]
- [[GOTO Look for horizontal rulers]]
- [[GOTO Minimum ruler length]]
- [[GOTO Look for hanging paragraphs]]
- [[GOTO Look for indentation]]
- [[GOTO Look for preformatted text]]
- [[GOTO Look for quoted text]]
- [[GOTO Look for short lines]]
- [[GOTO Look for white space]]
- [[GOTO Maximum level to show in contents]]
- [[GOTO Monitor tag generation]]
- [[GOTO New browser window name]]
- [[GOTO Open links in new browser window]]
- [[GOTO Preserve underlining of headings]]
- [[GOTO Recognise '-' as a bullet]]
- [[GOTO Recognise 'o' as a bullet]]
- [[GOTO Rule set to be used]]
- [[GOTO Display messages]]
- [[GOTO Suppress INFO messages]]
- [[GOTO Suppress TAG ERROR messages]]
- [[GOTO Suppress URL messages]]
- [[GOTO Suppress WARNING messages]]
- [[GOTO Suppress program ERROR messages]]
- [[GOTO Use and markup]]
- [[GOTO Add mail headers to contents list]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
4.6 Policies yet to be formally announced (may get revoked)
The following policies were introduced in V4.0 of AscToHTM
- [[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]]
- [[GOTO Base FONT Size in pts]] (retired)
- [[GOTO CENTER whole document]]
- [[GOTO Indent whole document]]
- [[GOTO Directive delimiter]]
- [[GOTO End tag delimiter]]
- [[GOTO Remove redundant tags]]
- [[GOTO Start tag delimiter]]
- [[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]]
- [[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]]
- [[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
4.7 Policies added in support of Merrill work
The following policies were introduced in support of Merrill Work
- [[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]]
- [[GOTO Contents Anchor level]]
- [[GOTO Add emphasis and bold markup]]
- [[GOTO Apply FONT to empty table cells]]
- [[GOTO Avoid tag breaks]]
- [[GOTO Colour REDLINE sections]]
- [[GOTO Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS]]
- [[GOTO Contents anchors level]]
- [[GOTO Folio Block sequence]]
- [[GOTO Indentation markup code]]
- [[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]]
- [[GOTO Label style classes]]
- [[GOTO Show Tags in output]]
- [[GOTO Suppress markup for headings]]
- [[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]]
At present there is not plan to release these into the shareware version, mainly
because they're too specialised. These policies will be supported by the
shareware version, but undocumented. This contrasts with much of the inline
tagging whose functionality will be explicitly excluded from the shareware
version through conditional compilation.
4.8 Policies added in support of CSS support
These policies were added to support Merrill/CSS work.
- [[GOTO Add FONT face markup]]
- [[GOTO Add FONT markup]]
- [[GOTO Add FONT size markup]]
- [[GOTO Add FONT style markup]]
- [[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]]
- [[GOTO Delta FONT size in pts]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
5 Detailed policy descriptions
==============================
Active Link Colour
------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Document colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the colour of "active" hyperlinks, that is the colour of the
hyperlink just as it is being selected. This value is a HTML colour
that is used to set the ALINK attribute of the tag.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Unvisited Link Colour"]]
[[GOTO "Visited Link Colour"]]
Add to lines with URLs
---------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that lines that are detected as having URLs in them
should have markup added to the end. This is useful in documents
that have a list of URLs, one per line, as the URLs usually make the
lines quite long (avoiding short line detection), and you would want to
preserve the line structure.
However, this is less useful where URLs occur in the middle of a
paragraph of text, as it inserts a , and breaks the paragraph.
Prior to V3.0 this was default behaviour, but now it is switched off by
default.
In later versions we may attempt to make this policy auto-detected.
$_$_SECTION CSS
Add FONT face markup
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that when tags are being added, an explicit FACE attribute
should be set to specify the font wanted.
See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION CSS
Add FONT markup
---------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that tags should be added to the HTML produced. tags
are only needed when non-standard font sizes and faces are wanted, and when
that effect is not to be achieved using CSS alone.
In strict HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] the is deprecated, and suitable CSS applied
to
and tags should be used. However AscToHTM does not support
this HTML standard yet.
If you want V3 browsers to see font markup, tags must be used.
It is expected this policy will be set automatically.
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION CSS
Add FONT size markup
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that SIZE attributes should be added to and tags generated.
Font sizes can be specified in 2 ways
- using the SIZE attribute
- settings a point-size value inside a STYLE attribute.
Only the SIZE attribute will work with V3 browsers or when generating HTML [[TEXT 3.2]].
When generating V4.0 markup, the program will use both, except inside table
cells where this confuses certain browsers.
See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION CSS
Add FONT style markup
---------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that STYLE attributes should be added to tags added to the
HTML. STYLE attributes are not valid in HTML 3.2, so they will be omitted
then.
See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
Add TABLE WIDTH markup
----------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_ADD_TOTAL_WIDTH"]]
Specifies whether or not a WIDTH attribute should be added to the
tag of any tables generated. The Width can only be known if specified via
some form of tagging or directive.
There was some experimentation to see whether tables were rendered best
when the width was specified or not, in percentages or not, and when over
or under 100% screen width.
This policy is best left to be set automatically by the software, and may be
removed in later versions.
See also :-
[[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Add anchors to contents list
----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether or not anchors should be placed in any generated Contents
List. Such anchors are usually added when backlinks to the contents list
are required.
This is a Merrill policy
$_$_SECTION ALL
Add contents frame if possible
------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
This specifies that, if possible, a contents frame should be placed on the
left of the screen to hold a generated contents list. Alternatively a
CONTENTS_FRAME HTML fragment can be defined
Generated contents lists are only possible when the program recognises
headings inside your text file, so you may need to get that working first.
If no content for the contents frame is possible, a WARNING message is
generated.
Add contents list
-----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : Output -> Contents List
Command line option : /CONTENTS
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that the program should generate a contents list or index to
match all the section heading that it marks up. This contents list
will consist of hyperlinks to take you to the corresponding section
and HTML file.
The placement of the contents list depends on
- how you have decided to split up your output HTML (see
[[GOTO "Split level"]])).
- whether you have any $_$_CONTENT_LIST directives placed in your
source file
- whether or not the file has an existing contents list that is
recognised by the program. If it has then by default that list will
be used and converted into hyperlinks. (see
[[GOTO "Expect Contents List"]])
Whenever you elect to have a contents list generated, any lines perceived
by the program as being part of a contents list in the original document
will be discarded.
You can enable this option from the command line by using the
/CONTENTS qualifier (see [[GOTO "Changing policies by using command line options"]])
_*The default location for the contents list*_
If you are simply generating a single HTML page, then any contents
list will be placed at the top of the page.
If you decide to split your HTML into several files, then the
contents list is placed at the bottom of first page. Any text before the
first section in your document will be placed before the contents list
in this first page.
_*Placing the contents list in separate file*_
If you want, you can chose to place the contents list in a separate file.
If you choose this option a "Tables of Contents" link will be added to the
top of your file. See [[GOTO "Generate external contents file"]]
_*Changing the contents list placement in the HTML*_
From V3.2 onwards you can place a contents list wherever you want
by inserting a $_$_CONTENTS_LIST directive at the desired location (see
[[GOTO Changing policies by using preprocessor directives]]). When
these tags are detected no default contents list is created.
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Add emphasis and bold markup
----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether explicit bold and italic markup should be generated.
Adding and tags will override any text formatting supplied
via CSS, so in general this will be true where tags are being used,
but should be set to "no" when CSS is being relied on for text markup.
This is a Merrill policy
$_$_SECTION all
Add Frame border
----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
This specifies whether or not you want visible borders on your frames. If the
borders are visible then users will be able to select and move them to resize
the frames to a size that suits them.
*NOTE: If you disable this policy the attribute "BORDER=0" will be used.
This will cause your FRAMESET document to fail to validate, but is
necessary at present if you want truly invisible borders in current
browsers*
Add mail headers to contents list
---------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether or not mail headers should be included in any generated
contents list. For a mail digest this should be yes, but for larger documents
with only a couple of mail headers the answer may be no.
Add navigation bar
------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes (when splitting HTML into many files)
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : File generation
Menu location : Output -> File generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This policy is only relevant if you have elected to split your document
into a number of smaller HTML files (see [[GOTO "split level"]])
In such cases this policy allows you have a navigation bar inserted at
the foot of each HTML page, before any standard footer is added.
The navigation bar consists of
- A "Previous" link, to take to the previous HTML page.
- A "Next" link, to take to the next HTML page.
- A "Contents" link, to take to the start of the next section in the
contents list.
This policy is enabled by default whenever file splitting is selected.
Add NOFRAMES links
------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
Specifies that a NOFRAMES link should be added to the Contents frame. You
can choose the target of this link using the [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]] policy.
The NOFRAMES link will target the "_top" browser window, thereby replacing
the current FRAMESET by the single page selected without creating new browser
windows.
NOFRAMES links are useful courtesy to users who dislike FRAMES, and they
are also search-engine friendly.
Note, this link is a *visible* NOFRAMES link. In addition to this the
software will in any case create a non-visible tag that will allow
users whose browsers do not support FRAMES to access your content.
See also :-
[[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]]
Allow automatic centring
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Style
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that automatic detection of centred text should be attempted.
The indentation and length of each line is compared to the nominal page width
within a specified tolerance (see [[GOTO "page width"]] and [[GOTO "Automatic centring tolerance"]])
If the line appears centred (and meets a few other conditions) then it will
be rendered centred in the output.
This option is normally left switched off, as it is still too prone to give
errors (i.e. centring lines that shouldn't be). This has been improved in
later versions, but is still not robust enough to be relied upon.
Allow definitions inside PRE
----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Preprocessor
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates whether or not the program should look for definition terms inside
a pre-formatted section of text. Only really relevant if the
[[GOTO "Highlight definition text"]] policy is enabled.
Sometimes lists of definitions appear like pre-formatted text, especially if
the definitions are aligned on the right.
Allow email beginning with numbers
----------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates whether or not email addresses that start with a number are
permitted or not.
Often USENET and mail headers reference message IDs which are of the
form @. As such they will often look like valid
email addresses. This policy may be used to control how such addresses
are interpreted.
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Apply FONT to empty table cells
-------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether or not tags should be applied to "empty"
table cells. Normally this is a waste of time and only serves to make
he HTML file bigger.
However, if non-standard font sizes are being used (i.e. not 12pt) failure
to render the "empty space" in the smaller font size will cause sizing
errors. (Effectively the empty space is rendered in 12pt, generating unwanted
extra leading in that table row).
This is a Merrill policy.
$_$_SECTION all
Attempt TABLE generation
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that the program should attempt automatic table generation on any
apparently pre-formatted text it encounters. Text that appears pre-formatted
to the program can turn out to be a number of different things
- a table
- a diagram
- a code sample
- not pre-formatted text after all
The program will attempt to distinguish between these, but it's a blank art.
Table generation may not be appropriate for the document being converted,
or alternatively the table generated may be so flawed that you'd prefer
to use
...
markup, in which case you can use this policy to
switch that feature off.
When switched off the program will still look for pre-formatted text, but
will default to outputting it in
...
markup as it did prior
to v2.2.
Automatic centring tolerance
----------------------------
Possible values : number of characters 0,1,2...
Default value : 2
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Style
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the tolerance used (expressed as a number of characters offset)
when detecting centred text.
Given that the detection of centred text depends on its position relative
to the calculated page width, which itself may not be accurate, increasing
this value may give better results. Equally, it may wrongly detect more
text as centred.
The default value is 2, which is also used as a minimum regardless of
the value you enter.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Allow automatic centring"]].
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Avoid tag breaks
----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tagging
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that the program should modify tags that are broken over two lines.
In HTML this should make no difference, however the SEC objected to this.
Originally this policy prevented tags being split over two lines (which causes
other problems, see [[GOTO "Break up long HTML lines"]]). Now this simply triggers the insertion of
a space character before the newline character to keep the SEC happy.
This is a Merrill policy.
$_$_SECTION all
Background Colour
-----------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Document colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the background colour of the HTML page(s) created.
This value is a HTML colour that is used to set the BGCOLOR attribute of
the tag. If omitted, AscToHTM defaults to a white background
(I find Gray too dull)
Background Image
----------------
Possible values : URL of image file (e.g. a .jpg or .gif)
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the URL of any image to be placed in the BACKGROUND
attribute of the tag.
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
Base FONT Size in pts
---------------------
Possible values : Font Size. 8 would be small, 12 average, 20 large
Default value : 12
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Fonts
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the base font size in points, with 12pt being equated with
the standard SIZE=3.
This may be used in a tag (although this is being deprecated) and
in any tags added (see [[GOTO "Add FONT Markup"]]).
$_$_SECTION ALL
Bottom margin (in cm)
---------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : (see below)
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies size of margin at the bottom of
the page. If omitted the Word default of 1 inch (2.54 cm) will be used.
Break up long HTML lines
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : File generation
Menu location : Output -> File generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that long HTML lines should be broken into smaller ones. This
attempts to make the HTML more readable, should you need to edit it afterwards.
However, there is the possibility that the insertion of newline characters into
the output could affect how the HTML is displayed. This is because most of
the browsers have bugs in their parsing of newlines. These problems are
most pronounced when using non-standard (12pt) font sizes.
If you experience such problems, try disabling this policy.
Bullet char
-----------
Possible values : ''. One policy line per character
Default value : '*'
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Bullets
Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*This policy will probably be replaced in future versions*
This species a character that can occur at the start of a line to represent
a bullet point. Special attention is paid to '-' and 'o' characters, but
any character will do.
The program should detect such characters (e.g. special character codes for
bullets that are generated when saving from Word etc.)
Use one line for each bullet char.
Center first heading
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headinsg
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4.2*
Specifies that the first heading in a document should be centered, making
it look more like the document toitle.
See also :-
[[GOTO Use first line as heading]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
CENTER whole document
---------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Page Formatting
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*NOT YET FULLY IMPLEMENTED*
Specifies that the whole document should be centred.
See also :-
[[GOTO Indent whole document]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
Character encoding
------------------
Possible values : HTML character encoding schemes
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]*
This allows the HTML character encoding to be set. Although designed
to convert documents that use the ASCII character set, the software has
some ability to convert Japanese and Cyrillic files amongst others. For
such files to display correctly, the character encoding has to be set up
correctly. This value is then used in a META tag added to the document
header.
Possible values include
big5, csbig5 - Chinese (Big5)
gb2312, csGB2312 - Chinese (gb)
koi8-r - Cyrillic
ms Kanji - Japanese
shift jis, csShiftJIS - Japanese
x-sjis - Japanese
iso-8859-n - (n=1,2,3) various languages (Greek, Turkish,
Arabic, etc)
UTF-8 - Unicode
Although I don't think AscToHTM will support Unicode at present.
Check domain name syntax
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
Indicates whether or not potential URLs should have their "domain name"
checked against the known domain name structures, (e.e. ends in .com, .org,
.co.uk etc). Having this switched on reduces the likelyhood of invalid
URLs being turned into clickable links that don't go anywhere. Note,
the software doesn't check the domain *exists*, only that the domain name
obeys the known rules.
You might want to switch this off if your document contains URLs that
don't use standard domain names (e.g. they are inside an Intranet).
Characters to use for bullets
-----------------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]*
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the characters to be used as bullet
characters in the generated RTF. Normally RTF will use special bullet symbols,
but these can cause problems if you want to cut and paste the RTF text into
a plain text editor.
To get round this problem this policy can be used. The first character will be
used for level 1 bullets, the second for level 2 bullets etc ...
This policy will not take effect if the policy [[GOTO Use original bullet text]]
has been enabled.
Check indentation for consistency
---------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Output -> HTML styling
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
Specifies that when checking headings the indentation should be checked
for consistency. This can help reduce the error rate when numbered lists
and numbered headings are both in the same document, but on the other hand
can cause problems in documents where the headings are centred, and therefore
at all different indentations.
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Colour REDLINE sections
-----------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that sections marked up by [REDLINE] tags should be coloured - er -
red. This can prove useful/fun for proof-reading.
This is a Merrill policy, but is not fully implemented as it is not part of
the core functionality.
$_$_SECTION all
Colour data rows
----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_COLO(U)R_ROWS"]]
Indicates that where AscToHTM detects and generates HTML tables, the data
rows (as opposed to the Header rows) should be alternatively be coloured
differently. This helps highlight the different rows, especially if the
table has no border.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]]
[[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]]
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS
------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that rows inside tables that contain a [DOT_LEADERS] tag should
be coloured to help emphasise the odd and even rows.
This has the same effect as enabling the [[GOTO Colour data rows]] policy, but
only for certain tables.
See also :-
[[GOTO Default TABLE odd row colour]]
[[GOTO Default TABLE even row colour]]
This is a Merrill policy.
$_$_SECTION ALL
Column boundaries have zero width
---------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
When a [[GOTO Default TABLE layout]] is set, this specifies whether or
not the boundaries between columns have zero size. By default the software
assumes there is a single-character boundary (either a space or a delimiter
character) between columns.
Sometimes data comes from a source with *no* character between data columns.
This policy should be set in such cases.
Column merging factor
---------------------
Possible values : 1-10
Default value : 5
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When analysing preformatted regions to look for tables, this indicates
the degree to which potential columns should be "merged" if there is
any doubt as to their validity.
A value of 10 means almost all "suspicious" columns will be merged together.
This is suitable when the analysis is producing too many false columns, and
may happen when the table contains a lot of free form text that just happens
to line up.
A value of 1 means that no "suspicious" columns will be eliminated.
Note, it is still possible that the number and position of columns will be
calculated incorrectly. In such cases you may need to explicitly supply
a table layout. See [[GOTO Default table layout]]
Comment generation code
-----------------------
Possible values : 0,1 or 2
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : n/a
Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
Used to control the placing of comment in the code advertising the fact
that AscToHTM was used to generate the file. By default the program
will add a META tag marking ASCTOHTM as the generator and comments at the
top and bottom of the file identifying the program.
The value should be set as follows
0 META tag and comments added
1 META tag added
2 neither added
This policy is only available in the registered version of the software.
Concatenate results into one file
---------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : File generation
Menu location : Output -> File generation
Command line option : /concatenate
Related directives : n/a
*New in [[TEXT 4.2]]*
When enabled this sepcifies that when converting multiple files at the
same time, all the results should be merged together to form a single
output file.
If the output file name hasn't been set, then it will be derived from
the first file converted in the usual manner.
Depending on the target format, only one header and one footer will be
added. By default this will be the header that the first file would have
and the footer that the last file (or all files combined) would have.
This options is supported as follows
AscToHTM Not yet
AscToRTF Not Yet
Detagger Yes
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Contents anchors level
----------------------
Possible values : Heading level, 0,1,2..
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies what level of anchors (if any) should be placed in any generated
Contents List. Such anchors are usually added when backlinks to the contents
list are required. In Merrill documents this is often not needed.
See also :-
[[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]]
This is a Merrill policy.
$_$_SECTION ALL
Contents frame background colour
--------------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]].
Contents frame text colour
--------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]].
Contents Frame width
--------------------
Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage
Default value : 200
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
If a contents frame is generated, this specifies its width. The default is
200 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "30%"
See also :-
[[GOTO Header Frame depth]]
[[GOTO Footer Frame depth]]
Contents style code
-------------------
Possible values : 0, 1
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies a "style" to be applied to the contents list. There aren't too
many options at present.
Possible values are
0 AscToHTM "Classic". Contents line is bolded
1 As above, but not bolded.
Convert TABLE X-refs to links
-----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CONVERT_XREFS"]]
Indicates whether or not cross-references to numbered sections should
be converted into hyperlinks to those sections. Unfortunately, the
program cannot differentiate between section references and ordinary
numbers in the source text (unless you place the number inside a TEXT
in-line tag). This leads to occasional errors, for example
when software version numbers are discussed in a document.
This problem proved to be particularly acute inside tables of numbers.
For that reason this policy was introduced to allow the conversion of
section numbers to hyperlinks inside a TABLE to be switched off
independently from the rest of the document.
By default this policy is disabled. Users should only switch this
behaviour on if they have a table of section numbers (such an index
or contents list)
Could be blank line separated
-----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether or not blank lines inside a table should be taken to
be row separators. If they are, and there are enough of them, then the
table will have all adjacent lines merged into single multi-line rows.
If they're not, then each line will become a row in the table.
This policy is usually determined on a case-by-case basis for each table.
Create FTP links
----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This indicates that probable FTP references such as ftp.microsoft.com
should be converted into active hyperlinks. Sometimes text is assumed
to be an ftp link when it isn't. If you find that happening, use this
policy to prevent the conversion.
Create Gopher links
-------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This indicates that probable gopher references should be converted
into active hyperlinks.
Create NEWS links
-----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This indicates that probable USENET newsgroup references such as
alt.games.mornington.cresent (sic) are to be converted into active hyperlinks.
Create Telnet links
-------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : n/a
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
This indicates that probable telnet references should be converted
into active hyperlinks.
Create a log file
-----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : n/a
Menu location : Output -> File Generation
Command line option : /LOG=
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that a .log file should be created. This will contains copies of all
the messages output during conversion, together with some that may have been
suppressed.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Output log filename"]]
$_$_SECTION CSS
Create embedded style sheet
---------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that a CSS stylesheet should be placed in the ..
portion of the document.
This style sheet will be built up from the observed FONT classes specified in
any [FONT] tags added to the source document. If no such tags are present this
will be blank.
$_$_SECTION ALL
Create hyperlinks
-----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This indicates that all candidate http, www and ftp URLs should be converted
into active hyperlinks.
Create mailto links
-------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This indicates that all candidate email addresses are to be converted
into active mailto hyperlinks.
Cross-refs at level
-------------------
Possible values : Headings level, 0,1,2..
Default value : 2
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Hyperlinks
Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
For documents with numbered section headings, this indicates the section
level at which and above which all cross-references are to be converted
to hyperlinks to the sections themselves.
For example a value of 2 means all n.n, n.n.n etc references are
converted. A value of "1" might seem desirable, but is liable to
give many false references. This is because the error rate becomes
too high on single numbers/letters or roman numerals.
This may be refined in later releases.
A value of "0" means "don't add hyperlinks to cross-references".
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]].
Default Font
------------
Possible values : ", , , , , "
Default value : "Times New Roman, Regular, 12"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Fonts
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
This tells the program what font should be used. The value is a comma
separated list which contains
$_$_BEGIN_TABLE
The font family name (e.g. "Arial")
Whether or not it's bold etc. The possible values
are
Regular
Bold
Italic
BoldItalic
Font size in points (pts)
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
Is this a proportional or non-proportional font?
values are
p - proportional (default)
np - non-proportional
Where the software knows what a particular font is, this
value will be ignored
Is this a serif or non-serif font? Possible values are
s - serif (default)
ns - non-serif
Where the software knows what a particular font is, this
value will be ignored
The character-set this font belongs to. Values follow the
RTF standard as follows
0 - ANSI (default)
2 - Symbol
128 - Shift JIS (Japanese)
161 - Greek
162 - Turkish
177 - Hebrew
178 - Arabic (simplified)
179 - Arabic (traditional)
180 - Arabic (user)
181 - Hebrew (user)
204 - Cyrillic
238 - Eastern Europe
Where the software knows what a particular font is, this
value will be ignored
$_$_SECTION_ALL
$_$_END_TABLE
Default TABLE alignment
-----------------------
Possible values : L[eft],R[ight],C[enter],A[utomatic]
Default value : Automatic
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_ALIGN"]]
Specifies how the table should be aligned with respect to the page. The
default behaviour is "automatic", which usually means left-justified, but
taking into account any indentation the table has.
Default TABLE border colour
---------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BORDERCOLOR"]]
This tells AscToHTM what colour to use for the table border.
Not all browsers support this.
Default TABLE border size
-------------------------
Possible values : A size (in pixels)
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BORDER"]]
This policy sets the default value for the
BORDER attribute.
A value of 0 means "no border".
Default TABLE caption
---------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CAPTION"]]
Specifies the caption to be applied to generated tables. However, since this
will be applied to all generated tables, this is less useful that placing
individual TABLE_CAPTION directives in your source text.
Default TABLE cell alignment
----------------------------
Possible values : L[eft],R[ight],C[enter],J[ustified]
Default value : "(none)" - meaning auto-detect.
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELL_ALIGN"]]
Specifies the default cell-alignment to be applied to table cells. Normally
the program will try to auto-detect a suitable cell alignment on a column
by column, cel by cell basis.
You can use this to (rather crudely) set all cells to be aligned the same
way if the results are not to your taste.
Default TABLE cell padding
--------------------------
Possible values : A size (in pixels)
Default value : 2
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELLPADDING"]]
This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the TABLE CELLPADDING attribute
of the table. Browsers that support this will add space *inside* each
cell.
A value of "0" means "none".
Default TABLE cell spacing
--------------------------
Possible values : A size (in pixels)
Default value : 2
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELLSPACING"]]
This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the CELLSPACING attribute
of the table. Browsers that support this will add space *between* each
cell.
A value of "0" means "none".
Default TABLE colour
--------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BGCOLOR"]]
This tells AscToHTM what colour to use for the background to each
cell. Not all browsers support this.
If omitted the table with take on the background colour of the whole page.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Background Colour"]].
Default TABLE even row colour
-----------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : "E0F0E0"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_EVEN_ROW_COLO(U)R"]]
When AscToHTM is to colour odd and even rows in the tables that it generates
different colours (see [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]]), this identifies the colour
of the even numbered rows.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]].
Default TABLE header cols
-------------------------
Possible values : Number of columns 0,1...
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_HEADER_COLS"]]
This tells AscToHTM how many columns in each table should be highlighted
as "header" columns using ... markup inside the table cells.
Normally this is 0.
Default TABLE header rows
-------------------------
Possible values : Number of rows 0,1....
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_HEADER_ROWS"]]
This policy tells AscToHTM how many lines should be treated as header
lines and placed in
..
markup.
The program will treat a small number of lines of text above a line as header
automatically, so you only need this if that doesn't work.
If set, this value will apply to *all* tables.
Default TABLE layout
--------------------
Possible values :
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_LAYOUT"]]
This policy tells the program what the column structure is for any tables
in the file. This will only work if *all* tables in the file have the same
structure.
The takes the form
,"
","
",.....
where,
$_$_BEGIN_TABLE
Integer number of columns
Specification of the nth column. The
specification must be contained in quote.
Currently the specification consists of
- the end position of the column.
More may be added in later versions
$_$_END_TABLE
An example would be
Default TABLE layout : 3,"6","21","32"
which describes a 3-column table with column boundaries at the 6th, 21st
and 32nd character positions.
If the policy is used the layout will apply to *all* tables in the file.
For this reason it is normally better to place an equivalent [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_LAYOUT"]]
pre-processor directive between BEGIN_TABLE...END_TABLE directives for the
table it applies to.
Default TABLE odd row colour
----------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : "F0F0F0"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_ODD_ROW_COLO(U)R"]]
When AscToHTM is to colour odd and even rows in the tables that it generates
different colours (see [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]]), this identifies the colour
of the odd numbered rows.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]].
Default TABLE width
-------------------
Possible values : Table width in pixels or as a % of screen width
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Output -> Table generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_WIDTH"]]
This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the WIDTH attribute of the table.
The WIDTH is specified either as a number (of pixels) or as a percentage
(of screen width). Thus "400" and "75%" are both valid values (without
the quotes)
Note: If you use this policy, *all* your tables will be the
same width. If you wish to switch it on for individual
tables, place $_$_TABLE_WIDTH commands (see
[[GOTO "Changing policies by using preprocessor directives"]]) in your source file instead.
Definition char
---------------
Possible values : One line per character in the form 'char' weak/strong}
Default value : '-' (weak)
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Analysis
Menu location : Analysis -> General Layout
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*This policy will probably be replaced in future versions*
This specifies the characters used to detect "definitions". A definition
line is a single line that appears to be defining something. Usually this
is a line with either a colon (:) or an equals sign (=) in it. For example
$_$_BEGIN_PRE
IMHO = In my humble opinion
Address : Somewhere over the rainbow.
$_$_END_PRE
The character can be marked as "Strong" or "weak". Strong means such
characters *always* signal a definition. Weak means they only sometimes
do this, depending on the position relative to the [[GOTO Page Width]].
The user interface presents this more cleanly than the text in the policy
file does, and the latter may be changed in later versions.
$_$_SECTION CSS
Delta FONT size in pts
----------------------
Possible values : -nn, 0, +nn
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Fonts
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies a delta font size to be applied to and and all font sizes set
in the document.
This acts to magnify and reduce the overall document, although this is probably
best done in browsers such as Netscape and Opera.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Base FONT Size in pts"]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
Directive delimiter
-------------------
Possible values : Text string (but don't change it)
Default value : "$_$_"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tagging
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the text that identifies pre-processor directives. You should
only change this if the default string really offends, or clashes with
text naturally occurring in your document.
$_$_SECTION ALL
Directory Description
---------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this indicates the description of your document that is added to a META tag
inserted into the section of the Directory page as follows :-
This tag is often used by search engines (e.g. AltaVista) as a brief
description of the contents of your page. If omitted the first few
lines may be shown instead, which is often less satisfactory.
Directory Keywords
------------------
Possible values : Comma-separated list of keywords
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this allows you to specify keywords that are added to a META tag inserted
into the section of the Directory page as follows :-
This tag is often used by search engines when indexing your HTML page.
You should add here any relevant keywords possibly not contained in
the text itself.
Directory Script file
---------------------
Possible values : Local file containing JavaScript fragment you want embedding
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into
the ... portion of the generated HTML page.
This allows you to place JavaScript in your pages (though you'll be a
little limited as to what it can act on).
If omitted, this will default to any script file used in the rest of
the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML Script file"]] policy.
Directory Title
---------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this specifies the text to be used as the HTML title of the Directory page.
Directory filename
------------------
Possible values : Local file to be created with directory contents
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this specifies the name of the Directory page html file to be created.
If omitted, this will default to "dirindex.html" in the output directory.
Prior to V3.2 this used to be "index.html", but people complained when that
overwrote their existing index.html files.
Directory footer file
---------------------
Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as footer
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into
the HTML file at the bottom of the ... portion of the
generated HTML page.
This can be used to add "return to home page" links, and contact
addresses to your HTML pages.
If omitted, this will default to any header file used in the rest of
the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML header file"]] policy.
Directory header file
---------------------
Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as header
Default value : "dirindex.html"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into
the HTML file at the top of the ... portion of the
Directory page.
If omitted, this will default to any header file used in the rest of
the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML header file"]] policy.
Directory return hyperlink text
-------------------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : "Directory"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Directory
Menu location : Output -> Directory List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]),
this specifies the text to be shown on the hyperlink linking each HTML page
back to the Directory page.
The default value is "Directory"
Display messages
----------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : n/a
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : /SILENT
Related directives : n/a
Specifies that all display and informational messages should be suppressed.
If selected, you will get no messages displayed at all, although these
can still be directed to a .log file (e.g. by using the /LOG command qualifier)
This policy is equivalent to the /SILENT command qualifier.
Document Author
---------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the Author name to be placed in
the generated file's document details section.
Document Base URL
-----------------
Possible values : Absolute URL (i.e including domain name)
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BASEHREF"]]
*New in version 4*
This policy allows you to specify a URL that will be placed in a
tag inserted into the section of the output HTML page(s) as follows :-
This tag is used to specify the base URL against which all relative
URLs should be resolved. You might want to use this if you are going
to copy the page to a mirror location, but not copy the pages referred to
in the relative links (like images, style sheets etc.)
Ignored in RTF conversions.
Document Category
-----------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the document category to be
placed in the generated file's document details section.
Document Comments
-----------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies any comments to be placed in
the generated file's document details section.
Document Company name
---------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the Company name to be placed in
the generated file's document details section.
Document Description
--------------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
or
Output -> Document Details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DESCRIPTION"]]
This policy allows you to specify a description of your document
that is added to a META tag inserted into the section of the
output page(s) as follows :-
This tag is often used by search engines (e.g. AltaVista) as a brief
description of the contents of your page. If omitted the first few
lines may be shown instead, which is often less satisfactory.
Any DESCRIPTION pre-processor command(s) present in the source document
will override this policy/
In a RTF conversion the description will be placed in the document details
header.
Document Keywords
-----------------
Possible values : Comma-separated list of keywords and phrases
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
or
Output -> Document Details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "KEYWORDS"]]
This policy allows you to specify keywords that are added to a META tag
inserted into the section of the output HTML page(s) as follows :-
This tag is often used by search engines when indexing your HTML page.
You should add here any relevant keywords possibly not contained in
the text itself.
Any KEYWORDS pre-processor command(s) present in the source file will
override this policy.
In an RTF conversion this will be placed in the document details header.
Document Manager
----------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the name of the Document's manager
to be placed in the generated file's document details section.
Document Style Sheet
--------------------
Possible values : URL of a .CSS file to be used as the external style sheet
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> CSS
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "STYLE_SHEET"]]
This specifies the URL of a style sheet file, usually with a .css extension.
Style sheet files are a new HTML feature that allow you specify fonts and
colours to be applied to your document. By placing this information in
a separate file, the same style can be applied to
The resulting HTML is inserted into the section of the output
page(s) as follows :-
Document Subject
----------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Document details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
_Only applies to RTF generation_
For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the document's Subject to be
placed in the generated file's document details section.
Document Title
--------------
Possible values : Text string
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
or
Output -> Document Details
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TITLE"]]
Identifies the text to be placed in the ... markup
in the document header.
If omitted, the default title will be "Converted from ".
We did consider defaulting to the first line of text, but that rarely works.
However you can get this effect by using either of the [[GOTO "Use first heading as title"]]
or [[GOTO "Use first line as title"]] policies.
The title can also be specified via the TITLE preprocessor command placed
in the source document, which will override this policy when present.
If order the preference for the title is
- First heading (if allowed by policy)
- First line (if allowed by policy)
- Value of any TITLE pre-processor command
- Document title (if supplied by policy)
- Converted from ""
DOS filename root
-----------------
Possible values : Text string (up to 5 characters)
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : File generation
Menu location : Output -> File generation
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Where DOS filenames are used this allows you to specify an up-to-5
character root to which any section numbers will be appended
(see [[GOTO "Split level"]]).
If splitting a document at 2 levels we normally recommend a 3-character
filename root.
Thus MYDOC.TXT given a root of MYD would produce MYD.HTM, MYD_1.HTM
MYD_1_1.HTM etc... which are all less than 8 characters and thus
maintain some readability.
If no root were specified, MYDOC_1_1.HTM would be renamed to
MYDnnnnn.HTM where "nnnnn" would be a generated 5-digit code.
See [[GOTO "Use DOS Filenames"]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
End tag delimiter
-----------------
Possible values : Text string (but don't change it)
Default value : "[[CT]]"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tagging
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the end-tag delimiter for inline tags. Inline tags are marked by
a unique start and end delimiter that should ideally not naturally occur in
your document (you may get warning messages if it does).
You should only change this if the default string really offends, or if it
clashes with text naturally occurring in your document.
See also :-
[[GOTO Start tag delimiter]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
Error reporting level
---------------------
Possible values : 1 (not many messages) - 10 (lots of messages)
Default value : 5
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Messages
Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the level of error reporting you want during the conversion.
The program can generate a variety of messages of varying severity to inform
you of the decisions it's made. These messages can be useful in explaining
why a conversion has gone wrong, but are less interesting at other times.
Whilst all of these messages are copied into any diagnostic .lis files created
(see [[GOTO "Generate diagnostics files"]]) regardless of severity, you can
use this policy to choose the level of reporting you want to see on your screen.
The value is nominally in the range 1-10 with a value of 1 showing few
messages and a value of 10 showing almost all messages. The default
value is 5.
Expect alphabetic bullets
-------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Bullets
Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that alphabetic bullets/lists are expected. The program will
recognises (and distinguishes between) upper and lower case variants.
Sometimes lines that begin with a single letter are wrongly interpreted
as an alphabetic bullet point, especially if it's followed by a punctuation
character. In such cases you can either disable this policy, or edit your
source code so that the single letter no longer appears at the start of a line.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered bullets"]]
[[GOTO "Expect roman numeral bullets"]]
Expect blank lines between paras
--------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Analysis
Menu location : Analysis -> General layout
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that paragraphs are expected to have blank lines before them. Where
this isn't true (e.g. on a text file dumped from Word) different paragraph
detection algorithms have to be applied, which tend to be more error prone.
Expect Capitalised Headings
---------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates whether or not a line that is wholly capitalised should be
regarded as a section heading. Capitalised headings will normally only be used
if there do not seem to be any numbered or underlined headings.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]
[[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]]
Expect code samples
-------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Analysis
Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BEGIN/END_CODE"]]
Indicates that the document is liable to contain samples of program code.
The program will attempt to detect such code fragments, and preserve their
layout so that the code remains comprehensible, however this process can be
flawed, and often code samples are rendered as ordinary text.
Where the program fails to detect the full extent of your code
samples, you can add the BEGIN_CODE ... END_CODE pre-processor commands
before and after the sample in your source document.
You can choose how code fragments are marked up by using the
[[GOTO "Use .. markup"]] policy, although this is not generally
suitable for multi-line samples.
Expect Contents List
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : Output -> Contents List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BEGIN/END_CONTENTS"]]
Indicates whether or not the source file contains an existing contents list.
This should be detected automatically, but sometimes the analysis fails
in which case you should either set this manually, or mark up the contents
list in the source file using using the BEGIN_CONTENTS ... END_CONTENTS
pre-processor commands.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Add contents list"]]
Expect Embedded Headings
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
Indicates whether or not a line that begins with capitalised text may
be regarded as an "embedded" section heading. Embedded headings will normally
only be used if there do not seem to be any numbered or underlined headings.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]
[[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]].
Expect Numbered Headings
------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates whether or not lines that begin with section numbers should be
regarded as section headings. Checks will be made to ensure that numbers
are in a valid sequence, occur at the correct indentation, and are properly
placed in the file. This reduces the error rate that would occur by assuming
that *every* line beginning with a number is a heading.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect capitalised headings"]]
[[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]]
Expect Numbered bullets
-----------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Bullets
Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that numerical bullets are expected (but you probably guessed that).
Normally detected during analysis. Numbered bullets are often just numbered
lists in the source file.
Sometimes numbered bullets and numbered headings get confused and it is
necessary to enable one and disable the other.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]
[[GOTO "Expect alphabetic bullets"]]
[[GOTO "Expect roman numeral bullets"]]
Expect Roman Numeral bullets
----------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Bullets
Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates that roman numerals bullets/lists are to be expected. The program
supports both upper and lower case variants.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect alphabetic bullets"]]
[[GOTO "Expect numbered bullets"]]
Expect Second Word Headings
---------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No (but don't use this)
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*reserved, and liable to be removed*
Expect Underlined Headings
--------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : Yes
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates whether or not a line that is underlined should be regarded as a
section heading.
A line is deemed to be "underlined" if the *next* line in the source file
consists solely of "line" characters like "-_+=~", and is a similar length
to the previous line. If the lengths are not similar, then such a line will
be treated as a line in its own right, becoming a in HTML.
See also :-
[[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]
[[GOTO "Expect capitalised headings"]]
Expect sparse tables
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Tables
Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE"]]
Indicates that tables within the source document may be sparse, that is they
may contain a large number of "empty" cells. This fact will then be used
to adjust the analysis of any tables detected.
For example, by default columns which appear to have little or no data in
them are usually eliminated by merging them with their more populated
neighbours.
If you set this policy, this process is relaxed, meaning that you will get
more, emptier, columns rather than fewer, more filled ones.
This policy can be toggled for individual tables via the pre-processor
command TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE placed between BEGIN_TABLE ... END_TABLE commands
placed before and after the table.
External contents list filename
-------------------------------
Possible values : Local file to receive any external contents list
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : Output -> Contents List
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
When you select to [[GOTO Generate external contents file]], this is the name of
the external content file generated by the program.
By default the file will be called contents_.html.
The contents file should be in the same directory as the created HTML files.
First Section Number
--------------------
Possible values : 1,2,3... but best left alone
Default value : 1
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates the chapter number of the first numbered section in a file
containing numbered sections (see [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]).
Normally this starts at 0 or 1, but if it starts higher, then the program
will reject headers as being out of sequence, and fail to detect to presence
or absence of contents lists correctly.
Only for the advanced/foolhardy user.
First frame page number
-----------------------
Possible values : Integer - 1,2, etc.
Default value : 1
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
This specified the "page number" of the main document that you initially want
shown in the main frame of the FRAMESET.
When converting large documents you can choose to split them into many smaller
pages. Often such documents have a contents list as the sole content of the
first page, and inside a FRAMES document his has the unfortunate side-effect
of displaying a contents list in the main frame next to a contents list in the
contents frame. In such cases you might choose to start by initially
displaying the *second* page in the main frame. That's what this policy is for.
See also :-
[[GOTO split level]]
First line indentation (in blocks)
----------------------------------
Possible values : Size in "blocks" of indent (aka tab positions)
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the size in tab positions of the indentation of the first line
of a paragraph with respect tho the left margin of the paragraph.
This policy was originally intended for use in RTF where such styling is
commoner, but is now applied to HTML generation as well.
Fixed Font
----------
Possible values : ", , , , , "
Default value : "Courier New, Regular, 12"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Fonts
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]*
This tells the program what font should be used for any fixed-format,
non-proportional text such as diagrams, code samples etc. The default font
size will differ slightly between RTF and HTML generation (10pt and 12pt
respectively).
The value is a comma separated list which has the same format as that described
in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy.
$_$_SECTION MERRILL
Folio block sequence
--------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : FOLIO_FOOTER,FOLIO_HR,FOLIO_COMMENT,PAGE_HEAD,TABHD
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Merrill
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the blocks to be output for a page FOLIO. Certain blocks have
a reserved meaning.
This is a Merrill policy
$_$_SECTION all
Font stretch factor (in percent)
--------------------------------
Possible values : -nn, 0, +nn
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies a scaling factor to be applied when calculating the space taken
up by text rendered in the prevailing font. The software attempts to calculate
this from the text and the font size and bolding, but in reality there is
quite a variety which means sometimes these calculations are inaccurate.
In normal text, this isn't a problem, but inside tables - especially when
generating RTF - getting the width wrong can force lines to wrap, or generate
too much white space. The same problem can occur when setting pixel widths
in HTML (which is a bad idea for exactly this reason).
If the table widths are looking wrong, use this policy to adjust the space
allowed for text. A value of +10 will increase the space by 10%, a value
of -10 will decrease the space.
Footer frame background colour
------------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]].
Footer Frame depth
------------------
Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage
Default value : 100
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
If a footer frame is generated, this specifies its depth. The default is
100 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "20%"
See also :-
[[GOTO Header Frame depth]]
[[GOTO Contents Frame width]]
Footer frame text colour
------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]].
Generate diagnostics files
--------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : n/a
Menu location : Output -> File generation
Command line option : /LIST and /DEBUG
Related directives : n/a
This policy specifies whether or not diagnostics files should be
produced. This has exactly the same effect as the /DEBUG qualifier
has in command line versions.
The files created are:-
- a .lis1 file created during analysis. This shows how the
program interprets each line *before* any analysis policies have
been set.
- a .lis file created during output. This shows how the program
interpreted each line during conversion *after* any analysis
policies had been set.
This file gives the best explanation of how the conversion proceeded.
- a .stats file. Only generated for debugging purposes, showing the
statistics collected by the program when performing its analysis.
Generate external contents file
-------------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Contents
Menu location : Output -> Contents list
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether any generated contents list should be placed
in a separate file, as opposed to at the top of the output file.
This option is not always possible, specifically when an existing
contents list is being used, or when the source is being split into
many files. In such cases it will be ignored.
See also :-
[[GOTO "External contents list filename"]]
Generate WinHelp project file
-----------------------------
Possible values : yes/no
Default value : no
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF help file
Menu location : Output -> Make Help File
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]
_Only applies to RTF generation_
When selected, AscToRTF will create a new Help Compiler project file
for you. This file will have the same name as your source file but with
a .hpj extension. If this option is selected it will overwrite any
existing project file, so take care in using it.
You will need a copy of the Help Compiler Workshop (HCW.EXE) from Microsoft
in order to load and execute the created project file.
See also :-
- [[goto Make Windows help source file]]
Heading Font
------------
Possible values : ", , , , , "
Default value : "Times New Roman, Regular, 12"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Fonts
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]*
This tells the program what font should be used for any headings. The font
size will be ignored, instead headings will be sized relative to the
default font.
The value is a comma separated list which has the same format as that described
in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy.
Heading key phrases
-------------------
Possible values : Comma-separated list of key words and phrases in quotes
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Headings
Menu location : Analysis -> Headings
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*Updated in [[TEXT 4.2]]*
If specified, then any line that begins with one of the key phrases
will be regarded as a heading. The syntax is
, ...
where each set of details is
= , []
and
= [|]
That is, each set of can optionally specify a .
If omitted this will default to 1,2,3 for the first, second, third set
of details etc. Note, this is a *logical* heading level, and will be
apparant in the contents list. In HTML this may not actually map onto
,
etc (see [[GOTO largest allowed value]] and
[[GOTO smallest allowed value]]
Each set of must supply a set of , and each set of phrases
would must have at least one phrase with extra phrases added if wanted,
separated by vertical bars.
So for example
Part, Chapter, Section
would treat lines beginning with the words "Part", "Chapter" and "Section"
as level 1,2, and 3 headings (although in HTML
markup probably won't
be used).
The key phrases are case-sensitive in order to reduce the likelihood of
false matches with lines that just happen to have these phrases at the start
of the line. So
PART|Part, Chapter, Section
Would allow either "PART" or "Part" to be matched.
"PART|Part,1" , "Chapter,2" , "Section,2"
Would make lines beginning with "Part" level-1 headings, while both
"Chapter" and "Section" would become level 2. This would be the same
as
"PART|Part,1" , "Chapter|Section,2"
Note, spaces may form part of a match phrase, but because of their
use in the tag syntax commands and vertical bars may not.
If false matches occur, (e.g. the word "Part" appears in the body of
the text) edit the source text so that the offending word is no longer
at the start of the line.
Hanging paragraph position(s)
-----------------------------
Possible values : A space-separated increasing series of tab positions,
starting at 0 (e.g. "0 4 8")
Default value : 0
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]]
Policy file section : Analysis
Menu location : Analysis -> Analysis
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
These values indicate the offsets at which definition paragraphs are expected
Headings Colour
---------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Style
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Indicates what colour to use for all the headings marked up in markup.
Not all browsers support this.
In HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] this is better handled via CSS, rather than placing explicit
colour markup on each heading.
Header frame background colour
------------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
The program allows you to independently set the background and colour of each
frame in a FRAMESET. The default behaviour is that each frame will match the
colours set for the main document using the policies
[[GOTO Background Colour]]
[[GOTO Text Colour]]
You can override this behaviour using the frame colouring policies
[[GOTO Header frame background colour]]
[[GOTO Header frame text colour]]
[[GOTO Contents frame background colour]]
[[GOTO Contents frame text colour]]
[[GOTO Footer frame background colour]]
[[GOTO Footer frame text colour]]
Header Frame depth
------------------
Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage
Default value : 100
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
If a header frame is generated, this specifies its depth. The default is
100 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "20%"
See also :-
[[GOTO Contents Frame width]]
[[GOTO Footer Frame depth]]
Header frame text colour
------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Frames
Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version 4*
_Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_
See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]].
Help body background colour
---------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : "FFFFE0"
Policy scope : [[GOTO fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF
Menu location : Output -> Style
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]*
This is the background colour used for the main body of each topic. This
is the scrolling section that makes up the majority of the topic window.
NOTE: The colours you specify will only be visible to users running a default
Windows colour scheme. If users change this at all, then these colours
may have no effect.
See also :-
- [[goto Make windows help source file]]
- [[goto Help title background colour]]
Help file citation
------------------
Possible values : Citation text
Default value : "". Evaluation vesion adds a JafSoft citation.
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF help file
Menu location : Output -> Make Help File
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]
_Only applies to RTF generation_
This is the "citation" text added to your help project file. This text is
displayed anytime someone prints or pastes topics from your WinHelp file.
See also :-
- [[goto Make Windows help source file]]
Help file copyright notice
--------------------------
Possible values : Copyright text
Default value : "". Evaluation vesion places adds a JafSoft copyright
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF help file
Menu location : Output -> Make Help File
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]
_Only applies to RTF generation_
This is the copyright notice placed in your WinHelp project file and so
attached to your help file.
See also :-
- [[goto Make Windows help source file]]
Help title background colour
----------------------------
Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]]
Default value : "Silver"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : RTF help file
Menu location : Output -> Make Help File
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
*New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]
_Only applies to RTF generation_
This is the background colour used for the title text of each topic. This
is the non-scrolling section at the top of each topic page.
NOTE: The colours you specify will only be visible to users running a default
Windows colour scheme. If users change this at all, then these colours
may have no effect.
See also :-
- [[goto Make Windows help source file]]
- [[goto Help body background colour]]
Highlight Definition Text
-------------------------
Possible values : Yes/No
Default value : No
Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]]
Policy file section : Style
Menu location : Output -> Style
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies whether or not the definition term of each definition detected
(the part marked up in
...
) should be placed in bold for greater
emphasis.
HTML footer file
----------------
Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as footer
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the HTML
file at the bottom of the ... portion of each generated HTML
page. Because this file is just copied into the HTML, the file should normally
include HTML tags, rather than plain text.
This can be used to add "return to home page" links, and contact
addresses to your HTML pages. Again, this helps to give a consistent
"look and feel" when breaking your document up into a number of smaller
HTML files.
See also :-
[[GOTO "HTML header file"]]
HTML fragments file
-------------------
Possible values : Local file containing HTML fragment definitions
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT"]] and [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "RESET_HTML_FRAGMENT"]]
*New in version 4*
Identifies the name of a text file which defines HTML "fragments" that may
be used in the HTML generation. These fragments can be used to customize
elements such as horizontal rules and page navigation features generated
by the software. The definitions must be written as HTML inside pre-processor
styled HTML fragment blocks.
See the Tag manual section on [[HYPERLINK URL, "tag_manual_3.html","Using HTML fragments"]]
and the pre-processor commands :-
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT"]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "RESET_HTML_FRAGMENT"]]
HTML header file
----------------
Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as header
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into
the HTML file at the top of the ... portion of the
generated HTML page. Because this file is just copied into the HTML,
the file should normally include HTML tags, rather than plain text.
This can be used to add standard headers, logos, contact addresses to
your HTML pages, and is especially useful to give a consistent "look
and feel" when breaking your document up into a number of smaller
HTML files.
See also :-
[[GOTO "HTML footer file"]]
HTML Script file
----------------
Possible values : Local file containing JavaScript fragment you want embedding
Default value : ""
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : Added HTML
Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc.
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the
... portion of the generated HTML page.
This allows you to place JavaScript in your pages (though you'll be a
little limited as to what it can act on).
You could also use this to embed a style sheet in the header.
HTML version to be targeted
---------------------------
Possible values : "HTML 3.2",
"HTML 4.0 Transitional",
"HTML 4.0 Strict"
Default value : "HTML 4.0 Transitional"
Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section : File generation
Menu location : (only available by editing policy file)
Command line option : n/a
Related directives : n/a
Specifies the version of HTML to be generated. Older versions of HTML are
more widely viewable in browsers, while newer versions support use
of style sheets and more sophisticated layout.
Depending on the version of HTML selected, different features may or may
not be supported. For example the implementation of fonts inside tables
cannot simultaneously support version 3 and 4 browsers in all flavours of
HTML. Also the use of certain entities (like the Euro symbol) is disallow