$_$_TITLE AscToHTM : What it's capable of $_$_DESCRIPTION Longer description of AscToHTM's capabilities What can AscToHTM do for you? ***************************** AscToHTM converts text files into one or more linked HTML pages. These pages are themselves constructed using AscToHTM. How AscToHTM will interpret your document ========================================= AscToHTM can do the following:- _Headings_ - recognize numbered headings including headings of the form "Chapter 1" and other variants - recognize various levels of underlined headings - recognize capitalised headings _Layout_ - recognize multiple indentation levels - recognize short lines (you can define "short" if you wish) - recognize "quoted" text (as in email) - recognize definition lines and paragraphs - recognize words and phrases emphasised with '*' and '_' _Bullets_ - recognize various bullet characters - recognize labelled bullets - alphabetic bullets (upper and lower case) - roman numeral bullets (upper and lower case) - numbered bullet _Formatted text_ - recognize tables - recognize ASCII art and diagrams - recognize samples of Catlike code _File structure_ - recognize and convert DOS line-drawing characters - recognize and convert VT escape characters - recognize and convert Mime quoted-text characters - recognize and convert exotic characters such as © µ ¾ ê ü into the correct HTML entities © µ ¾ ê ü etc. (View the [[source_file]] for this page to see what I mean) Making the HTML more useable ============================ AscToHTM will allow you to make your document more suited to the HTML format in many ways :- _Hyperlinks_ (Here's [[HYPERLINK URL,"../examples/html/testlinx.html","some examples"]] of what can be done). - add links for URLs, email addresses and newsgroups referenced in the text - add links for cross-referenced section numbers in documents with numbered sections - add links to any keywords the user specifies in a "link dictionary" _Contents and directory lists_ - generate a fully linked contents list to the headings observed in the file - generate a "directory page" with links to all the files just converted and their contents. _Multipage document generation_ - split large documents into a set of smaller pages each with a navigation bar at the foot of each page - generate DOS-compatible 8.3 filenames _Frames_ - you can choose to have your document placed in a set of frames - a contents list can be generated in the left frame - use-supplied HTML can be added to header and footer frames - NOFRAMES link can be added to URL of your choice, and a tag will be generated. _Add HTML value to each page generated_ - add a document title from the - the first heading, - the first line, - from a user-specified value - add colours and a background image - add standard HTML headers, footers to each page. - add Javascript to each generated page. - add a Style sheet - customize key elements using the "HTML fragments" feature AscToHTM has several advanced features ====================================== AscToHTM can be used as an advanced web authoring tool. For example it created most of this website _Complex document construction_ - insert include files - insert embedded HTML into the source file, e.g. to add images. - insert DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS <META> tags into your <HEAD> section - allow markup of regions to be treated as TABLES or DIAGRAMS - allow markup of sections to be included or omitted in different builds (e.g. to produce Internet and Intranet variants of the same document). _Batch processing_ - batch process several files at once - use wildcards to select files to convert - console version available to registered users which is more suited to batch conversion _Configurability_ - All of the analysis can be fine tuned (you can see a [list of options] in the on-line documentation - see chapter 5). - A large number of output characteristics can be set to tailor the document such as colours, background images. - Options can be saved in a "policy file" for reuse on similar documents _Program settings_ - You can choose which browser to view results in, although this is normally detected automatically. - A most recently converted file list is maintained - A most recently used policy file list is maintained - A default policy file can be chosen - Behaviour on drag'n'drop invocation can be specified (e.g. to automatically view results in browser after conversion) - The user interface can be changed dynamically between English/German/Spanish/Portuguese. (translations have been kindly volunteered by users of the program) _Adding extra features_ - A tagging system allows extra hyperlink and embedded HTML to be added. One such feature creates a link to the original [[SOURCE_FILE]] Uses of AscToHTM ================ AscToHTM can be used :- - to perform one-off conversions of "legacy" text documents into HTML. - to quickly place text form emails on-line - to allow authors to maintain text and HTML versions of documents by using the text version as the master and automatically generate the HTML version. An example of this is AscToHTM's [onlinedoco] itself. This also makes the masters easier to spell check via conventional tools. - to turn text files into e-books. - to generate separate variants of a document e.g. for Intranet and Internet consumption. - to automate production of HTML from regularly changing data such as daily reports etc, or a knowledge database. We have customers with literally thousands of files maintained this way.