word generated html

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Robert Misiorowski - 16 Mar 2004 19:44 GMT

Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
this would be to have him save the document as html. Then I would offer him
an interface on his site to upload this document to the server. I would then
parse the document and add the relevant parts into a template html file, so
that the generted page would look like all the others, and fit nicely into
the whole look and scheme of his site.

My concern is this. The word generated html file generates a bunch of stuff,
including xml stuff, and other types of code i'm not even familiar with. If
I just take what's in the <style> tags and what's in the <body> tag and add
this to my template, will the page display properly? My other concern is,
will the types of fonts MS Word uses in the <style> tags work on different
browsers and operating systems? In a nutshell, will this word generted html
work properly to display on a commercial site? Does anyone have any
experience doing this? Or if you know a better way to accomplish this, I'm
open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

Here is a sample of a word generating web page:

<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document>
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10">
<meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 10">
<link rel=File-List href="f_files/filelist.xml">
<title>Hello</title>

<style>

</style>

</head>

<body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'>

<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:48.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Hello<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Take me
down to the paradise city!<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The
world
is a prototype of mocking proportions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:48.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

</div>

</body>

</html

Reply to this Message

SW - 16 Mar 2004 20:32 GMT

When I've worked with Word's HTML it's displayed fine but the markup is
really bloated. Dreamweaver has a Clean Up Word function. Presuming you
don't want to install or build a content management system, another good
cheap option for small sites is Macromedia Contribute, which would allow the
client to do the updating themselves.

> Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
> document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
[quoted text clipped - 148 lines]
>
> </html

Reply to this Message

Andy Dingley - 17 Mar 2004 00:28 GMT

>Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
>document and post it on his site.

Why ?

Are you trying to offer easy HTML authoring for Word users ?
(Word is the world's 3rd worst HTML production tool)

Are you trying to publish Word documents to the Internet ?
(Publish as PDF)

Are you trying to exchange Word documents, as Word documents
(Offer a link to a .doc file)

What is a good solution for your situation depends on the reason why
you're doing it.

Word is _broken_ for HTML editing. It's very _clever_, just not very
useful. Basically Word (wordprocessing of carefully styled documents
onto known page sizes) is solving a whole different problem from HTML
(communicating information to a world full of unknown devices). M$oft
have used (or mis-used) HTML as a real wordprocessor document format,
even though it's generally though to not be usable for such a task.
To do it though, they've widely abused HTML and general good web
practice, so as to stretch HTML into something it was never supposed
to be. They've gained the ability to "round trip" a Word document in
and out of HTML without any formatting losses, but they still can;t
make "web pages" with it.

Signature

Smert' spamionam

Reply to this Message

Ivan Marsh - 17 Mar 2004 18:36 GMT

<snip>

Something you might want to look at:
http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/

Signature

i.m.
The USA Patriot Act is the most unpatriotic act in American history.

Reply to this Message

Robert - 18 Mar 2004 03:47 GMT

> Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
> document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> that the generted page would look like all the others, and fit nicely into
> the whole look and scheme of his site.

Be sure to check the Word generated file in various Web Browsers. I
think Microsoft has a fix out in this area.

Robert

Reply to this Message

Robert - 18 Mar 2004 21:47 GMT

> > Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
> > document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> > that the generted page would look like all the others, and fit nicely into
> > the whole look and scheme of his site.

I think you will want to tell your customer of the limitations of the
approach. The web is a different medium than a printed document. What
works on paper may not work on the web. The web's pages are shorter
than what would work on paper.

I think if the customer keeps in mind these restrictions, the approach
is workable. The customer shouldn't consider Word a web authoring tool
for a major commercial site.

Using Word for Web Pages is a way of getting certain users over a
perceived burdon about constructing web pages. Also, the Word to html
conversation allows for documents that were not intended for the web to
be put on the web.

If the customer knows that they want to create a web page, suggest an
authoring tool. Suggest Word is for beginners with simple pages. Word
is more appropriate for an intranet than the web. People will be making
judgements about the customer based on what they see on the customer's
site.

Newer versions of Office generate better web pages from the viewing
perspective.

And before you all complain, I avoid Microsoft products with the
exception of Excel.

Robert

Reply to this Message

Jeff North - 19 Mar 2004 04:16 GMT

>| Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
>| document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>|
>| Thanks in advance!

You could use something like
HTMLArea (http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea/)
or fckEditor (http://www.fredck.com/FCKeditor/).

These only work in IE5.5+. Both have similar functionality. Both have
a button that cleans up MSWord 'coding'.
---------------------------------------------------------------
jnorth@yourpantsbigpond.net.au : Remove your pants to reply
---------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this Message

spam_me_ not - 03 Apr 2004 21:57 GMT

You might also check out some commercial conversion products.

The one I found best overall (though on the pricey side) was
WordToWeb v2.5 from Solutionsoft, www.solutionsoft.com. It
allows quite a bit of flexibility in the way one breaks up
larger documents and formats elements of a .DOC file. It will
create a table of contents and an index, preserve footnotes,
yank GIF images into your page or convert embedded images to
GIF, and produce output which looks substantially similar across
browsers. It also allows you to significantly customize the
output by including CSS and performing a lot of special case
conversions you select. Its power made it a tool which took a
while to master, and I would only recommend it for larger
projects or where you have multiple projects to convert. Best
of all, it comes with a warranty, is actively supported and
Solutionsoft responds to problem reports. I was very
satisfied for my particular task.

Alternatives were:

FileMerlin by Advanced Computer Innovations
RTF Converter by Logictran (least expensive)
WebConvert Pro by Sandiego Software
Click to Convert by Inzone Software Ltd

Any of these might be worth the cost for a smaller project.

-- Richie

Reply to this Message

Jim Roberts - 03 Apr 2004 22:09 GMT

> Basically, I need to offer a client of mine the ability to type up a word
> document and post it on his site. I was thinking that the best way to do
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> experience doing this? Or if you know a better way to accomplish this, I'm
> open to suggestions.

You might try html-kit. It's a great freeware editor that comes with
html-tidy built in. Html-tidy does a nice job of stripping surplus word
tags.

It's also a very good editor with lots of functionality and support. There
are hundreds of free plug-ins available for various tasks.

http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

Jim Roberts

Reply to this Message

Rate this thread: