Document Preparation Tools

Web document preparation tools, like just about everything else connected with the Web, are proliferating at a phenomenal rate. The tools currently available cover three broad areas of functionality: the editing of HTML, the conversion of documents from other formats to that of HTML, and the validation of existing HTML documents for syntactical and stylistic correctness. In practice, many of the tools incorporate more than one of these areas of functionality, although the emphasis is usually more heavily weighted in one area than others.

For the purposes of clarity within this chapter, document preparation tools are discussed according to their primary function. There are so many tools now available, and so many more currently in development, that it would not be feasible to describe them all in detail here. However, some of the more comprehensive and well-tested tools are covered, to convey a general idea of what can be achieved. A much wider range of document preparation tools is included in the Resource Guide at the back of this book, which also contains information on how to obtain software, and pointers to Web-based resource guides which are regularly updated as new tools become available.

It must be emphasized that although some of the tools mentioned may be used without the support of any additional software, some of them are distributed as source code and need to be compiled before they can be used; and others are written in Perl, which means they need a Perl interpreter. Where additional software is necessary in order to use a particular tool, this will be clearly stated, both in this chapter and in the Resource Guide. Many of the tools also require some knowledge of HTML if any customization is needed.

Next: HTML editors Up: Preparing Documents Previous: Limitations of forms

[ITCP] Spinning the Web by Andrew Ford
© 1995 International Thomson Publishing
© 2002 Andrew Ford and Ford & Mason Ltd
Note: this HTML document was generated in December 1994 directly from the LaTeX source files using LaTeX2HTML. It was formatted into our standard page layout using the Template Toolkit. The document is mainly of historical interest as obviously many of the sites mentioned have long since disappeared.