Next: Microsoft Word - Up: Conversion tools Previous: Conversion tools

LaTeX2HTML

Written by Nikos Drakos of the Computer Based Learning Unit at Leeds University in the UK, is a program that converts documents written in the markup language to the HTML format. The program is written in Perl, so of course a Perl interpreter will be needed in order to run it. You will also need and installed as well as the dvips PostScript driver program (version 5.516 or later), Ghostscript (version 2.6.1 or later) and the PBMPLUS library. All of these are free, and readily obtainable on the Net. is a logical markup language that is very popular in the scientific and academic communities, in part because of its ability to typeset mathematical equations. The documentation included in the distribution is not only comprehensive, but also well-written and comprehensible.

This book was originally written in , using the Emacs editor in mode. was chosen to convert it into HTML.

The program follows a sophisticated and intelligent set of translation rules, and can also be customized by using various command line options, or by altering environment variables in the initialization file.

breaks up the structure of the document into a series of interconnected HTML nodes, in a manner that can be specified by the user. It has the facility to generate appropriate navigation devices between the nodes. These take the form of icon-based navigation control panels, and can be customized.

Cross-references, citations and the like are converted into hypertext links and the program can recognize links to multimedia resources or other Internet information services, and handle them appropriately. Some extensions to have been added, to deal with hypertext. Links may be added and the user can specify whether or not the URLs should appear as footnotes in the version of the document, as has been done with the paper version of this book. There are special commands to add links to image files. The program extends the cross-referencing mechanism to work between documents, as well as within them, and the documents involved may also be at remote sites.

recognizes conditional text, which is intended either solely for the HTML version or for the version. It has the facility to include raw HTML in a document, which is sometimes appropriate. The program converts mathematical equations and other non-text material into images and puts them in-line, in the hypertext documents.

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.