[whatwg] converting word (was <code> attributes

[Charles McCathieNevile]

On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:25:17 +0200, Kristof Zelechovski  
<giecrilj at stegny.2a.pl> wrote:

> Automatic conversion from Microsoft Word to HTML is doomed to fail  
> because the document models and the requirements are different.
> The best you can get is a tree of DIVs and SPANs with Word-
> specific classes.  Anything better needs a serious and thoughtful
> remake by the editor.

This is an oversimplification to the point of being misleading.

There are many ways to use Word, and many people and organisations with  
haf a clue use it in such a way that automatic conversion can be  
relatively easily used to generate highly semantically rich and valid  
markup - much better than the sort of tripe one typically finds on the Web  
today.

Word enabled the clear semantic markup of documents before HTML even  
existed, and people who use it like that are in a good position to produce  
HTML that is much better quality than most developers come up with. It  
also enables presentation-driven markup to be converted automatically to  
make the underlying semantics explicit (something that virtually no HTML  
tool outside those which convert from another input format manages to do).

This stuff is not rocket science, either. It is the sort of thing that was  
routine more than a decade ago when people started to use HTML as well as,  
or instead of, Word and similar formats.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com