Text content	Content structure	Creating documents	Formatting text	Converting MS Word documents	Using PDF	Using OCR	Copyright issues

Creating documents

Word processors vs. web editors

While your document will eventually need to be in HTML format for web delivery, there is no doubt that web editors are generally very clumsy word processors. Conversely, word processing applications, such as MS Word, while their web compatibility is improving, are not great web editors. The ideal work process will involve creating and doing basic formatting in a word processor, then importing into a web editor for final formatting.

Unfortunately, while most word processors now allow you to save as HTML, the HTML generated is often far from ideal, and a web editor will usually do a much better job of generating HTML code.

If you have access to a good web editor (Macromedia Dreamweaver is recommended), then the most sustainable and accessible approach to document production is to produce text in a word processor, paste as unformatted text into the web editor, and apply formatting via HTML style sheets (see Style Sheets).

If, like many, you are much more familiar with word processing software, and would prefer to format the document that way, before creating HTML, that is possible, although there are some pitfalls to be aware of (see ‘Converting MS Word Documents’).

It is also worth considering if you wish to make print versions of the text content, in which case formatting in your word processor for printing before converting to HTML makes sense. Note that the documents may need to be formatted differently for effective web and print delivery.

Microsoft Office and Macromedia Dreamweaver are available to faculty at a subsidised price from UNSW Software Distribution: http://www.acsu.unsw.edu.au/soft_home.htm.

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