Date   : Sun, 03 Nov 2002 21:10:04 +0000 (GMT)
From   : Sprow <info@...>
Subject: Re: Which format do you want BBC manuals in? RTF/HTML

In article <004101c281d7$dd4789c0$d6dd403e@...>,
   Matt Cocker <themicrouser@...> wrote:
> Hello everybody who wants BBC manuals, books, documentation, etc. on line.
>
> I am carrying out further conversion of BBC manuals and documentation.
>
> I have had some feedback (not a lot though) on the manuals I have 
> converted,the majority do not appear to like the RTF format 

I used to favour RTF as it offered a method of retaining formatting
information while not relying on having a particular version of (for
example) Microsoft Word,whose file format seems to mutate frequently and
hence isn't particularly useful as an archive format.

> I can create HTML versions a lot easier and with a lot less effort on
> formatting

HTML isn't a document formatting language,and is exceptionally hard to
convert back into paper form without losing page breaks etc...

Might I suggest you work locally in whatever wordprocessor you feel happy
with then export it as PDF.PDF viewers are available free,or have been
ported to just about every platform - they can be printed out with no loss
of layout and can also have links from index pages which makes electronic
navigation as easy as HTML,
Sprow.