autoHTML 2.0 User Guide

Chapter 1

Introduction

With autoHTML you can export articles from one or more layout files as HTML files, which can be used as basis for publishing text in the World Wide Web. You can export only text without images and layout which can then be displayed in a browser using previously assigned HTML styles.

There are two possibilities for exporting layouts:

• The articles in an open document can be exported manually. For further information, refer to Chapter 3 “Exporting Articles manually” on page 14.

• Articles can also be exported automatically using the AutoPilot XT of callas software.

For further information, refer to Chapter 4 “Using AutoPilot XT” on page 16.

About this User Guide

This User Guide comprises the following subjects:

- Chapter 1 provides general information about the software and describes how autoHTML proceeds when exporting articles.

- Chapter 2 describes how to create presets to controlthe XTension and how to edit existing presets.

- Chapter 3 und 4 cover the two possibilities for exporting HTML articles with autoHTML.

Note: This manual assumes that you are familiar with your computer and QuarkXPress or QPS and AutoPilot XT. If you need any further assistance, please refer to the respective software documentation.

autoHTML Overview

The articles are filtered from a layout on the basis of style sheets and exported as HTML files. Before exporting, all existing QuarkXPress style sheets have to be assigned to one of the following three box categories: Beginning of Article, Article Text, Miscellaneous Text. Finally you assign a HTML style to each style sheet. The HTML styles are assigned to the text on a paragraph basis.

When you have determined all settings, autoHTML runs the following procedures:

• auto HTML starts searching from the top left corner to the bottom right corner of the document. This determines the sequence of paragraphs in a HTML document except for text chains which are exported sequencially.

• autoHTML checks which boxes are inside the page area you specified. All text boxes completely or partly inside the page area, are exported. If boxes are associated to an exported text chain, these boxes are exported as well, even if they are situated outside the page area. Boxes are not exported, only if they are placed completely outside the page area.

• autoHTML uses the first style sheet in a box to determine its box category.

• autoHTML searches for a box with the box category “Beginning of Article”, which defines this box as the headline of an article. Boxes of this category are always exported, even if they are placed outside the page area.

• Now, autoHTML searches for boxes of the box category “Article Text” followed by all boxes of the same text chain. This process also includes article text boxes located left of the respective “Beginning of Article” box in the layout.

• When HTML encounters another Beginning of Article box, a new article beginns.

• After all articles are identified, autoHTML assigns all remaining text boxes belonging to the box category “Miscellaneous Text” to the articles. A text box of this catagory belongs to an article, if it overlaps the article text boxes or if it is positioned near those boxes.

An exception to the rule are frames, i.e., elements with a colored background.

Frames are often used to one article stand out from the others on a given page.

When searching for articles in the layout, autoHTML takes these elements into account and searches for boxes with background color. All boxes placed completely inside or in front of this box will be recognized. When at least one of these boxes belongs to the category “Beginning of Article” autoHTML assumes that it is an element of this kind and creates one or more articles from the text boxed containd within the frame.

• The HTML styles you assigned are applied to the paragraphs of each article.

• Finally the articles are exported as one or more HTML files and saved in a particular folder.

Now you can view the exported articles in a Web browser and apply changes as necessary.

Note: As the interpretation of HTML styles varies from one browser to another, you should view the exported articles in different browsers to make sure that you obtain the desired results.

Chapter 2

Creating and Editing Presets

1 Choose “Edit > Presets > autoHTML”. The following dialog box appears.

2 Click one of the following options:

• To create a new preset, click “New”.

• To edit an existing preset, select one of the existing presets in the scroll list and choose “Edit”, or double-click one of the presets.

• To use an existing preset for creating a new preset, select one of the existing presets and choose “Duplicate”.

The dialog box “autoHTML: Edit Preset” appears. When you edit an existing preset, the dialog box shows all settings which apply to the selected preset. You can change these setting if you want.

3 Enter a name for the preset in the “Name” field, or change the existing name.

4 Under “Export Area” enter values in the “Left Pages” and “Right Pages” fields, or change the existing values.

These values determine the borders, i.e. the page area, that you want to export. You can use this option to prevent notes or headers and footers placed at the document borders from being exported.

Left and right pages are equivalent to the master pages of QuarkXPress; pages that are based on single master pages are considered as left pages.

Text boxes which are completly or partly located inside this export area, will be exported. Boxes of the “Beginning of article” categorie are always exported; text chains are always exported completely, even if some text boxes are placed outside the export area. Only text boxes, which are completely outside the export area, are not exported.

5 If you only want to export text chains, assigned to QPS articles, enable the checkbox ”QPS Articles only”.

6 To import style sheets into the bottom left list, click “Import current Styles”.

- In an open document, style sheets are imported from the current document.

- When no document is open, your own preset style sheets or the preset style sheets from the QPS server will be imported.

The style sheets are displayed in the left column of the list. They are applied when you export layouts into a HTML file. By default, the list contains the entry “Default” to identify text which has not been formatted with a style sheet or that has been formatted with a style sheet not contained in the list.

You can also import style sheets from several documents by closing the dialog box, opening the corresponding documents one after another, reopening the dialog box and clicking ”Import current Styles”. The additional style sheets are added to the list.

7 Select the appropriate style sheets to edit their settings. Hold down the Shift key to select several successive entries, hold down the Command key to select several non successive entries.

8 If necessary, click the option “Delete Entry” to remove the selected style sheets from the list (the style sheets are not removed from the document).

9 Specify the “Box Category” you want für each style sheet. Each style sheet can be assigned to only one category.

• Beginning of Article: Defines the selected style sheets as headline. A box which starts with these style sheets, are specifies as the beginning of an article.

• Article Text: Defines the selected style sheets as article text. All boxes of a text chain starting with these style sheet are exported after the headline in proper order.

• Miscellaneous Text: Defines the selected style sheets as additional text elements which will be attached to the end of the article. Typical examples are captions, credits, footnotes etc.

The selected box category is displayed in der center column of the scroll list.

Note: Removing a style sheet from the list does not mean that text formatted with this style sheet will not exported. The text will be formatted with the Default style sheet and appear in the HTML file using the HTML style that you assigned to Default.

10 For each style sheet choose one of the following styles from the “HTML” pop-up menu.

• Choose the HTML style “Do not export” for style sheets, when you do not want to export the respective text.

• Choose an eye-catching HTML style for Default, e.g. Blink, to highlight texts formatted with unknown style sheets.

The assigned HTML style appears in the right column of the scroll list.

11 Choose one of the following options:

• Click “OK” to create a new preset or to apply changes to the existing preset. The dialog box “autoHTML: Presets” reappears.

• Click “Cancel” to undo all changes.

• To save a preset after creating or editing it or to close the dialog box, click “Save”.

• To close a dialog box without saving a new or modified preset, click “Cancel”.

The Preferences FileAll presets are saved in a preferences file that can be found in either position.

• System folder/Preferences: This is the default position of the preferences file.

• XTension folder: When the preferences file is located in this folder it is preferably used, even if there is a second file in the Preferences folder.

Chapter 3

Exporting Articles manually

1 In QuarkXPress open the document containing the articles you want to export.

2 Choose “Utilities > autoHTML”. If only one preset exists, it will be used automatically.

3 Choose the preset you want from the scroll list, and click “OK”.

For each article one HTML document is saved in the “autoHTML” folder within the

QuarkXPress folder. The files in this folder are named according to the following specification: aXXXXY.html. “a” defines the “Article” , “X” defines the four figures page number where the respective article starts. “Y” stands for “a-z” to number the articles beginning on one page.

Note: You can save an arbitrary named folder anywhere you want, e. g. on a server volume and link it to an alias file in the QuarkXPress folder. However the alias file must be named “autoHTML”.

Chapter 4

Using AutoPilot XT

Note: In this manual, we assume that you are familiar with all AutoPilot XT features.

For this reason, only the creation of a new action for autoHTML will be described. For further information on AutoPilot XT, please refer to the AutoPilot XT documentation.

1 Choose “Utilities > AutoPilot”. The following dialog box appears containing a scroll list of all existing AutoPilot jobs.

3 Enter a name for the job on the top of the dialog box.

4 Under “Trigger” enable the options you need.

5 Under “Prologue” specify how to access documents.

6 Unter “Action list”, click “New” to specify a new action for autoHTML.

7 Click “XTension”. The following dialog box appears.

8 Choose ”autoHTML” from the XTension pop-up menu.

• Export (one file per article): Each article is exported as a separate file. Next to “Path to export folder”, click “Edit” to determine the folder where you want save the files.

Go back to the dialog box “Edit XTension Action”.

For each article one HTML document is saved in the “autoHTML” folder within the

QuarkXPress folder. The files in this folder are named according to the following specification: aXXXXY.html. “a” defines the “Article” , “X” defines the four figures page number where the respective article starts. “Y” stands for “a-z” to number the articles beginning on one page.

• Export (one file per layout): All articles of a layout are exported in one file. Next to

“Path to export folder”, click “Edit” to determine the folder where you want to save the files. Next to “Name of export file”, click “Edit” to specify the file name. Go back to the dialog box “Edit XTension Action”.

10 Choose one of the autoHTML presets from the “Parameter” pop-up menu. All existing presets appear at the top of the pop-up menu.

11 Click “OK”. The dialog box „Edit AutoPilot XT Job“ reappears.

13 Click “OK”. The dialog box “AutoPilot XT” reappears. You can now launch the defined job you want.

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