$_$_TABLE_MIN_COLUMN_SEPARATION 2 $_$_TABLE_CELLPADDING 2 $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Min chapter size : 1 $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Default TABLE cell alignment : left $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Preserve underlining of headings : no $_$_CONTENTS_LIST $_$_TITLE The Policy Manual for JafSoft text conversion utilities $_$_DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT HTML_HEADER

The "Policy Manual" for the JafSoft text conversion utilities

This documentation can be downloaded as part of the documentation set in .zip format

$_$_END_BLOCK $_$_DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT HTML_FOOTER
Valid HTML 4.0! Converted from a single text file by AscToHTM
© 1997-2000 John A. Fotheringham
Converted by AscToHTM
$_$_END_BLOCK 1 Introduction ============== This document describes the "policies" used by AscToHTM and related programs (AscToRTF, AscToTab) when converting unformatted text files into HTML or RTF output files. The policies take the form of rules or instructions that the program must follow. They fall broadly into two types. - *Analysis Policies*. These describe rules for how the input text file is to be understood. In many cases these rules will be determined by a process of analysis. In other cases (or when the analysis goes wrong), these policies may need to be set by hand. - *Output Policies*. These describe rules and extra information to be used when generating the output HTML or RTF files. In almost all cases these have to be set manually by the user. When regularly converting the same, or similar, files it is possible to load a set of policies from file. These are called "policy files", and take the form of ordinary text files, with one policy per line. This allows users to easily edit such files and their policies. 2 Policy Name, values and scope =============================== 2.1 Policy Names and descriptions Each policy has a name, which also acts as a short description. This description is used in the policy files, and must be matched *exactly* in the policy file if the policy is to be recognised. This means that if the policy text is misspelt, then you must normally match the misspelling. However there is an exception to this rule... 2.1.1 British and American spellings of Colour Although the program is developed by a British Author, as far as possible I've tried to support use of British and American English in the policy names. So, for example, the word "colour" may usually be spelt "color" in the following policies :- - [[GOTO "Active Link Colour"]] - [[GOTO "Background Colour"]] - [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]] $_$_SECTION MERRILL - [[GOTO "Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS"]] $_$_SECTION ALL - [[GOTO "Default TABLE border colour"]] - [[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]] - [[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]] - [[GOTO "Default TABLE colour"]] - [[GOTO "Headings Colour"]] - [[GOTO "Scope COLOUR tags globally"]] - [[GOTO "Suppress all colour markup"]] - [[GOTO "Text Colour"]] - [[GOTO "Unvisited Link Colour"]] - [[GOTO "Visited Link Colour"]] - [[GOTO Header frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Header frame text colour]] - [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]] - [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]] 2.2 Policy values Each policy has a data value. The type of values a policy can take will vary from policy to policy. For most policies the special value "(none)" will be accepted, meaning that this policy should be ignored and/or assigned a suitable default value. 2.2.1 Yes/No values The commonest type of data value is simple a "Yes/No" value. That is the value is either "Yes" or "no". In practice only the first letter is required. For backwards compatability the values "true" and "false" may also be used. 2.2.2 Numerical values Many policy values require numeric values. Sometimes the value will be constrained, e.g. must be positive, or it must lie within a certain range. Values that lie outside the accepted range will be reported in error, and the policy will be ignored. 2.2.3 Text strings Many policies are simple text strings, e.g. the Title of the HTML pages being produced. In such cases the whole value will be used, but any spaces before or after the value will be ignored. 2.2.4 HTML colours Some policies accept colour values. These values should be HTML colours which - for example - may be placed in the various attributes of the tag. You can enter any value acceptable to HTML. Normally a value is expressed as a 6-digit hexadecimal value in the range 000000 (black) to FFFFFF (white), but certain colours such as "white", "blue", "red" etc may also be recognised by HTML. The program simply transcribes your value into the output file. A value of "none" signals the defaults are to be used. By default AscToHTM changes the background colour to be white (the true HTML default is a light gray whose value is "C0C0C0"). 2.2.5 Section/Heading levels Some policies require section or heading level values. The program numbers heading levels as follows :- Chapter headings 1 Major sections 2 sub-sections 3 sub-sub-sections 4 In a document with numbered sections "1" would be a chapter, "1.2" a major section, "1.2.3" a sub-section and "1.2.3.4" a sub-sub-section etc. In documents with underlined sections the heading level is determined by the underlining character. Chapters '*' Major sections '+','=' or'/' Sub-sections '-','_' or '~' Sub-sub-sections '.' 2.2.6 Lists of names A few policies require a list of named values. In such cases the values are either :- - *space-separated*. Each value should contain no white-space characters, but may contain underscores etc. - *Comma-separated*. Each value should be separated by a comma. The values may contain white-space. If they also include a comma then place the value in double quotes. 2.3 Policy scope Each policy has its own scope. Policies are scoped in two different ways:- - *Analysis or Output*. Policies may apply to the analysis of the input text or the generation of the output files. - *Fixed or Dynamic*. A _Fixed_ policy may not be varied during the conversion of the file, that is it is applied equally to all parts of the file being converted. A _Dynamic_ policy may be changed a number of times during the conversion (by embedding changes of values in the source document itself). This can be used to alter the conversion process locally in different parts of the file. 2.3.1 Dynamic analysis policy Dynamic analysis policies are policies that affect the analysis of the file, that may be varied during the processing of the file. This is achieved by embedding new values in the file itself (see 3.4) For example adding the line(s) $_$_BEGIN_PRE $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Look for short lines : no ... $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Look for short lines : yes $_$_END_PRE uses the policy [[GOTO look for short lines]] to prevent the software looking for short lines for the enclosed part of the document. 2.3.2 Dynamic output policy Dynamic output policies are policies that affect the generation of the output file(s) that may be varied during the processing of the file. This is achieved by embedding new values in the file itself (see 3.4) For example adding the lines $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : (none) $_$_BEGIN_PRE uk.railways $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : uk $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : uk uk.railways $_$_CHANGE_POLICY Recognised USENET groups : (none) $_$_END_PRE to your source uses the policy [[GOTO Recognised USENET groups]] to switch on the recognition of "uk.railways" as a newsgroup for a few lines, where this is normally disabled by default. 2.3.3 Fixed analysis policy Fixed analysis policies are policies that affect the analysis of the file, and that may not be varied during the processing of the file, usually because what they describe should apply to the whole file. For example the indentation pattern used in the file is usually fixed in this way. 2.3.4 Fixed output policy Fixed output policies are policies that affect the generation of the output file, and that may not be varied during the processing of the file, usually because they must be consistent, or because they're output near the top of the document. For example the [[GOTO Active Link Colour]] is put in the portion of the HTML file, and cannot be varied throughout the file. 3 Ways of specifying policy values ================================== You can specify policies in a number of different ways used separately or in combination. 3.1 Placing policies in a "policy file" One of the more useful ways to use policies is to save them to a "policy file", which you can then later reload. In this way your customizations for a particular document or type of document can be saved and reused. 3.1.1 Saving and loading policy files The program allows you to save policies to file so that you can later reload them. This allows you to easily define different ways of doing conversions, either for different types of files, or to produce different types of output. The policy files have a .pol extension by default, and are simple text files, with one policy on each line. You can, if you wish, edit these policies in a text editor... this is sometimes easier that using all the dialogs in the Windows version. When editing policies, it is important not to change the key phrase (the bit before the ":" character), as this needs to be matched exactly by the program. For best results, it is advisable to put in your policy file only those policies you want to fix. This leaves the program to calculate document-by-document policies that suit the files being converted. Note: Avoid using "full" policy file for your conversions. Such files prevent the program from adjusting to each source file, often leading to unwanted results. 3.1.2 policy files for your document The normal way to create a policy file is by setting options and them saving them using the "save policy file" dialog. This will offer you the choice of creating a partial policy file or a full policy file (see 3.1.3 and 3.1.4). Alternatively, you can set the [[GOTO "Output policy file"]] policy or the /POLICY= command line qualifier which will generate a full policy file resulting from the analysis of the converted document. Once a file is generated you can either edit it in a text editor - deleting policies that are of little interest to you, and editing those that are - or reload them into the program, change them and save them again. 3.1.3 Partial policy files Partial policy files are files which have values for some, not all, policies. Typically only those policies that have been changed will be saved into the file. These are recommended, because the unstated policies can be set by the program, allowing it to adapt to the details of the document being concerned. For example, you should only set the indentation policy if you *know* what indents you are using, or if you want to override those calculated by the program. Normally it is best to omit this policy, and allow the program to work it out itself. When you save a policy file from inside the program, a partial policy file will contain - all policies loaded from the current policy file (if any) - all policies changed in the program during the current session (if any) 3.1.4 Full policy files A "full" policy file contains a value for every possible policy. Such files are usually only useful for documentation and analysis reasons, and should almost never be expected to be reloaded as input into a conversion, as this would totally fix the conversion details. 3.1.5 Naming policy files Whenever the "Output policy file" policy is set (see 6.3.3.11), the generated "full" policy file is usually called .pol where is the name of the file being created. When this happens any existing file of that name will be overwritten. For this reason we *strongly* advise you adopt a naming convention of the form in_.pol or i.pol or place your input policies in a different directory and ensure they are backed up. 3.2 Changing policies via the user interface In the Windows version of the program many (but not all - see 3.6) policies can have their values changed via options available from the _"Conversion Options"_ menu. This menu divides policies into "analysis" and "output" policies, and further sub-divides the policies into related groups. 3.3 Changing policies by using command line options A small number of policies can be set from the command line. These include Command line Equivalent policy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- /CONTENTS [[GOTO Add contents list]] $_$_SECTION MERRILL /CU [[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]] $_$_SECTION ALL /DOS [[GOTO Use DOS filenames]] /FRAMES [[GOTO Place document in frames]] /INDEX[=filename] [[GOTO Make Directory]] /LIST[=filename] [[GOTO Generate diagnostics files]] /LOG[=filename] [[GOTO Create a log file]] /OUT=[filespec] [[GOTO Output directory]] /POLICY[=filename] [[GOTO Output policy file]] /RULESET="name" [[GOTO Rule set to be used]] /SILENT [[GOTO Display messages]] /SIMPLE [[GOTO Keep it simple]] $_$_SECTION MERRILL /TAGS [[GOTO Show Tags in output]] $_$_SECTION ALL 3.4 Changing policies by using preprocessor directives A number of policies have equivalent preprocessor directives. These directives are special keywords and values placed in your source text at some point to influence the conversion at that point, or from that point onwards. See the main documentation for full details. Directives all begin with the text "$_$_" followed by the keyword placed at the start of a line. The directive appears on a line by itself, and the rest of the line is interpreted as the directive's data value. In addition to individual directives, the CHANGE_POLICY directive can be used to embed policy changes into your document to apply from that point onwards. The effect of attempting to the change the same policy multiple times via repeated CHANGE_POLICY directives will depend on whether the policy is "dynamic" or "Fixed" (see [[GOTO "Policy Scope"]]). This can be a useful alternative to using policy files, as it places the relevant policies into the file itself. Here is a list of the more general policy-related directives :- Directive keyword(s) Related policies ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BASEHREF [[GOTO Document Base URL]] BEGIN_CODE,END_CODE [[GOTO Expect code samples]] BEGIN_CONTENTS,END_CONTENTS [[GOTO Expect Contents List]] BEGIN_PRE,END_PRE [[GOTO Minimum automatic
 size]]
      CHANGE_POLICY			(any policy)
      CONTENTS_LIST			[[GOTO Add contents list]]
      DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT 	        [[GOTO HTML fragments file]]
      DESCRIPTION			[[GOTO Document Description]]
      KEYWORDS				[[GOTO Document keywords]]
      SECTION				[[GOTO Include document section(s)]]
      STYLE_SHEET			[[GOTO Document Style Sheet]]
      TITLE				[[GOTO Document Title]]


A special case are table directives.  Table directives if added to the top
of the file will apply to all subsequent detected tables.  However, if you
want to control an individual table, place $_$_BEGIN_TABLE...$_$_END_TABLE
commands around the table text, and place the $_$_TABLE_xxx directive between
the BEGIN_TABLE...END_TABLE directive.  Usually just after the BEGIN_TABLE 
command.

This approach is often more flexible that setting the equivalent policy in a
policy file, as that would apply to all tables in the conversion.  This is
why many of these policies have descriptions that begin "Default TABLE...".


$_$_BEGIN_DELIMITED_TABLE
$_$_TABLE_ALIGN CENTER
Directive keyword(s)	Related policies
------------------------------------------
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ADD_TOTAL_WIDTH]]	[[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ALIGN]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE alignment]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BGCOLOR]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BORDER]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE border size]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_BORDERCOLOR]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE border colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CAPTION]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE caption]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELLPADDING]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE cell padding]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELLSPACING]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE cell spacing]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CELL_ALIGN]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE cell alignment]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_COLO(U)R_ROWS]]	[[GOTO Colour data rows]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_CONVERT_XREFS]]	[[GOTO Convert TABLE X-refs to links]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_EVEN_ROW_COLO(U)R]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE even row colour]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_HEADER_COLS]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE header rows]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_HEADER_ROWS]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE header cols]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_IGNORE_HEADER]]	[[GOTO Ignore table header during analysis]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_LAYOUT]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE layout]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE]]	[[GOTO Expect sparse tables]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_MIN_COLUMN_SEPARATION]]	[[GOTO Minimum TABLE column separation]]
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_ODD_ROW_COLO(U)R]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE odd row colour]]
$_$_SECTION RESERVED
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_USE_PERCENTAGES]]	[[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]]
$_$_SECTION ALL
[[HYPERLINK TAGGING,TABLE_WIDTH]]	[[GOTO Default TABLE width]]
$_$_END_DELIMITED_TABLE

$_$_SECTION RESERVED
The use of "$_$_" can be changed via the policy [[GOTO "Directive delimiter"]]
$_$_SECTION ALL


3.5 Changing policies by using the Settings menu

A few policies are made available via the program's Settings Menu, rather than
the Conversion Options menu.  These are typically policies that control message
generation


3.6 Changing policies by editing a Policy file

Some policies can *only* be changed by editing the policy file.  These are:-

$_$_SECTION CSS
	[[GOTO Add FONT face markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Add FONT markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Add FONT size markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Add FONT style markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]] [[BR]]

$_$_SECTION RESERVED
	[[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO CENTER whole document]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Directive delimiter]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO End tag delimiter]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Indent whole document]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Label style classes]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Remove redundant tags]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Start tag delimiter]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]] [[BR]]

$_$_SECTION MERRILL
	[[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Add emphasis and bold markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Apply FONT to empty table cells]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Avoid tag breaks]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Colour REDLINE sections]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Contents anchors level]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Folio block sequence]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Indentation markup code]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO List markup code]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Show Tags in output]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Suppress  markup for headings]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]] [[BR]]

$_$_SECTION_ALL
	[[GOTO Add mail headers to contents list]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Contents style code]] [[BR]]
      	[[GOTO Column boundaries have zero width]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Default TABLE caption]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Default TABLE layout]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Default TABLE header cols]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Display messages]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO First line indentation (in blocks)]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Font stretch factor (in percent)]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO HTML version to be targeted]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Lines to ignore at end of file]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Lines to ignore at start of file]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Monitor tag generation]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Number of words to include in filename]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Output log filename]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Scope COLOUR tags globally]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Suppress all font markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Could be blank line separated]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use .. markup]] [[BR]]
	[[GOTO Use  and  markup]] [[BR]]


$_$_SECTION MERRILL
3.7 Changing policies by using Rulesets

As a convenience pre-defined combinations of policies and their values can be 
collected together as a "ruleset".  This allows certain types of documents to
be converted in a defined way, without a large supporting policy file.

This allows any policy file that is used to contain only incremental changes on
the base ruleset.

The ruleset to be used can be specified via the /RULESET="rulename" command
line qualifier, or the [[GOTO "Rule set to be used"]] policy.

$_$_SECTION ALL

4 Change history
================

4.1  Policies added in Version 4.2

     All

	- [[GOTO Look for underlined text]]

     HTML

	- [[GOTO Shortcut Icon URL]]
     RTF

	- [[GOTO Characters to use for bullets]]
	- [[GOTO Use original bullet text]]

     Detagger
	- [[GOTO Concatenate results into one file]]


4.2 Policies added in Version 4.1

*Analysis policies*

	- [[GOTO Look for character encoding]]


*HTML generation policies*

	- [[GOTO Character encoding]]

	- [[GOTO Table Font]]
	- [[GOTO Heading Font]]
	- [[GOTO Table of contents Font]]
	- [[GOTO Fixed Font]]

	- [[GOTO Only allow pages to be viewed in frames]]

*RTF generation policies* 

	- [[GOTO Make Windows Help source file]]
	- [[GOTO Scope for font tags]]
	- [[GOTO Style File]]


4.3 Policies added in Version 4

*Analysis policies*

	- [[GOTO Look for diagrams]]
	- [[GOTO Check indentation for consistency]]

	- [[GOTO Input file contains PCL codes]]
	- [[GOTO Input file contains Japanese characters]]

	- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at end of file]]
	- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at start of file]]

	- [[GOTO Column boundaries have zero width]]

        - [[GOTO Check domain name syntax]]
        - [[GOTO Create telnet links]]

      	- [[GOTO Expect Embedded Headings]]
        - [[GOTO heading key phrases]]


*HTML generation policies*

	- [[GOTO HTML fragments file]]

	- [[GOTO Preserve new paragraph offset]]

	- [[GOTO Number of words to include in filename]]

	- [[GOTO Omit  and  from output]]
	- [[GOTO Comment generation code]]
	- [[Goto Document Base URL]]

	- [[GOTO "Suppress all colour markup"]]
	- [[GOTO "Suppress all font markup"]]


        _Frames_

      	Frames support is added in version 4, so there are a large number
      	of policies in support of this new feature.

	- [[GOTO Place document in frames]]

      	- [[GOTO Output frame name]]
      	- [[GOTO Header Frame depth]]
      	- [[GOTO Footer Frame depth]]
      	- [[GOTO Contents Frame width]]

      	- [[GOTO Use main header in header frame]]
      	- [[GOTO Use main footer in footer frame]]
      	- [[GOTO Add contents frame if possible]]

      	- [[GOTO Add Frame border]]

      	- [[GOTO Open frame links in new window]]
      	- [[GOTO New frame link window name]]

      	- [[GOTO Add NOFRAMES links]]
      	- [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]]

      	- [[GOTO Number of levels in contents frame]]
      	- [[GOTO First frame page number]]

      	- [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]
      	- [[GOTO Header frame text colour]]
      	- [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]]
      	- [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]]
      	- [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]]
      	- [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]]


*RTF generation policies* 

	- [[GOTO Mirror margins]]


4.4 Policies added in Version 3.3

The following policies were introduced since V3.2 of AsctoHTM was released

	- [[GOTO Check indentation for consistency]]
	- [[GOTO Default TABLE layout]]
	- [[GOTO Default TABLE alignment]]
	- [[GOTO Ignore table header during analysis]]
	- [[GOTO Table extending factor]]
	- [[GOTO Column merging factor]]
	- [[GOTO Could be blank line separated]]

	- [[GOTO Input file has change bars]]
	- [[GOTO Input file contains DOS characters]]
	- [[GOTO Input file contains MIME encoding]]
	- [[GOTO Treat each line as a paragraph]]
	- [[GOTO Preserve line structure]]
	- [[GOTO Preserve file structure using 
]]
	- [[GOTO Allow email beginning with numbers]]
	- [[GOTO Only allow explicit FTP links]]

	- [[GOTO HTML version to be targeted]]

	- [[GOTO Default Font]]
	- [[GOTO Use CSS to implement fonts]]

RTF-related policies

	- [[GOTO Language (for proofing)]]

	- [[GOTO Use Landscape mode]]
	- [[GOTO Top margin (in cm)]]
	- [[GOTO Bottom margin (in cm)]]
	- [[GOTO Left margin (in cm)]]
	- [[GOTO Right margin (in cm)]]
	- [[GOTO Font stretch factor (in percent)]]

	- [[GOTO Document category]]
	- [[GOTO Document comments]]


4.5 Policies added in Version 3.2

The following policies were introduced in V3.2 of AsctoHTM

	- [[GOTO Create a log file]]
	- [[GOTO Output log filename]]

	- [[GOTO First line indentation (in blocks)]]

	- [[GOTO Default TABLE cell alignment]]

	- [[GOTO Input file has page markers]]
	- [[GOTO Page marker size (in lines)]]
	- [[GOTO Input file is double spaced]]

	- [[GOTO Look for MAIL and USENET headers]]
	- [[GOTO Look for bullets]]
	- [[GOTO Look for horizontal rulers]]
	- [[GOTO Minimum ruler length]]
	- [[GOTO Look for hanging paragraphs]]
	- [[GOTO Look for indentation]]
	- [[GOTO Look for preformatted text]]
	- [[GOTO Look for quoted text]]
	- [[GOTO Look for short lines]]
	- [[GOTO Look for white space]]

	- [[GOTO Maximum level to show in contents]]

	- [[GOTO Monitor tag generation]]

	- [[GOTO New browser window name]]
	- [[GOTO Open links in new browser window]]

	- [[GOTO Preserve underlining of headings]]

	- [[GOTO Recognise '-' as a bullet]]
	- [[GOTO Recognise 'o' as a bullet]]

	- [[GOTO Rule set to be used]]

	- [[GOTO Display messages]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress INFO messages]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress TAG ERROR messages]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress URL messages]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress WARNING messages]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress program ERROR messages]]

	- [[GOTO Use  and  markup]]

	- [[GOTO Add mail headers to contents list]]


$_$_SECTION RESERVED
4.6 Policies yet to be formally announced (may get revoked)

The following policies were introduced in V4.0 of AscToHTM

	- [[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]]
	- [[GOTO Base FONT Size in pts]]	(retired)

	- [[GOTO CENTER whole document]]
	- [[GOTO Indent whole document]]

	- [[GOTO Directive delimiter]]
	- [[GOTO End tag delimiter]]

	- [[GOTO Remove redundant tags]]
	- [[GOTO Start tag delimiter]]
	- [[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]]
	- [[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]]
	- [[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]]

$_$_SECTION MERRILL
4.7 Policies added in support of Merrill work

The following policies were introduced in support of Merrill Work

	- [[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]]
	- [[GOTO Contents Anchor level]]
	- [[GOTO Add emphasis and bold markup]]
	- [[GOTO Apply FONT to empty table cells]]
	- [[GOTO Avoid tag breaks]]
	- [[GOTO Colour REDLINE sections]]
	- [[GOTO Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS]]
	- [[GOTO Contents anchors level]]
	- [[GOTO Folio Block sequence]]
	- [[GOTO Indentation markup code]]
	- [[GOTO Input file is a composition unit]]
	- [[GOTO Label style classes]]
	- [[GOTO Show Tags in output]]
	- [[GOTO Suppress  markup for headings]]
	- [[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]]


At present there is not plan to release these into the shareware version, mainly
because they're too specialised.  These policies will be supported by the 
shareware version, but undocumented.  This contrasts with much of the inline
tagging whose functionality will be explicitly excluded from the shareware
version through conditional compilation.


4.8 Policies added in support of CSS support

These policies were added to support Merrill/CSS work.

	- [[GOTO Add FONT face markup]]
	- [[GOTO Add FONT markup]]
	- [[GOTO Add FONT size markup]]
	- [[GOTO Add FONT style markup]]
	- [[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]]
	- [[GOTO Delta FONT size in pts]]


$_$_SECTION ALL

5 Detailed policy descriptions
==============================

Active Link Colour
------------------

Possible values       : [[GOTO HTML colours]]
Default value         : ""
Policy scope          : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]]
Policy file section   : Added HTML
Menu location         : Output -> Document colours
Command line option   : n/a
Related directives    : n/a

Identifies the colour of "active" hyperlinks, that is the colour of the
hyperlink just as it is being selected.  This value is a HTML colour
that is used to set the ALINK attribute of the  tag.

See also :-
[[GOTO "Unvisited Link Colour"]]
[[GOTO "Visited Link Colour"]]


Add 
to lines with URLs --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that lines that are detected as having URLs in them should have
markup added to the end. This is useful in documents that have a list of URLs, one per line, as the URLs usually make the lines quite long (avoiding short line detection), and you would want to preserve the line structure. However, this is less useful where URLs occur in the middle of a paragraph of text, as it inserts a
, and breaks the paragraph. Prior to V3.0 this was default behaviour, but now it is switched off by default. In later versions we may attempt to make this policy auto-detected. $_$_SECTION CSS Add FONT face markup -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that when tags are being added, an explicit FACE attribute should be set to specify the font wanted. See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION CSS Add FONT markup --------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that tags should be added to the HTML produced. tags are only needed when non-standard font sizes and faces are wanted, and when that effect is not to be achieved using CSS alone. In strict HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] the is deprecated, and suitable CSS applied to
and tags should be used. However AscToHTM does not support this HTML standard yet. If you want V3 browsers to see font markup, tags must be used. It is expected this policy will be set automatically. $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION CSS Add FONT size markup -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that SIZE attributes should be added to and tags generated. Font sizes can be specified in 2 ways - using the SIZE attribute - settings a point-size value inside a STYLE attribute. Only the SIZE attribute will work with V3 browsers or when generating HTML [[TEXT 3.2]]. When generating V4.0 markup, the program will use both, except inside table cells where this confuses certain browsers. See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION CSS Add FONT style markup --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that STYLE attributes should be added to tags added to the HTML. STYLE attributes are not valid in HTML 3.2, so they will be omitted then. See the comments in [[GOTO Add FONT Markup]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION RESERVED Add TABLE WIDTH markup ---------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_ADD_TOTAL_WIDTH"]] Specifies whether or not a WIDTH attribute should be added to the tag of any tables generated. The Width can only be known if specified via some form of tagging or directive. There was some experimentation to see whether tables were rendered best when the width was specified or not, in percentages or not, and when over or under 100% screen width. This policy is best left to be set automatically by the software, and may be removed in later versions. See also :- [[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION MERRILL Add anchors to contents list ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not anchors should be placed in any generated Contents List. Such anchors are usually added when backlinks to the contents list are required. This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION ALL Add contents frame if possible ------------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This specifies that, if possible, a contents frame should be placed on the left of the screen to hold a generated contents list. Alternatively a CONTENTS_FRAME HTML fragment can be defined Generated contents lists are only possible when the program recognises headings inside your text file, so you may need to get that working first. If no content for the contents frame is possible, a WARNING message is generated. Add contents list ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : /CONTENTS Related directives : n/a Specifies that the program should generate a contents list or index to match all the section heading that it marks up. This contents list will consist of hyperlinks to take you to the corresponding section and HTML file. The placement of the contents list depends on - how you have decided to split up your output HTML (see [[GOTO "Split level"]])). - whether you have any $_$_CONTENT_LIST directives placed in your source file - whether or not the file has an existing contents list that is recognised by the program. If it has then by default that list will be used and converted into hyperlinks. (see [[GOTO "Expect Contents List"]]) Whenever you elect to have a contents list generated, any lines perceived by the program as being part of a contents list in the original document will be discarded. You can enable this option from the command line by using the /CONTENTS qualifier (see [[GOTO "Changing policies by using command line options"]]) _*The default location for the contents list*_ If you are simply generating a single HTML page, then any contents list will be placed at the top of the page. If you decide to split your HTML into several files, then the contents list is placed at the bottom of first page. Any text before the first section in your document will be placed before the contents list in this first page. _*Placing the contents list in separate file*_ If you want, you can chose to place the contents list in a separate file. If you choose this option a "Tables of Contents" link will be added to the top of your file. See [[GOTO "Generate external contents file"]] _*Changing the contents list placement in the HTML*_ From V3.2 onwards you can place a contents list wherever you want by inserting a $_$_CONTENTS_LIST directive at the desired location (see [[GOTO Changing policies by using preprocessor directives]]). When these tags are detected no default contents list is created. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Add emphasis and bold markup ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether explicit bold and italic markup should be generated. Adding and tags will override any text formatting supplied via CSS, so in general this will be true where tags are being used, but should be set to "no" when CSS is being relied on for text markup. This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION all Add Frame border ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This specifies whether or not you want visible borders on your frames. If the borders are visible then users will be able to select and move them to resize the frames to a size that suits them. *NOTE: If you disable this policy the attribute "BORDER=0" will be used. This will cause your FRAMESET document to fail to validate, but is necessary at present if you want truly invisible borders in current browsers* Add mail headers to contents list --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not mail headers should be included in any generated contents list. For a mail digest this should be yes, but for larger documents with only a couple of mail headers the answer may be no. Add navigation bar ------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes (when splitting HTML into many files) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy is only relevant if you have elected to split your document into a number of smaller HTML files (see [[GOTO "split level"]]) In such cases this policy allows you have a navigation bar inserted at the foot of each HTML page, before any standard footer is added. The navigation bar consists of - A "Previous" link, to take to the previous HTML page. - A "Next" link, to take to the next HTML page. - A "Contents" link, to take to the start of the next section in the contents list. This policy is enabled by default whenever file splitting is selected. Add NOFRAMES links ------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ Specifies that a NOFRAMES link should be added to the Contents frame. You can choose the target of this link using the [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]] policy. The NOFRAMES link will target the "_top" browser window, thereby replacing the current FRAMESET by the single page selected without creating new browser windows. NOFRAMES links are useful courtesy to users who dislike FRAMES, and they are also search-engine friendly. Note, this link is a *visible* NOFRAMES link. In addition to this the software will in any case create a non-visible tag that will allow users whose browsers do not support FRAMES to access your content. See also :- [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]] Allow automatic centring ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that automatic detection of centred text should be attempted. The indentation and length of each line is compared to the nominal page width within a specified tolerance (see [[GOTO "page width"]] and [[GOTO "Automatic centring tolerance"]]) If the line appears centred (and meets a few other conditions) then it will be rendered centred in the output. This option is normally left switched off, as it is still too prone to give errors (i.e. centring lines that shouldn't be). This has been improved in later versions, but is still not robust enough to be relied upon. Allow definitions inside PRE ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Preprocessor Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not the program should look for definition terms inside a pre-formatted section of text. Only really relevant if the [[GOTO "Highlight definition text"]] policy is enabled. Sometimes lists of definitions appear like pre-formatted text, especially if the definitions are aligned on the right. Allow email beginning with numbers ---------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not email addresses that start with a number are permitted or not. Often USENET and mail headers reference message IDs which are of the form <number>@<domain name>. As such they will often look like valid email addresses. This policy may be used to control how such addresses are interpreted. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Apply FONT to empty table cells ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not <FONT> tags should be applied to "empty" table cells. Normally this is a waste of time and only serves to make he HTML file bigger. However, if non-standard font sizes are being used (i.e. not 12pt) failure to render the "empty space" in the smaller font size will cause sizing errors. (Effectively the empty space is rendered in 12pt, generating unwanted extra leading in that table row). This is a Merrill policy. $_$_SECTION all Attempt TABLE generation ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the program should attempt automatic table generation on any apparently pre-formatted text it encounters. Text that appears pre-formatted to the program can turn out to be a number of different things - a table - a diagram - a code sample - not pre-formatted text after all The program will attempt to distinguish between these, but it's a blank art. Table generation may not be appropriate for the document being converted, or alternatively the table generated may be so flawed that you'd prefer to use <PRE>...</PRE> markup, in which case you can use this policy to switch that feature off. When switched off the program will still look for pre-formatted text, but will default to outputting it in <PRE> ... </PRE> markup as it did prior to v2.2. Automatic centring tolerance ---------------------------- Possible values : number of characters 0,1,2... Default value : 2 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the tolerance used (expressed as a number of characters offset) when detecting centred text. Given that the detection of centred text depends on its position relative to the calculated page width, which itself may not be accurate, increasing this value may give better results. Equally, it may wrongly detect more text as centred. The default value is 2, which is also used as a minimum regardless of the value you enter. See also :- [[GOTO "Allow automatic centring"]]. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Avoid tag breaks ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the program should modify tags that are broken over two lines. In HTML this should make no difference, however the SEC objected to this. Originally this policy prevented tags being split over two lines (which causes other problems, see [[GOTO "Break up long HTML lines"]]). Now this simply triggers the insertion of a space character before the newline character to keep the SEC happy. This is a Merrill policy. $_$_SECTION all Background Colour ----------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Document colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the background colour of the HTML page(s) created. This value is a HTML colour that is used to set the BGCOLOR attribute of the <BODY> tag. If omitted, AscToHTM defaults to a white background (I find Gray too dull) Background Image ---------------- Possible values : URL of image file (e.g. a .jpg or .gif) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the URL of any image to be placed in the BACKGROUND attribute of the <BODY> tag. $_$_SECTION RESERVED Base FONT Size in pts --------------------- Possible values : Font Size. 8 would be small, 12 average, 20 large Default value : 12 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the base font size in points, with 12pt being equated with the standard SIZE=3. This may be used in a <BASEFONT> tag (although this is being deprecated) and in any <FONT> tags added (see [[GOTO "Add FONT Markup"]]). $_$_SECTION ALL Bottom margin (in cm) --------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : (see below) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies size of margin at the bottom of the page. If omitted the Word default of 1 inch (2.54 cm) will be used. Break up long HTML lines ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that long HTML lines should be broken into smaller ones. This attempts to make the HTML more readable, should you need to edit it afterwards. However, there is the possibility that the insertion of newline characters into the output could affect how the HTML is displayed. This is because most of the browsers have bugs in their parsing of newlines. These problems are most pronounced when using non-standard (12pt) font sizes. If you experience such problems, try disabling this policy. Bullet char ----------- Possible values : '<character>'. One policy line per character Default value : '*' Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *This policy will probably be replaced in future versions* This species a character that can occur at the start of a line to represent a bullet point. Special attention is paid to '-' and 'o' characters, but any character will do. The program should detect such characters (e.g. special character codes for bullets that are generated when saving from Word etc.) Use one line for each bullet char. Center first heading -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headinsg Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4.2* Specifies that the first heading in a document should be centered, making it look more like the document toitle. See also :- [[GOTO Use first line as heading]] $_$_SECTION RESERVED CENTER whole document --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Page Formatting Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *NOT YET FULLY IMPLEMENTED* Specifies that the whole document should be centred. See also :- [[GOTO Indent whole document]] $_$_SECTION ALL Character encoding ------------------ Possible values : HTML character encoding schemes Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* This allows the HTML character encoding to be set. Although designed to convert documents that use the ASCII character set, the software has some ability to convert Japanese and Cyrillic files amongst others. For such files to display correctly, the character encoding has to be set up correctly. This value is then used in a META tag added to the document header. Possible values include big5, csbig5 - Chinese (Big5) gb2312, csGB2312 - Chinese (gb) koi8-r - Cyrillic ms Kanji - Japanese shift jis, csShiftJIS - Japanese x-sjis - Japanese iso-8859-n - (n=1,2,3) various languages (Greek, Turkish, Arabic, etc) UTF-8 - Unicode Although I don't think AscToHTM will support Unicode at present. Check domain name syntax ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Indicates whether or not potential URLs should have their "domain name" checked against the known domain name structures, (e.e. ends in .com, .org, .co.uk etc). Having this switched on reduces the likelyhood of invalid URLs being turned into clickable links that don't go anywhere. Note, the software doesn't check the domain *exists*, only that the domain name obeys the known rules. You might want to switch this off if your document contains URLs that don't use standard domain names (e.g. they are inside an Intranet). Characters to use for bullets ----------------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the characters to be used as bullet characters in the generated RTF. Normally RTF will use special bullet symbols, but these can cause problems if you want to cut and paste the RTF text into a plain text editor. To get round this problem this policy can be used. The first character will be used for level 1 bullets, the second for level 2 bullets etc ... This policy will not take effect if the policy [[GOTO Use original bullet text]] has been enabled. Check indentation for consistency --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Output -> HTML styling Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies that when checking headings the indentation should be checked for consistency. This can help reduce the error rate when numbered lists and numbered headings are both in the same document, but on the other hand can cause problems in documents where the headings are centred, and therefore at all different indentations. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Colour REDLINE sections ----------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that sections marked up by [REDLINE] tags should be coloured - er - red. This can prove useful/fun for proof-reading. This is a Merrill policy, but is not fully implemented as it is not part of the core functionality. $_$_SECTION all Colour data rows ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_COLO(U)R_ROWS"]] Indicates that where AscToHTM detects and generates HTML tables, the data rows (as opposed to the Header rows) should be alternatively be coloured differently. This helps highlight the different rows, especially if the table has no border. See also :- [[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]] [[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]] $_$_SECTION MERRILL Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS ------------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that rows inside tables that contain a [DOT_LEADERS] tag should be coloured to help emphasise the odd and even rows. This has the same effect as enabling the [[GOTO Colour data rows]] policy, but only for certain tables. See also :- [[GOTO Default TABLE odd row colour]] [[GOTO Default TABLE even row colour]] This is a Merrill policy. $_$_SECTION ALL Column boundaries have zero width --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* When a [[GOTO Default TABLE layout]] is set, this specifies whether or not the boundaries between columns have zero size. By default the software assumes there is a single-character boundary (either a space or a delimiter character) between columns. Sometimes data comes from a source with *no* character between data columns. This policy should be set in such cases. Column merging factor --------------------- Possible values : 1-10 Default value : 5 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When analysing preformatted regions to look for tables, this indicates the degree to which potential columns should be "merged" if there is any doubt as to their validity. A value of 10 means almost all "suspicious" columns will be merged together. This is suitable when the analysis is producing too many false columns, and may happen when the table contains a lot of free form text that just happens to line up. A value of 1 means that no "suspicious" columns will be eliminated. Note, it is still possible that the number and position of columns will be calculated incorrectly. In such cases you may need to explicitly supply a table layout. See [[GOTO Default table layout]] Comment generation code ----------------------- Possible values : 0,1 or 2 Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Used to control the placing of comment in the code advertising the fact that AscToHTM was used to generate the file. By default the program will add a META tag marking ASCTOHTM as the generator and comments at the top and bottom of the file identifying the program. The value should be set as follows 0 META tag and comments added 1 META tag added 2 neither added This policy is only available in the registered version of the software. Concatenate results into one file --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : /concatenate Related directives : n/a *New in [[TEXT 4.2]]* When enabled this sepcifies that when converting multiple files at the same time, all the results should be merged together to form a single output file. If the output file name hasn't been set, then it will be derived from the first file converted in the usual manner. Depending on the target format, only one header and one footer will be added. By default this will be the header that the first file would have and the footer that the last file (or all files combined) would have. This options is supported as follows AscToHTM Not yet AscToRTF Not Yet Detagger Yes $_$_SECTION MERRILL Contents anchors level ---------------------- Possible values : Heading level, 0,1,2.. Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies what level of anchors (if any) should be placed in any generated Contents List. Such anchors are usually added when backlinks to the contents list are required. In Merrill documents this is often not needed. See also :- [[GOTO Add anchors to contents list]] This is a Merrill policy. $_$_SECTION ALL Contents frame background colour -------------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]. Contents frame text colour -------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]. Contents Frame width -------------------- Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage Default value : 200 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ If a contents frame is generated, this specifies its width. The default is 200 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "30%" See also :- [[GOTO Header Frame depth]] [[GOTO Footer Frame depth]] Contents style code ------------------- Possible values : 0, 1 Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies a "style" to be applied to the contents list. There aren't too many options at present. Possible values are 0 AscToHTM "Classic". Contents line is bolded 1 As above, but not bolded. Convert TABLE X-refs to links ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CONVERT_XREFS"]] Indicates whether or not cross-references to numbered sections should be converted into hyperlinks to those sections. Unfortunately, the program cannot differentiate between section references and ordinary numbers in the source text (unless you place the number inside a TEXT in-line tag). This leads to occasional errors, for example when software version numbers are discussed in a document. This problem proved to be particularly acute inside tables of numbers. For that reason this policy was introduced to allow the conversion of section numbers to hyperlinks inside a TABLE to be switched off independently from the rest of the document. By default this policy is disabled. Users should only switch this behaviour on if they have a table of section numbers (such an index or contents list) Could be blank line separated ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not blank lines inside a table should be taken to be row separators. If they are, and there are enough of them, then the table will have all adjacent lines merged into single multi-line rows. If they're not, then each line will become a row in the table. This policy is usually determined on a case-by-case basis for each table. Create FTP links ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that probable FTP references such as ftp.microsoft.com should be converted into active hyperlinks. Sometimes text is assumed to be an ftp link when it isn't. If you find that happening, use this policy to prevent the conversion. Create Gopher links ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that probable gopher references should be converted into active hyperlinks. Create NEWS links ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that probable USENET newsgroup references such as alt.games.mornington.cresent (sic) are to be converted into active hyperlinks. Create Telnet links ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : n/a Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* This indicates that probable telnet references should be converted into active hyperlinks. Create a log file ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> File Generation Command line option : /LOG=<filespec> Related directives : n/a Specifies that a .log file should be created. This will contains copies of all the messages output during conversion, together with some that may have been suppressed. See also :- [[GOTO "Output log filename"]] $_$_SECTION CSS Create embedded style sheet --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that a CSS stylesheet should be placed in the <HEAD>..</HEAD> portion of the document. This style sheet will be built up from the observed FONT classes specified in any [FONT] tags added to the source document. If no such tags are present this will be blank. $_$_SECTION ALL Create hyperlinks ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that all candidate http, www and ftp URLs should be converted into active hyperlinks. Create mailto links ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that all candidate email addresses are to be converted into active mailto hyperlinks. Cross-refs at level ------------------- Possible values : Headings level, 0,1,2.. Default value : 2 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a For documents with numbered section headings, this indicates the section level at which and above which all cross-references are to be converted to hyperlinks to the sections themselves. For example a value of 2 means all n.n, n.n.n etc references are converted. A value of "1" might seem desirable, but is liable to give many false references. This is because the error rate becomes too high on single numbers/letters or roman numerals. This may be refined in later releases. A value of "0" means "don't add hyperlinks to cross-references". See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]. Default Font ------------ Possible values : "<face>, <Type>, <size>, <prop>, <serif>, <charset>" Default value : "Times New Roman, Regular, 12" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This tells the program what font should be used. The value is a comma separated list which contains $_$_BEGIN_TABLE <face> The font family name (e.g. "Arial") <Type> Whether or not it's bold etc. The possible values are Regular Bold Italic BoldItalic <size> Font size in points (pts) $_$_SECTION RESERVED <prop> Is this a proportional or non-proportional font? values are p - proportional (default) np - non-proportional Where the software knows what a particular font is, this value will be ignored <serif> Is this a serif or non-serif font? Possible values are s - serif (default) ns - non-serif Where the software knows what a particular font is, this value will be ignored <charset> The character-set this font belongs to. Values follow the RTF standard as follows 0 - ANSI (default) 2 - Symbol 128 - Shift JIS (Japanese) 161 - Greek 162 - Turkish 177 - Hebrew 178 - Arabic (simplified) 179 - Arabic (traditional) 180 - Arabic (user) 181 - Hebrew (user) 204 - Cyrillic 238 - Eastern Europe Where the software knows what a particular font is, this value will be ignored $_$_SECTION_ALL $_$_END_TABLE Default TABLE alignment ----------------------- Possible values : L[eft],R[ight],C[enter],A[utomatic] Default value : Automatic Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_ALIGN"]] Specifies how the table should be aligned with respect to the page. The default behaviour is "automatic", which usually means left-justified, but taking into account any indentation the table has. Default TABLE border colour --------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BORDERCOLOR"]] This tells AscToHTM what colour to use for the table border. Not all browsers support this. Default TABLE border size ------------------------- Possible values : A size (in pixels) Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BORDER"]] This policy sets the default value for the <TABLE> BORDER attribute. A value of 0 means "no border". Default TABLE caption --------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CAPTION"]] Specifies the caption to be applied to generated tables. However, since this will be applied to all generated tables, this is less useful that placing individual TABLE_CAPTION directives in your source text. Default TABLE cell alignment ---------------------------- Possible values : L[eft],R[ight],C[enter],J[ustified] Default value : "(none)" - meaning auto-detect. Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELL_ALIGN"]] Specifies the default cell-alignment to be applied to table cells. Normally the program will try to auto-detect a suitable cell alignment on a column by column, cel by cell basis. You can use this to (rather crudely) set all cells to be aligned the same way if the results are not to your taste. Default TABLE cell padding -------------------------- Possible values : A size (in pixels) Default value : 2 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELLPADDING"]] This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the TABLE CELLPADDING attribute of the table. Browsers that support this will add space *inside* each cell. A value of "0" means "none". Default TABLE cell spacing -------------------------- Possible values : A size (in pixels) Default value : 2 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_CELLSPACING"]] This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the CELLSPACING attribute of the table. Browsers that support this will add space *between* each cell. A value of "0" means "none". Default TABLE colour -------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_BGCOLOR"]] This tells AscToHTM what colour to use for the background to each cell. Not all browsers support this. If omitted the table with take on the background colour of the whole page. See also :- [[GOTO "Background Colour"]]. Default TABLE even row colour ----------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "E0F0E0" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_EVEN_ROW_COLO(U)R"]] When AscToHTM is to colour odd and even rows in the tables that it generates different colours (see [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]]), this identifies the colour of the even numbered rows. See also :- [[GOTO "Default TABLE odd row colour"]]. Default TABLE header cols ------------------------- Possible values : Number of columns 0,1... Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_HEADER_COLS"]] This tells AscToHTM how many columns in each table should be highlighted as "header" columns using <B> ... </B> markup inside the table cells. Normally this is 0. Default TABLE header rows ------------------------- Possible values : Number of rows 0,1.... Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_HEADER_ROWS"]] This policy tells AscToHTM how many lines should be treated as header lines and placed in <TH> .. </TH> markup. The program will treat a small number of lines of text above a line as header automatically, so you only need this if that doesn't work. If set, this value will apply to *all* tables. Default TABLE layout -------------------- Possible values : <layout description> Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_LAYOUT"]] This policy tells the program what the column structure is for any tables in the file. This will only work if *all* tables in the file have the same structure. The <layout description> takes the form <number of columns>,"<col 1 spec>","<col 2>",..... where, $_$_BEGIN_TABLE <Number_of_cols> Integer number of columns <col_n_spec> Specification of the nth column. The specification must be contained in quote. Currently the specification consists of - the end position of the column. More may be added in later versions $_$_END_TABLE An example would be Default TABLE layout : 3,"6","21","32" which describes a 3-column table with column boundaries at the 6th, 21st and 32nd character positions. If the policy is used the layout will apply to *all* tables in the file. For this reason it is normally better to place an equivalent [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,"TABLE_LAYOUT"]] pre-processor directive between BEGIN_TABLE...END_TABLE directives for the table it applies to. Default TABLE odd row colour ---------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "F0F0F0" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_ODD_ROW_COLO(U)R"]] When AscToHTM is to colour odd and even rows in the tables that it generates different colours (see [[GOTO "Colour data rows"]]), this identifies the colour of the odd numbered rows. See also :- [[GOTO "Default TABLE even row colour"]]. Default TABLE width ------------------- Possible values : Table width in pixels or as a % of screen width Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Output -> Table generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_WIDTH"]] This tells AscToHTM what value to use for the WIDTH attribute of the table. The WIDTH is specified either as a number (of pixels) or as a percentage (of screen width). Thus "400" and "75%" are both valid values (without the quotes) Note: If you use this policy, *all* your tables will be the same width. If you wish to switch it on for individual tables, place $_$_TABLE_WIDTH commands (see [[GOTO "Changing policies by using preprocessor directives"]]) in your source file instead. Definition char --------------- Possible values : One line per character in the form 'char' weak/strong} Default value : '-' (weak) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General Layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *This policy will probably be replaced in future versions* This specifies the characters used to detect "definitions". A definition line is a single line that appears to be defining something. Usually this is a line with either a colon (:) or an equals sign (=) in it. For example $_$_BEGIN_PRE IMHO = In my humble opinion Address : Somewhere over the rainbow. $_$_END_PRE The character can be marked as "Strong" or "weak". Strong means such characters *always* signal a definition. Weak means they only sometimes do this, depending on the position relative to the [[GOTO Page Width]]. The user interface presents this more cleanly than the text in the policy file does, and the latter may be changed in later versions. $_$_SECTION CSS Delta FONT size in pts ---------------------- Possible values : -nn, 0, +nn Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies a delta font size to be applied to and and all font sizes set in the document. This acts to magnify and reduce the overall document, although this is probably best done in browsers such as Netscape and Opera. See also :- [[GOTO "Base FONT Size in pts"]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION RESERVED Directive delimiter ------------------- Possible values : Text string (but don't change it) Default value : "$_$_" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the text that identifies pre-processor directives. You should only change this if the default string really offends, or clashes with text naturally occurring in your document. $_$_SECTION ALL Directory Description --------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this indicates the description of your document that is added to a META tag inserted into the <HEAD> section of the Directory page as follows :- <META NAME="description" CONTENT="your description"> This tag is often used by search engines (e.g. AltaVista) as a brief description of the contents of your page. If omitted the first few lines may be shown instead, which is often less satisfactory. Directory Keywords ------------------ Possible values : Comma-separated list of keywords Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this allows you to specify keywords that are added to a META tag inserted into the <HEAD> section of the Directory page as follows :- <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="your list or keywords"> This tag is often used by search engines when indexing your HTML page. You should add here any relevant keywords possibly not contained in the text itself. Directory Script file --------------------- Possible values : Local file containing JavaScript fragment you want embedding Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the <HEAD> ... </HEAD> portion of the generated HTML page. This allows you to place JavaScript in your pages (though you'll be a little limited as to what it can act on). If omitted, this will default to any script file used in the rest of the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML Script file"]] policy. Directory Title --------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this specifies the text to be used as the HTML title of the Directory page. Directory filename ------------------ Possible values : Local file to be created with directory contents Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this specifies the name of the Directory page html file to be created. If omitted, this will default to "dirindex.html" in the output directory. Prior to V3.2 this used to be "index.html", but people complained when that overwrote their existing index.html files. Directory footer file --------------------- Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as footer Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the HTML file at the bottom of the <BODY> ... </BODY> portion of the generated HTML page. This can be used to add "return to home page" links, and contact addresses to your HTML pages. If omitted, this will default to any header file used in the rest of the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML header file"]] policy. Directory header file --------------------- Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as header Default value : "dirindex.html" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the HTML file at the top of the <BODY> ... </BODY> portion of the Directory page. If omitted, this will default to any header file used in the rest of the HTML pages as set by the [[GOTO "HTML header file"]] policy. Directory return hyperlink text ------------------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "Directory" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you have elected to create a directory file (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this specifies the text to be shown on the hyperlink linking each HTML page back to the Directory page. The default value is "Directory" Display messages ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : /SILENT Related directives : n/a Specifies that all display and informational messages should be suppressed. If selected, you will get no messages displayed at all, although these can still be directed to a .log file (e.g. by using the /LOG command qualifier) This policy is equivalent to the /SILENT command qualifier. Document Author --------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the Author name to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Base URL ----------------- Possible values : Absolute URL (i.e including domain name) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BASEHREF"]] *New in version 4* This policy allows you to specify a URL that will be placed in a <BASE> tag inserted into the <HEAD> section of the output HTML page(s) as follows :- <BASE HREF="URL"> This tag is used to specify the base URL against which all relative URLs should be resolved. You might want to use this if you are going to copy the page to a mirror location, but not copy the pages referred to in the relative links (like images, style sheets etc.) Ignored in RTF conversions. Document Category ----------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the document category to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Comments ----------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies any comments to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Company name --------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the Company name to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Description -------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. or Output -> Document Details Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DESCRIPTION"]] This policy allows you to specify a description of your document that is added to a META tag inserted into the <HEAD> section of the output page(s) as follows :- <META NAME="description" CONTENT="your description"> This tag is often used by search engines (e.g. AltaVista) as a brief description of the contents of your page. If omitted the first few lines may be shown instead, which is often less satisfactory. Any DESCRIPTION pre-processor command(s) present in the source document will override this policy/ In a RTF conversion the description will be placed in the document details header. Document Keywords ----------------- Possible values : Comma-separated list of keywords and phrases Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. or Output -> Document Details Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "KEYWORDS"]] This policy allows you to specify keywords that are added to a META tag inserted into the <HEAD> section of the output HTML page(s) as follows :- <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="your list or keywords"> This tag is often used by search engines when indexing your HTML page. You should add here any relevant keywords possibly not contained in the text itself. Any KEYWORDS pre-processor command(s) present in the source file will override this policy. In an RTF conversion this will be placed in the document details header. Document Manager ---------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the name of the Document's manager to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Style Sheet -------------------- Possible values : URL of a .CSS file to be used as the external style sheet Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> CSS Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "STYLE_SHEET"]] This specifies the URL of a style sheet file, usually with a .css extension. Style sheet files are a new HTML feature that allow you specify fonts and colours to be applied to your document. By placing this information in a separate file, the same style can be applied to The resulting HTML is inserted into the <HEAD> section of the output page(s) as follows :- <LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="URL" TYPE="text/css"> Document Subject ---------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Document details Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the document's Subject to be placed in the generated file's document details section. Document Title -------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. or Output -> Document Details Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TITLE"]] Identifies the text to be placed in the <TITLE> ... </TITLE> markup in the document header. If omitted, the default title will be "Converted from <filename>". We did consider defaulting to the first line of text, but that rarely works. However you can get this effect by using either of the [[GOTO "Use first heading as title"]] or [[GOTO "Use first line as title"]] policies. The title can also be specified via the TITLE preprocessor command placed in the source document, which will override this policy when present. If order the preference for the title is - First heading (if allowed by policy) - First line (if allowed by policy) - Value of any TITLE pre-processor command - Document title (if supplied by policy) - Converted from "<filename>" DOS filename root ----------------- Possible values : Text string (up to 5 characters) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Where DOS filenames are used this allows you to specify an up-to-5 character root to which any section numbers will be appended (see [[GOTO "Split level"]]). If splitting a document at 2 levels we normally recommend a 3-character filename root. Thus MYDOC.TXT given a root of MYD would produce MYD.HTM, MYD_1.HTM MYD_1_1.HTM etc... which are all less than 8 characters and thus maintain some readability. If no root were specified, MYDOC_1_1.HTM would be renamed to MYDnnnnn.HTM where "nnnnn" would be a generated 5-digit code. See [[GOTO "Use DOS Filenames"]] $_$_SECTION RESERVED End tag delimiter ----------------- Possible values : Text string (but don't change it) Default value : "[[CT]]" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the end-tag delimiter for inline tags. Inline tags are marked by a unique start and end delimiter that should ideally not naturally occur in your document (you may get warning messages if it does). You should only change this if the default string really offends, or if it clashes with text naturally occurring in your document. See also :- [[GOTO Start tag delimiter]] $_$_SECTION ALL Error reporting level --------------------- Possible values : 1 (not many messages) - 10 (lots of messages) Default value : 5 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the level of error reporting you want during the conversion. The program can generate a variety of messages of varying severity to inform you of the decisions it's made. These messages can be useful in explaining why a conversion has gone wrong, but are less interesting at other times. Whilst all of these messages are copied into any diagnostic .lis files created (see [[GOTO "Generate diagnostics files"]]) regardless of severity, you can use this policy to choose the level of reporting you want to see on your screen. The value is nominally in the range 1-10 with a value of 1 showing few messages and a value of 10 showing almost all messages. The default value is 5. Expect alphabetic bullets ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that alphabetic bullets/lists are expected. The program will recognises (and distinguishes between) upper and lower case variants. Sometimes lines that begin with a single letter are wrongly interpreted as an alphabetic bullet point, especially if it's followed by a punctuation character. In such cases you can either disable this policy, or edit your source code so that the single letter no longer appears at the start of a line. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered bullets"]] [[GOTO "Expect roman numeral bullets"]] Expect blank lines between paras -------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that paragraphs are expected to have blank lines before them. Where this isn't true (e.g. on a text file dumped from Word) different paragraph detection algorithms have to be applied, which tend to be more error prone. Expect Capitalised Headings --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not a line that is wholly capitalised should be regarded as a section heading. Capitalised headings will normally only be used if there do not seem to be any numbered or underlined headings. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]] [[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]] Expect code samples ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BEGIN/END_CODE"]] Indicates that the document is liable to contain samples of program code. The program will attempt to detect such code fragments, and preserve their layout so that the code remains comprehensible, however this process can be flawed, and often code samples are rendered as ordinary text. Where the program fails to detect the full extent of your code samples, you can add the BEGIN_CODE ... END_CODE pre-processor commands before and after the sample in your source document. You can choose how code fragments are marked up by using the [[GOTO "Use <CODE>..</CODE> markup"]] policy, although this is not generally suitable for multi-line samples. Expect Contents List -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BEGIN/END_CONTENTS"]] Indicates whether or not the source file contains an existing contents list. This should be detected automatically, but sometimes the analysis fails in which case you should either set this manually, or mark up the contents list in the source file using using the BEGIN_CONTENTS ... END_CONTENTS pre-processor commands. See also :- [[GOTO "Add contents list"]] Expect Embedded Headings ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Indicates whether or not a line that begins with capitalised text may be regarded as an "embedded" section heading. Embedded headings will normally only be used if there do not seem to be any numbered or underlined headings. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]] [[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]]. Expect Numbered Headings ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not lines that begin with section numbers should be regarded as section headings. Checks will be made to ensure that numbers are in a valid sequence, occur at the correct indentation, and are properly placed in the file. This reduces the error rate that would occur by assuming that *every* line beginning with a number is a heading. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect capitalised headings"]] [[GOTO "Expect underlined headings"]] Expect Numbered bullets ----------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that numerical bullets are expected (but you probably guessed that). Normally detected during analysis. Numbered bullets are often just numbered lists in the source file. Sometimes numbered bullets and numbered headings get confused and it is necessary to enable one and disable the other. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]] [[GOTO "Expect alphabetic bullets"]] [[GOTO "Expect roman numeral bullets"]] Expect Roman Numeral bullets ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that roman numerals bullets/lists are to be expected. The program supports both upper and lower case variants. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect alphabetic bullets"]] [[GOTO "Expect numbered bullets"]] Expect Second Word Headings --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No (but don't use this) Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *reserved, and liable to be removed* Expect Underlined Headings -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not a line that is underlined should be regarded as a section heading. A line is deemed to be "underlined" if the *next* line in the source file consists solely of "line" characters like "-_+=~", and is a similar length to the previous line. If the lengths are not similar, then such a line will be treated as a line in its own right, becoming a <HR> in HTML. See also :- [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]] [[GOTO "Expect capitalised headings"]] Expect sparse tables -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE"]] Indicates that tables within the source document may be sparse, that is they may contain a large number of "empty" cells. This fact will then be used to adjust the analysis of any tables detected. For example, by default columns which appear to have little or no data in them are usually eliminated by merging them with their more populated neighbours. If you set this policy, this process is relaxed, meaning that you will get more, emptier, columns rather than fewer, more filled ones. This policy can be toggled for individual tables via the pre-processor command TABLE_MAY_BE_SPARSE placed between BEGIN_TABLE ... END_TABLE commands placed before and after the table. External contents list filename ------------------------------- Possible values : Local file to receive any external contents list Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When you select to [[GOTO Generate external contents file]], this is the name of the external content file generated by the program. By default the file will be called contents_<filename>.html. The contents file should be in the same directory as the created HTML files. First Section Number -------------------- Possible values : 1,2,3... but best left alone Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates the chapter number of the first numbered section in a file containing numbered sections (see [[GOTO "Expect numbered headings"]]). Normally this starts at 0 or 1, but if it starts higher, then the program will reject headers as being out of sequence, and fail to detect to presence or absence of contents lists correctly. Only for the advanced/foolhardy user. First frame page number ----------------------- Possible values : Integer - 1,2, etc. Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This specified the "page number" of the main document that you initially want shown in the main frame of the FRAMESET. When converting large documents you can choose to split them into many smaller pages. Often such documents have a contents list as the sole content of the first page, and inside a FRAMES document his has the unfortunate side-effect of displaying a contents list in the main frame next to a contents list in the contents frame. In such cases you might choose to start by initially displaying the *second* page in the main frame. That's what this policy is for. See also :- [[GOTO split level]] First line indentation (in blocks) ---------------------------------- Possible values : Size in "blocks" of indent (aka tab positions) Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the size in tab positions of the indentation of the first line of a paragraph with respect tho the left margin of the paragraph. This policy was originally intended for use in RTF where such styling is commoner, but is now applied to HTML generation as well. Fixed Font ---------- Possible values : "<face>, <Type>, <size>, <prop>, <serif>, <charset>" Default value : "Courier New, Regular, 12" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* This tells the program what font should be used for any fixed-format, non-proportional text such as diagrams, code samples etc. The default font size will differ slightly between RTF and HTML generation (10pt and 12pt respectively). The value is a comma separated list which has the same format as that described in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Folio block sequence -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : FOLIO_FOOTER,FOLIO_HR,FOLIO_COMMENT,PAGE_HEAD,TABHD Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the blocks to be output for a page FOLIO. Certain blocks have a reserved meaning. This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION all Font stretch factor (in percent) -------------------------------- Possible values : -nn, 0, +nn Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies a scaling factor to be applied when calculating the space taken up by text rendered in the prevailing font. The software attempts to calculate this from the text and the font size and bolding, but in reality there is quite a variety which means sometimes these calculations are inaccurate. In normal text, this isn't a problem, but inside tables - especially when generating RTF - getting the width wrong can force lines to wrap, or generate too much white space. The same problem can occur when setting pixel widths in HTML (which is a bad idea for exactly this reason). If the table widths are looking wrong, use this policy to adjust the space allowed for text. A value of +10 will increase the space by 10%, a value of -10 will decrease the space. Footer frame background colour ------------------------------ Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]. Footer Frame depth ------------------ Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage Default value : 100 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ If a footer frame is generated, this specifies its depth. The default is 100 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "20%" See also :- [[GOTO Header Frame depth]] [[GOTO Contents Frame width]] Footer frame text colour ------------------------ Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]. Generate diagnostics files -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : /LIST and /DEBUG Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether or not diagnostics files should be produced. This has exactly the same effect as the /DEBUG qualifier has in command line versions. The files created are:- - a .lis1 file created during analysis. This shows how the program interprets each line *before* any analysis policies have been set. - a .lis file created during output. This shows how the program interpreted each line during conversion *after* any analysis policies had been set. This file gives the best explanation of how the conversion proceeded. - a .stats file. Only generated for debugging purposes, showing the statistics collected by the program when performing its analysis. Generate external contents file ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents list Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether any generated contents list should be placed in a separate file, as opposed to at the top of the output file. This option is not always possible, specifically when an existing contents list is being used, or when the source is being split into many files. In such cases it will be ignored. See also :- [[GOTO "External contents list filename"]] Generate WinHelp project file ----------------------------- Possible values : yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF help file Menu location : Output -> Make Help File Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]] _Only applies to RTF generation_ When selected, AscToRTF will create a new Help Compiler project file for you. This file will have the same name as your source file but with a .hpj extension. If this option is selected it will overwrite any existing project file, so take care in using it. You will need a copy of the Help Compiler Workshop (HCW.EXE) from Microsoft in order to load and execute the created project file. See also :- - [[goto Make Windows help source file]] Heading Font ------------ Possible values : "<face>, <Type>, <size>, <prop>, <serif>, <charset>" Default value : "Times New Roman, Regular, 12" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* This tells the program what font should be used for any headings. The font size will be ignored, instead headings will be sized relative to the default font. The value is a comma separated list which has the same format as that described in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy. Heading key phrases ------------------- Possible values : Comma-separated list of key words and phrases in quotes Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Analysis -> Headings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *Updated in [[TEXT 4.2]]* If specified, then any line that begins with one of the key phrases will be regarded as a heading. The syntax is <details>, <details>... where each set of details is <details> = <phrases>, [<heading_level>] and <phrases> = <phrase_1> [|<phase_2>] That is, each set of <details> can optionally specify a <heading_level>. If omitted this will default to 1,2,3 for the first, second, third set of details etc. Note, this is a *logical* heading level, and will be apparant in the contents list. In HTML this may not actually map onto <H1>, <H2> etc (see [[GOTO largest allowed <Hn> value]] and [[GOTO smallest allowed <Hn> value]] Each set of <details> must supply a set of <phrases>, and each set of phrases would must have at least one phrase with extra phrases added if wanted, separated by vertical bars. So for example Part, Chapter, Section would treat lines beginning with the words "Part", "Chapter" and "Section" as level 1,2, and 3 headings (although in HTML <H1> markup probably won't be used). The key phrases are case-sensitive in order to reduce the likelihood of false matches with lines that just happen to have these phrases at the start of the line. So PART|Part, Chapter, Section Would allow either "PART" or "Part" to be matched. "PART|Part,1" , "Chapter,2" , "Section,2" Would make lines beginning with "Part" level-1 headings, while both "Chapter" and "Section" would become level 2. This would be the same as "PART|Part,1" , "Chapter|Section,2" Note, spaces may form part of a match phrase, but because of their use in the tag syntax commands and vertical bars may not. If false matches occur, (e.g. the word "Part" appears in the body of the text) edit the source text so that the offending word is no longer at the start of the line. Hanging paragraph position(s) ----------------------------- Possible values : A space-separated increasing series of tab positions, starting at 0 (e.g. "0 4 8") Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a These values indicate the offsets at which definition paragraphs are expected Headings Colour --------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates what colour to use for all the headings marked up in <Hn> markup. Not all browsers support this. In HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] this is better handled via CSS, rather than placing explicit colour markup on each heading. Header frame background colour ------------------------------ Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ The program allows you to independently set the background and colour of each frame in a FRAMESET. The default behaviour is that each frame will match the colours set for the main document using the policies [[GOTO Background Colour]] [[GOTO Text Colour]] You can override this behaviour using the frame colouring policies [[GOTO Header frame background colour]] [[GOTO Header frame text colour]] [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]] [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]] [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]] [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]] Header Frame depth ------------------ Possible values : Size in pixels or as a percentage Default value : 100 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ If a header frame is generated, this specifies its depth. The default is 100 pixels. To specify a percentage, add the % sign on the end, e.g. "20%" See also :- [[GOTO Contents Frame width]] [[GOTO Footer Frame depth]] Header frame text colour ------------------------ Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames -> Frame colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ See discussion in [[GOTO Header frame background colour]]. Help body background colour --------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "FFFFE0" Policy scope : [[GOTO fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* This is the background colour used for the main body of each topic. This is the scrolling section that makes up the majority of the topic window. NOTE: The colours you specify will only be visible to users running a default Windows colour scheme. If users change this at all, then these colours may have no effect. See also :- - [[goto Make windows help source file]] - [[goto Help title background colour]] Help file citation ------------------ Possible values : Citation text Default value : "". Evaluation vesion adds a JafSoft citation. Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF help file Menu location : Output -> Make Help File Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]] _Only applies to RTF generation_ This is the "citation" text added to your help project file. This text is displayed anytime someone prints or pastes topics from your WinHelp file. See also :- - [[goto Make Windows help source file]] Help file copyright notice -------------------------- Possible values : Copyright text Default value : "". Evaluation vesion places adds a JafSoft copyright Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF help file Menu location : Output -> Make Help File Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]] _Only applies to RTF generation_ This is the copyright notice placed in your WinHelp project file and so attached to your help file. See also :- - [[goto Make Windows help source file]] Help title background colour ---------------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML Colours]] Default value : "Silver" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF help file Menu location : Output -> Make Help File Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]] _Only applies to RTF generation_ This is the background colour used for the title text of each topic. This is the non-scrolling section at the top of each topic page. NOTE: The colours you specify will only be visible to users running a default Windows colour scheme. If users change this at all, then these colours may have no effect. See also :- - [[goto Make Windows help source file]] - [[goto Help body background colour]] Highlight Definition Text ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the definition term of each definition detected (the part marked up in <DT> ... </DT>) should be placed in bold for greater emphasis. HTML footer file ---------------- Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as footer Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the HTML file at the bottom of the <BODY> ... </BODY> portion of each generated HTML page. Because this file is just copied into the HTML, the file should normally include HTML tags, rather than plain text. This can be used to add "return to home page" links, and contact addresses to your HTML pages. Again, this helps to give a consistent "look and feel" when breaking your document up into a number of smaller HTML files. See also :- [[GOTO "HTML header file"]] HTML fragments file ------------------- Possible values : Local file containing HTML fragment definitions Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Added HTML -> Advanced Options Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT"]] and [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "RESET_HTML_FRAGMENT"]] *New in version 4* Identifies the name of a text file which defines HTML "fragments" that may be used in the HTML generation. These fragments can be used to customize elements such as horizontal rules and page navigation features generated by the software. The definitions must be written as HTML inside pre-processor styled HTML fragment blocks. See the Tag manual section on [[HYPERLINK URL, "tag_manual_3.html","Using HTML fragments"]] and the pre-processor commands :- [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "DEFINE_HTML_FRAGMENT"]] [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "RESET_HTML_FRAGMENT"]] HTML header file ---------------- Possible values : Local file containing HTML code to be used as header Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the HTML file at the top of the <BODY> ... </BODY> portion of the generated HTML page. Because this file is just copied into the HTML, the file should normally include HTML tags, rather than plain text. This can be used to add standard headers, logos, contact addresses to your HTML pages, and is especially useful to give a consistent "look and feel" when breaking your document up into a number of smaller HTML files. See also :- [[GOTO "HTML footer file"]] HTML Script file ---------------- Possible values : Local file containing JavaScript fragment you want embedding Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the name of a text include file to be transcribed into the <HEAD> ... </HEAD> portion of the generated HTML page. This allows you to place JavaScript in your pages (though you'll be a little limited as to what it can act on). You could also use this to embed a style sheet in the header. HTML version to be targeted --------------------------- Possible values : "HTML 3.2", "HTML 4.0 Transitional", "HTML 4.0 Strict" Default value : "HTML 4.0 Transitional" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the version of HTML to be generated. Older versions of HTML are more widely viewable in browsers, while newer versions support use of style sheets and more sophisticated layout. Depending on the version of HTML selected, different features may or may not be supported. For example the implementation of fonts inside tables cannot simultaneously support version 3 and 4 browsers in all flavours of HTML. Also the use of certain entities (like the Euro symbol) is disallowed in earlier versions of HTML. The generation of "HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Strict" is not yet supported. Hyperlinks on numbers --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Whenever a file has numbered sections, and a contents list is being created, this indicates whether the hyperlink taking you to the section should be placed on the number or the section title in the contents list The default is to place the hyperlink on the section title. Ignore multiple blank lines --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not multiple blank lines ("white space") in the source file should be ignored. Normally HTML ignores white space, but if this policy is disabled then additional blank lines will be marked up as <BR>. That means that a large gap in the source file will translate to a large gap in the HTML file. If you wish to eliminate white space from your output, switch this off. You should also review the [[GOTO "Use <P> markup for paragraphs"]] policy Ignore table header during analysis ----------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_IGNORE_HEADER"]] Indicates that when analysing a table to determine the column positions the table header should be ignored. Some tables have complex headers that can affect the analysis when looking for column boundaries. By setting this value the first few lines are ignored during the analysis (if the header size if set, then this is the number of lines ignored). This policy can be toggled for individual tables via the pre-processor command TABLE_IGNORE_HEADER placed between BEGIN_TABLE ... END_TABLE commands placed before and after the table. Include document section(s) --------------------------- Possible values : Space-separated list of SECTION names Default value : "" (which is the same as "ALL") Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Preprocessor Menu location : Analysis -> Preprocessor Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "SECTION"]] The program allows pre-processor commands to divide a document into sections using the SECTION command. (This is quite separate from the detection of section headings in the source document). The point of the SECTION command is to mark up parts of the document that may optionally be included or omitted from the conversion, e.g. to allow the same source document to generate different output for different audiences. This policy tells the programs which section types are to be included in the conversion. The name(s) supplied should match that in the SECTION directive(s), and should be one-word. A value of "all" indicates that all section types should be converted. The value may be a space-separated list of section names. Each section name must be a single word (underscores are allowed though). For more details, read the main program documentation. Indent headings in Directory ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a If a contents list is being generated, then this Specifies whether or not the contents list should be shown at multiple indent levels, with sub-sections indented relative to sections etc. If disabled, all the contents hyperlinks will be at the same indentation level, one level in from any file titles shown. Indent position(s) ------------------ Possible values : A series of increasing integer values, starting at 0 Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a These are the positions of the major indent levels in the document. This should be a list of ascending space-separated numbers, with "0" usually being the first value. Text in the source file will be output at a level of indentation calculated by comparing the source line's left margin with the values set here. The [[GOTO TAB Size]] may form part of this calculation if tabs are present. For example a line with 6 spaces at the start will be placed as follows "0" - left margin "0 4 8" - one level of indent (>4 but 6<) "0 2 4 6" - three levels of indent (>2, >4 and >=6) "0 8" - left margin (<8) In practice a little rounding up is allowed. The program will attempt to calculate the correct indentation pattern, and will reject consecutive positions, e.g. "0 1 2" wouldn't be accepted. Note, a value of "0" by itself will suppress all indentation in the output. $_$_SECTION RESERVED Indent whole document --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Page Formatting Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *NOT YET FULLY IMPLEMENTED* Specifies that the whole document should be indented. See also :- [[GOTO CENTER whole document]] $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION MERRILL Indentation markup code ----------------------- Possible values : -1,0,1,2 or 3 Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the type of tagging to be used to implement indentation and blocks. The possible values are -1 <UL> ! SEC default 0 default for target version of HTML 1 <BLOCKQUOTE> 2 <DIV STYLE="margin-left: ..."> ! Merrill default 3 <DIV CLASS="indent"> The ultimate goal is "3", but that cannot yet be supported by the current browsers This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION ALL Input directory --------------- Possible values : Local input directory (don't normally use this) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Main screen Command line option : the first argument of the command line Related directives : n/a In principle this policy allows the source directory to be specified. In practice the source directory is usually implied from the source file. In the Windows version the input directory can be explicitly set on the main screen. It is nor recommended that you include this policy line in any policy files you create. Input file has page markers --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the input file has page markers. Such pages are assumed to be form feeds <FF>. Together with the [[GOTO Page marker size (in lines)]] policy, you can get the program to ignore the next few lines after a page marker. This can be used to remove lines at the top of each page from the source document as viewed by the program. This removal, however is far from perfect given that - source documents may also have "footers" before the page marker - the page marker might not be a <FF> - the header/footer can be variable sizes depending on where the page boundary falls as regards paragraphs and section headings. It is hoped to improve these algorithms after V4.0 is released. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Input file is a composition unit -------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Comp Unit Menu location : Output -> Merrill Command line option : /CU Related directives : n/a Specifies that the source file is a composition unit, and should be processed accordingly. Composition units will later be assembled into larger files. Initially this signalled that the contents list should be placed in an external .toc file, but that the links there should still be treated as local. Things have changed since then, and as such this policy may be moot. This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION ALL Input file has change bars -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the input file contains change bars. Change bars indicate those lines which have had text changed since the last version. THis is usually indicated by a vertical bar '|' in the left or right border. Where such characters are detected, they will be removed (as they will make no sense in HTML) and the "changed" text will be highlighted in red. The program may auto-detect the presence of change bars, but if this gets confused (e.g. by quote characters in email, or .signature files) you may need to set this policy manually. Input file contains DOS characters ---------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the input file contains DOS characters, especially line-drawing characters. When set, the program will convert these characters into line characters (i.e. "=", '-', '|' or '+') that may then be interpreted as parts of table or diagrams. Input file contains Japanese characters --------------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Indicates that the input file contains Japanese, Chinese or Korean characters. The program is designed to convert and understand ASCII characters. As such it is best suited to European languages. If this policy is set, the program will avoid certain types of character transformations, and will adjust - where possible - its analysis to allow for the presence of 2-byte oriental characters. Please note, AscToHTM's understanding of Japanese text structure is virtually non-existent, we don't really advocate the program's use in this way. Input file is double spaced --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that, as seen by the program, the input file is double spaced. That is, every second line is blank. This can be the case if - the file was produced by an old program - the file was produced from a "print" file - the file was copied from a machine using a different operating system. The conversion will look quite different if every second line is thought to be blank. If you set this policy, every second blank line will be ignored. Eventually it is hoped to make detection of such files automatically, but currently (V4.0) this is not the case. $_$_SECTION ALL Input file contains MIME encoding --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the input file contains some MIME encoding. This will commonly be the case in text saved or copied from mail messages. Mime encoding will appear as "=" characters protecting special characters, and breaking long lines into shorter lines less likely to be rejected by mail protocols. The presence of Mime encoding should be auto-detected. Input file contains PCL codes ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Indicates that the input file contains PCL printer codes. When set, the program will make whatever sensible use it can of these codes, otherwise they will be removed. Please note that the PCL printer codes offer a rich command language that may be used to drive graphical printers. As such the emulation possibilities in a *text* converter are limited, and it is quite likely that files that make heavy use of such codes will fail dramatically to convert. $_$_SECTION ALL Keep it simple -------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Main screen, or Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : /SIMPLE Related directives : n/a This tells the program to suppress much of its advanced searches for structure. This should be used when converting short documents that don't really have numbered sections, bullets, tables etc but which might look to the program as though they do (e.g. because they contain addresses, lists or tables of consecutive numbers) A simple conversion will preserve much of your line structure and convert URLS to hyperlinks, but it won't add much else. This option is equivalent to adding /SIMPLE to the command line. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Label style classes ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the CLASS attribute should be added to key elements, with the intention that these could then be targeted by CSS rules supplied by the user in an external CSS file. Currently we label - <LI> and other bullet tags - <DL> tags - <FONT> tags - Various Table features :- - HeaderRule - TableDoubleRuler - TableSingleRuler - TableLineRule - OddRow and EvenRow This is used when generating CSS-ready HTML Currently this is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION ALL Language (for proofing) ----------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "English (United States)" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies the document's language. This is relevant for spell checking and the like. Largest allowed <Hn> tag ------------------------ Possible values : 1 (largest) - 5 (smallest) Default value : 2 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Together with [[GOTO "Smallest allowed <Hn> tag"]] these policies allow you to control the heading sizes <Hn> used to mark up any headings that are detected. By default <H2> is used for main level headings, with each subsequent heading level being one size smaller, down to <H3> (normal text size). The software will ignore these values if out of range, or if the largest value represents a smaller heading (larger Hn) that the "smallest" value. Left margin (in cm) ------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : (see below) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies size of margin at the left of the page. If omitted the Word default of 3.17 cm will be used. Lines to ignore at end of file ------------------------------ Possible values : Number or lines Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies how many lines should be ignored at the end of the input file. Use this if you are converting files from a source that adds a footer to each file that you don't want included in the conversion. See also :- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at start of file]] Lines to ignore at start of file -------------------------------- Possible values : Number or lines Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies how many lines should be ignored at the top of the input file. Use this if you are converting files from a source that adds a header to each file that you don't want included in the conversion. See also :- [[GOTO Lines to ignore at end of file]] Link Dictionary file -------------------- Possible values : Local file containing Link Dictionary definitions Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Link Dictionary Menu location : Output -> Link Dictionary Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *reserved for future use* $_$_SECTION MERRILL List markup code ---------------- Possible values : 0,1, or 2 Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Controls the tags used to implement lists n=0 Use <UL> or <OL> together with <LI>...</LI> markup. This is "traditional" HTML. n=1 Use <DL><DT>...<DD>...</DL> markup. As suggested by Tom. n=2 Use <INDENT>...</INDENT> markup. As suggested by Jaf, where <INDENT> is either <UL>, <BLOCKQUOTE> or <DIV> $_$_SECTION ALL Look for MAIL and USENET headers -------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the program should attempt to detect, (and re-format) any MAIL or USENET headers. These will be present if the file you are converting - was originally an email or USENET post - is an email digest - is a FAQ written from a series of email responses. Where such headers are detected, the Author, Subject and Date are looked for. If these are detected, the header is replaced by a Heading with this information formatted in a standard manner. Where this occurs the new heading becomes available for any contents list that is generated. Look for bullets ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for or Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the program should look for, and format, bullets and numbered lists. Disable this only if the program is wrongly formatting as bullets and lists things that are not. In such cases you could also consider reformatting your source file so that the "bullet" text no longer appears at the start of a line. Look for character encoding --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* Specifies whether or not the software should attempt to detect alternative character sets, such as those used for languages such as Greek, Turkish, Chinese etc. The software does this by doing a statistical analysis on the characters used in the source file. This process isn't perfect, and when it fails you will need to manually set the correct character set using the [[GOTO Character encoding]] policy. If you find the program is wrongly detecting the character encoding, disable this policy and/or manually set it using the [[GOTO Character encoding]] policy Look for diagrams ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies whether or not regions of preformatted text that are detected should be considered as candidate diagrams. If you find the program is wrongly treating tables as diagrams then disable this policy. See also :- [[GOTO Attempt TABLE generation]] [[GOTO Expect code samples]] [[GOTO Look for preformatted text]] Look for horizontal rulers -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the program should look for, and format, horizontal lines as separators. Such lines will be marked up as Rules, rather than as the original character sequence. See also :- [[GOTO Minimum ruler length]] Look for hanging paragraphs --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the program should look for, and attempt to format, hanging paragraphs. Look for indentation -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the program should look for, and attempt to replicate, the pattern of indentation used in the file. The program can detect the character positions used for different levels of indentation, and then use tags to implement this in the output. If this goes wrong, then text will be wrongly indented and (because of the tagging involved) unwanted vertical white space will often appear wherever the change in indent occurs. This can be especially true for the first lines of paragraphs (see [[GOTO "new paragraph offset"]]). If you have such problems, disable this policy and the whole document will be left justified. Look for preformatted text -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not regions of preformatted text should be searched for. If found, the program may attempt to detect - tables - ascii art - some other form of preformatting - software code fragments If it decides the region is one of these, then special formatting will be applied. If you find the program is wrongly treating text as formatted (this can be checked by looking for comments in the HTML code), then disable this policy. See also :- [[GOTO Attempt TABLE generation]] [[GOTO Expect code samples]] [[GOTO Look for diagrams]] Look for quoted text -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the program should attempt to detect "quoted" text. Quoted text will be placed in <EM> markup to emphasise the quoted text. Quoted text is commonly found in email and USENET posts. If you find the program wrongly placing text in italics, try disabling this policy. Look for short lines -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the program should look for "short lines". By default the line structure of the source is not preserved, rather the program attempts to preserve the paragraph structure. This results in a document that responds better to changes in browser width. However, the program recognises that lines that are short are probably intentionally so, and so it attempt to detect such lines and add a break on the end so that the line structure is preserved. See also :- [[GOTO "Short line length"]] Look for underlined text ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* Specifies that the program should attempt to detect any underlined text. Underlining will either take the form of a line of text followed by a similar length line of dashes (or other line characters), or of a phrase with underscores between each word, and at the start and end. Examples:- $_$_BEGIN_PRE This is an underline line ------------------------- ... and this is an _underlined_phrase_ $_$_END_PRE Note, underlined lines may - depending on context, be regarded as underlined headings (see [[GOTO Expect Underlined headings]]) Look for white space -------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not the program should look for white space, especially when trying to detect paragraph boundaries. You should usually leave this enabled, unless you want to explicitly place tags in the source text to markup paragraph boundaries. Make Directory -------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : /INDEX=[<filename>] Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not you want a Directory page built. A Directory page will contain hyperlinks to all files and sections within files that are converted at the same time. This normally only makes sense if you're using wildcard file specifications to convert multiple files at once. This policy is equivalent to adding /INDEX=<filename> on the command line Make Windows Help source file ----------------------------- Possible values : yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> Make help file Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies that the output file should be formatted in a way suited to conversion into a Windows help file AscToRTF can now be used to create RTF files suitable for use as source files when making a WinHelp help file. You can also get AscToRTF to create a Help Compiler project file (.hpj) for you, and tell it some of the things to put in that file. The policies available are - [[goto Generate WinHelp project file]] - [[goto WinHelp Resource File]] - [[goto Help file citation]] - [[goto Help file copyright notice]] - [[goto Help title background colour]] - [[goto Help body background colour]] For more information see "Creating WinHelp files" in the AscToRTF documentation. Max length of candidate table lines ----------------------------------- *New in version 4.2* Possible values : line length in characters Default value : 256 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic Analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : n/a Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This specifies the maximum length of line that could be considered as a possible table line. Since some files output one paragraph per line, it is possible for some text to contain a lot of the "markers" used to detect table lines, and to be wrongly disgnosed as part of a table. This value is set to prevent that happening. The value should be set as low as reasonable for your files, however the current default value fo 256 has been set to cope with observed legacy reports which were often designed to be printed on lineprinter paper Maximum level to show in contents --------------------------------- Possible values : 0,1,2... Default value : 0 (= "all") Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the number of levels of headings to show in any generated contents lists. A value of "1" would only show chapter headings, a value of "2" would also show the major sections etc, etc. Min HTML file size ------------------ Possible values : Any number of lines Default value : -1 (none) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy is only relevant when splitting the document into multiple, smaller output files (see [[GOTO "split level"]]). When a large source file is being split into many output HTML files, this policy specifies a minimum output HTML size in lines (although this is only approximate). This can be useful for documents that have chapters where all the content is in the sub-sections. In such documents you'd end up with a virtually empty chapter heading file if this policy is not used. Min chapter size ---------------- Possible values : Any number of lines Default value : 8 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This specifies the minimum chapter size expected in the source document (in numbers of lines). This is used by the program during analysis to ignore any apparent Chapter headings that appear too close together. In this way the program attempt to distinguish between 2 chapter headings, and 2 items on a numbered list. Minimise HTML file size ----------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This indicates that the created HTML file should be made as small as possible, e.g. to reduce download times. By default AscToHTM attempts to layout the created HTML code in an easy-to-read manner. This was done so that the created HTML would be easier to manually edit after creation. To make the code easier to read, the program inserts white space to indent the code to match the output indentation levels. It also outputs each cell of a TABLE on its own line. All this white space adds up, particularly the indentation of largely-empty cells in TABLES. If you select this option, all the extra white space is eliminated. Depending on the file contents, this can make the file 5-20% smaller (and hence faster to download), at a cost of readability. Of course, this benefit is only really worth it when converting larger files. Minimum TABLE column separation ------------------------------- Possible values : Min. number of space characters between columns 1,2,3 Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_MIN_COLUMN_SEPARATION"]] Specifies the minimum number of spaces that may be interpreted as a column separator in a table. The default value is 1, but in small tables this can lead to too many "columns" being detected. If you experience this problem try increasing this value to 2 or higher. Note, if the value becomes too large, you may experience the opposite problem, i.e. too *few* columns being detected. Minimum automatic <PRE> size ---------------------------- Possible values : Any number of lines. Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Pre-formatted Menu location : Analysis -> Preformatted text Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "BEGIN/END_PRE"]] Specifies the minimum number of consecutive lines that must appear pre-formatted before they can be placed in their own <PRE> ... </PRE> sections. Pre-formatted text, once detected is analysed to see if it is - a table - a diagram - some code samples - some other form of pre-formatted text Note: Only values in the range 1-20 are likely to have an effect. Values above 20 are likely to simply disable this feature entirely. This limitation is due to the size of the readahead buffer the program uses. See also :- [[GOTO "Attempt TABLE generation"]] Minimum ruler length -------------------- Possible values : Number of characters > 0 Default value : 4 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout or Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the minimum length of any line to be considered as a horizontal rule when the program is looking for such lines (see [[GOTO "Look for horizontal rulers"]]) Lines in the source text that consist only of "rule-like" characters, and which exceed this minimum length will be marked up as Rules, rather than as the original character sequence. See also :- [[GOTO Minimum ruler length]] Mirror Margins -------------- Possible values : yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies that the left and right margin sizes should be swapped on odd and even page numbers. Monitor tag generation ---------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a A diagnostic policy that specifies that HTML tag generation should be monitored for correctness. This will check that each tag has a matching end tag (where required), and that tags are not incorrectly nested. This shouldn't normally be necessary, but can sometimes help locate HTML errors when extra HTML is embedded in the source file and interacts unfavourably with the HTML generated by the software. New Paragraph Offset -------------------- Possible values : A number of characters Default value : -1 (none) Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This specifies the size of any hanging indent expected on the first line of each paragraph. It is quite common, e.g. when saving Word for Windows files, to find the first line of each paragraph indented relative to the rest of the text. This specifies the size of that indent. Although this is normally detected automatically, in smaller documents this can sometimes fail, with the result that the first line may be indented with respect to the rest of the paragraph. Unfortunately, this can also introduce a blank line between the first and subsequent lines. If this happens either change this value, or cancel all indentation by setting the value of [[GOTO "Indent position(s)"]] See also :- [[GOTO "preserve new paragraph offset"]] New browser window name ----------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : "other" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that where hyperlinks are to be opened in a new browser window, what the name of that window should be. See the discussion in [[GOTO "Open links in new browser window"]] New frame link window name -------------------------- Possible values : Name of browser window to open clicked hyperlinks in Default value : _top Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ When an "external" hyperlink is clicked on from inside a generated FRAMESET and the policy [[GOTO Open frame links in new window]] is enabled, this is the name of the browser window to be used as the target for the link. You can specify any name you like, but the default is the reserved browser window name "_top" which will cause the current window to be used, thereby replacing all the FRAMESET currently on display (this will re-appear if you press the BACK button) See also :- [[GOTO Open frame links in new window]] NOFRAMES link URL ----------------- Possible values : URL of NOFRAMES links Default value : Defaults to URL of first page generated Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ When the [[GOTO Add NOFRAMES links]] policy is enabled, this is the URL that is used in the visible NOFRAMES hyperlink added to the contents frame. If left blank (the default) this link will point to the first HTML page that would normally be displayed in the main frame. You should only really need to use this if you have created an independent set on non-FRAMES pages that you'd like to link to instead. See also :- [[GOTO Add NOFRAMES links]] Number of levels in contents frame ---------------------------------- Possible values : 0,1,2,3 or 4 Default value : 0 (= "all") Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ When a generated contents list is placed in a contents frame, this policy specifies how many levels of heading you want shown there. In large, complex documents there can be up to 4 levels of heading. Whilst in a normal contents list you'd want to see most of these, in a FRAMES document space (width) is tight and you don't really want to have to scroll the left frame. In such cases you may want to limit the amount of detail in the contents frame. The default value "0" is interpreted as "all", i.e. a full contents list will be generated. Number of words to include in filename -------------------------------------- Possible values : 1,2,3... Default value : 4 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* When splitting a large document into files a new file will be created each time a suitable heading is reached. If the heading is underlined or capitalised (as opposed to numbered), the first few words of the heading will be included in the filename. This policy determines how many words from the title should be used. Omit <HEAD> and <BODY> from output ---------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* The policy specifies that the HTML generated should not contain any <BODY> and <HTML> tags, nor should it contain a <HEAD> section. The resulting file won't be a proper HTML file, but it can be copied directly into and existing HTML file without further editing. This policy is set automatically in the Windows version of the software whenever the clipboard is used as the output destination. That way the generated HTML can be directly pasted wherever you want. Only allow explicit FTP links ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not only ftp links with an explicit "ftp://" should be converted into FTP hyperlinks. The program can detect web addresses that don't begin with http:// or www. Such addresses are often - but not always - FTP sites. This policy determines whether or not such addresses should be taken as FTP sites or now. If enabled then "penguin.mit.edu" would become an FTP link. Only allow pages to be viewed in frames --------------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ Specifies that when generating FRAMES, the pages generated should *only* be viewed in frames, that is they shouldn't be viewed as individual pages. This is achieved by adding JavaScript to the HTML that will cause the browser to re-load the master frame whenever the page is viewed by itself. You might want this behaviour if you find people coming to individual pages directly (e.g. form a search engine). On the other hand some people might not like this behaviour, and in a large document it may be difficult for people to re-locate within the frames the page that first drew their attention. If you select this option, then you will have to provide a separate NOFRAMES link. This is because the default NOFRAMES link is to the first page, but when this option is selected that first page would contain JavaScript that would place it back into frames. In such cases you might want to convert the file twice - once with frames, once without - and use the name of the non-frames version as a NOFRAMES link See also :- [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]] Only use known groups --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates whether or not only newsgroups from known hierarchies should be converted into news: hyperlinks. The program can detect possible newsgroups by looking for words like "something.like.this" and "news.answers". However assuming these are newsgroups often leads to errors. Consequently if this policy is enabled then candidate newsgroups have to belong to either a standard USENET hierarchy such as "alt", "comp", "sci" etc, or to a user-specified USENET hierarchy (see [[GOTO "Recognised USENET groups"]]). If disabled then "something.like.this" will be turned into a news: hyperlink. This policy only takes effect if [[GOTO "Create NEWS links"]] is enabled. Open frame links in new window ------------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This specifies that whenever the user clicks on an "External" hyperlink inside a set of generated FRAMES, a new window should be opened, rather than displaying the selected page inside the current FRAMESET. Note, the program distinguishes between "internal" links to other parts of the same converted document (be they in a different HTML page or whatever) and "external" links to URLs nothing to do with the current conversion. Thus a link to www.jafsoft.com will create a new window, but a link to section 3.2 will not. See also :- [[GOTO New frame link window name]] Open links in new browser window -------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that where hyperlinks are added to the HTML, the target window for these links should be a new window. This means that when you click on these links a new window is opened, and the original window continues to display the original document. If you don't select this policy, the new document replaces the old document in the current browser window. See also :- [[GOTO "New browser window name"]] Output directory ---------------- Possible values : Local output directory (don't normally set this) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Main Screen Command line option : /OUT=<filespec> Related directives : n/a In principle this policy allows the output directory to be specified. In practice the output directory usually defaults to the input directory, or is set by the user via the user interface or the command line. In the Windows version the output directory can be explicitly set on the main screen. It is nor recommended that you include this policy line in any policy files you create. Output file extension --------------------- Possible values : File extension to be used for generated files Default value : ".html" or ".rtf" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies an alternative extension to be used for the created files. For example you may want the program to create ".shtml" files. If present, this policy overrides that set in the [[GOTO "Use .HTM extension"]] policy. Output frame name ----------------- Possible values : name of main FRAMESET document Default value : Input filename with "_frame.html" appended Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This specifies the name of the HTML file which will contain the FRAMESET tags that define the layout and contents of the FRAMES. If omitted the default behaviour is to append "_frame" to the filename. For example myfile.txt would generate myfile_frame.html ! FRAMESET myfile_contents_frame.html ! (optional) contents frame myfile_header_frame.html ! (optional) header frame myfile_footer_frame.html ! (optional) footer frame and then myfile.html ! first main frame page myfile_1.html ! (optional) second main frame page myfile_2.html ! (optional) third main frame page Output log filename ------------------- Possible values : Local file to contain log of conversion(s) Default value : "AscToHTM.log" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : /LOG=<filespec> Related directives : n/a Specifies the name of any log file to be created. See also :- [[GOTO "Create a log file"]] Output policy file ------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> File Generation -> General Command line option : /POLICY=<file> Related directives : n/a This policy allows you to specify that you want the program to output the file policy that is being used. This will be a combination of the policy calculated by the program during the analysis pass, and any user-supplied policy lines. The output policy file will have a .pol extension in the output directory. This policy has the same effect as the command line qualifier /POLICY. Output policy filename ---------------------- Possible values : Local file to be generated with calculate policies documented Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> File generation -> General Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *reserved* *NOT YET IMPLEMENTED?* $_$_SECTION MERRILL $_$_BEGIN_IGNORE <P> inside list usage code -------------------------- Possible values : 0,1,2 or 3 Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Controls the use of the <P> tag inside lists (bullets etc.) The use of the <P> tag affects the vertical white space displayed, and the addressing of text inside lists by CSS rules n=0 Use <P> on all paragraphs inside a list item n=1 Use <P> on all bar first paragraph n=2 Use <P> only on first paragraph n=3 Don't use <P> on any paragraphs Note, options "0" and "2" won't work if <DL> markup is being used for the list (see [[GOTO "List Markup Code"]]) $_$_END_IGNORE $_$_SECTION ALL Page Width ---------- Possible values : Number of characters. Typically 65-100 Default value : 80 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Used to set the nominal page width of the input text. This doesn't affect the output directly, but the page width is used in a number of calculation used to determine other effects which *do* affect the rendering. These include - Short line detection (see [[GOTO "Short line length"]]). Lines determined to be "short" get a <BR> on the end. - Centred text detection (see [[GOTO "Allow automatic centring"]]). Text is calculated as centred according to its left indent, its length, the page width and the centring tolerance (see [[GOTO "Automatic centring tolerance"]]) - determination of whether definition characters line ":" and "-" are "strong" or "weak". (see [[GOTO "Definition Char"]]) Page marker size (in lines) --------------------------- Possible values : Number of Lines in page header Default value : 0 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the size of any "headers" that occur after new page characters in the source text. These headers can be ignored for the purposes of conversion, although the process is currently far from perfect. See the discussion in [[GOTO Input file has page markers]] Paper size ---------- Possible values : "A4", "Letter", "Legal" or "Executive" Default value : "A4" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Settings Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* This only applies to RTF generation. This specifies the paper size. Depending on the application you use to view the RTF files, this may be used when printing the document, and the value selected will affect the paging of the document. It will also be used during printing. Place document in FRAMES ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : /FRAMES Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* This policy allows you to specify that you want your document output in HTML frames. The program will create a HTML page with the necessary <FRAMESET> tags. Once selected, a large number of supporting policies offer control over the FRAMES-generation process. In addition you can use the program's [[HYPERLINK URL,"tag_manual_3.html","HTML fragments"]] feature to control what gets placed in each frame. FRAMES policies available include :- - [[GOTO Output frame name]] - [[GOTO Header Frame depth]] - [[GOTO Footer Frame depth]] - [[GOTO Contents Frame width]] - [[GOTO Use main header in header frame]] - [[GOTO Use main footer in footer frame]] - [[GOTO Add contents frame if possible]] - [[GOTO Add Frame border]] - [[GOTO Open frame links in new window]] - [[GOTO New frame link window name]] - [[GOTO Add NOFRAMES links]] - [[GOTO NOFRAMES link URL]] - [[GOTO Number of levels in contents frame]] - [[GOTO First frame page number]] - [[GOTO Header frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Header frame text colour]] - [[GOTO Contents frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Contents frame text colour]] - [[GOTO Footer frame background colour]] - [[GOTO Footer frame text colour]] FRAMES production is only applicable to HTML generation. Preserve file structure using <PRE> ----------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed analysis policy]] Policy file section : File Generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the whole file structure should be preserved by placing the file inside <PRE>...</PRE> markup. This will result in very little file conversion occurring. You should only want to use this if the file has lots of pre-formatted text which the program is interpreting wrongly. Examples might be email digests of RFC's, although in both cases good results can be achieved with a little work. Preserve line structure ----------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : File Generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that the line structure of the file should be preserved. This will be done by adding a <BR> to each line from the source file. Use this if you want the output program to have the same line structure as the original, instead of allowing paragraphs of text to wrap. You might want to do this if you want to preserve an "A4" look and feel to the page. Preserve new paragraph offset ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* This specifies that if a hanging indent is found on the first line of each paragraph it should be preserved in the output. See also :- [[GOTO "new paragraph offset"]] Preserve underlining of headings -------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Headings Menu location : Output -> HTML styling Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that those headings that are underlined should keep their underlining in the output. Sometimes you want the underlining to signify the previous line is a heading, but don't necessarily want that heading underlined in the output. Recognise '-' as a bullet ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the hyphen character by itself at the start of a line should be treated as signifying a bullet point. Recognise 'o' as a bullet ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Bullets Menu location : Analysis -> Bullets Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the letter 'o' by itself at the start of a line should be treated as signifying a bullet point. This is a fairly common practise, especially in text documents exported from other software packages. Recognised USENET groups ------------------------ Possible values : Space separated list or USENET hierarchy roots Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Hyperlinks Menu location : Output -> Hyperlinks Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy allows you to specify USENET hierarchies that you wish to recognise in addition to the standard hierarchies. The value is a space separated list of the top level hierarchy names. So, for example, to ensure that uk.telecom and demon.ip.support are recognised as valid newsgroup hyperlinks, set the policy value as follows:- Recognised USENET groups : uk demon This policy only takes effect if [[GOTO "Create NEWS links"]] is enabled. $_$_SECTION RESERVED Remove redundant tags --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that, as far as possible, redundant markup should be eliminated from the output HTML file. This helps reduce the file size and simplify the HTML produced. In normal usage the program avoids producing redundant code, but if large use if made of inline tags (especially to add FONT changes), then redundant markup can occur (e.g. empty <FONT>..</FONT> tag pairs). This option will remove the redundancy, but may slow the conversion by up to 20% in the process. You shouldn't normally need to change this option. $_$_SECTION ALL Right margin (in cm) -------------------- Possible values : Text string Default value : (see below) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies size of margin at the right of the page. If omitted the Word default of 3.17 cm will be used. Rule set to be used ------------------- Possible values : One of the recognised rulesets Default value : "(none)" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : Output -> Merrill Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the "ruleset" to be used. Rulesets are hard-coded sets of policies set up to address particular types of documents. This feature is expected to be used more in the future. $_$_SECTION MERRILL For Merrill the possible rulesets are "SEC" and "MERRILL". The SEC ruleset is a "HTML [[TEXT 3.2]]" set, suitable for filings to the SEC. The Merrill ruleset is a "HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Transitional" set which uses a mixture of fonts and CSS markup. See also :- [[GOTO "The Rule sets introduced for Merrill"]] $_$_SECTION ALL Scope COLOUR tags globally -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether the [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,COLOUR]] tags should scope globally or locally. "Global" scope means the colour won't change until another [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,COLOUR]] tag is encountered. "Local" means the colour will only scope as far as the next font change. Scope for font tags ------------------- Possible values : 1,2,3... Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* Specifies how the [[HYPERLINK TAGGING,FO (font) tag]] should be scoped - i.e. how far their influence should extend in the document. Options are $_$_BEGIN_TABLE 1 (Default) Scopes to the end of the document, or until another FO tag is encountered. 2 Scopes to the end of the current paragraph, or until a change of style (like a heading, table etc). 3 Scope only to the end of the current line $_$_END_TABLE Search for definitions ---------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout and Analysis -> What to look for Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a or Analysis -> What to look for See also : [[HYPERLINK URL,"a2hdoco_5.html#Definitions","Definitions"]] This policy can be used to disable the search for definitions (see [[HYPERLINK URL,"a2hdoco_5.html#Definitions","Definitions"]]). Use this whenever your file contains no definitions, but the program thinks it does. Search for emphasis ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether or not the program should look for emphasised text. Text can be emphasised by placing asterisks (*) either side of it, or underscores (_). The program will convert the enclosed text to bold and italic respectively. Both single words and phrases can be detected, however phrases spanning blank lines, or nested emphasis may not be correctly handled. Short line length ----------------- Possible values : Number of characters. Default value : -1 (none) Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy determines what constitutes a short line. The program may add a line break to any line it deems to be short. If omitted, a "short" line is determined as some fraction of the calculated [[GOTO page width]]. The fraction varies from 50-75% according to the conversion type being carried out. If you set this value large, then all lines may be treated as short, preserving the line structure of the original. Conversely if you set it small, then very few lines will acquire a break. Shortcut Icon URL ----------------- Possible values : URL of shortcut icon (e.g. a .ico) Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* Identifies the URL of any icon to be used as a shortcut for this page. A META tag will be added to the HTML so that those browsers that support shortcut icons can use it. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Show Tags in output ------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : n/a Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : /TAGS Related directives : n/a A diagnostic policy, not normally used in the release code. When set this places text in the output HTML to allow the generation of miscreant tags to be more easily attributed. $_$_SECTION ALL Show file Titles in Directory ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Directory Menu location : Output -> Directory List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When generating a directory page (see [[GOTO "Make Directory"]]), this specifies whether or not there should be a hyperlink to the top of each file converted (as opposed to just their contents). If selected, the HTML file's title (see [[GOTO "Document Title"]]) will be shown as a hyperlink. If the file has no title, then the original filename is shown instead. Smallest allowed <Hn> tag ------------------------- Possible values : 1 (largest) - 5 (smallest) Default value : 5 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Together with [[GOTO "Largest allowed <Hn> tag"]] these policies allow you to control the heading sizes <Hn> used to mark up any headings that are detected. By default <H2> is used for main level headings, with each subsequent heading level being one size smaller, down to <H3> (normal text size). The software will ignore these values if out of range, or if the largest value represents a smaller heading (larger Hn) that the "smallest" value. Split at page markers --------------------- Possible values : yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[text 5.0]]* _HTML generation only_ Specifies that the document should be split into smaller HTML pages at the page markers. The first file created normally has a name that matches the source file. Subsequent files append the page number (_1, _2...) Split level ----------- Possible values : Section level. Usually 0,1 or 2. Default value : -1 (none) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the heading level (or depth) at which the generated HTML should be split into smaller files. A value of "none" will put all the HTML into one file. "1" creates a new HTML file for each new major section. "2" creates a new HTML file for each new subsection "3" creates a new HTML file for each new sub-subsection The first file created normally has a name that matches the source file. Subsequent files append either the section number (for numbered sections), or the first word (for underlines or capitalised section headings), separated by underscores. If duplicate filenames are detected, then an extra number is appended to the name Thus a file called MYDOC.TXT with numbered sections and this policy set to "2" will generate files called MYDOC.HTML, MYDOC_1.HTML, MYDOC_1_1.HTML etc... MYDOC_2.HTML ... $_$_SECTION RESERVED Start tag delimiter ------------------- Possible values : Text string (but don't change it) Default value : "[[OT]]" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the start-tag delimiter for inline tags. Inline tags are marked by a unique start and end delimiter that should ideally not naturally occur in your document (you may get warning messages if it does). You should only change this if the default string really offends, or if it clashes with text naturally occurring in your document. See also :- [[GOTO End tag delimiter]] $_$_SECTION ALL Style File ---------- Possible values : Name of a text file Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* _Only applies to RTF generation_ This is the name of a file containing a series of font and style definitions that can be referenced in FO tags in the source document to control the fonts used in the output document. See The section titlkes "Style Definition File" in the AscToRTF manual for more details. $_$_SECTION MERRILL Suppress <Hn> markup for headings --------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Tagging Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that text marked up in [HEADING] ... [END_HEADING] tags should *not* be marked up in <Hn> markup. Such headings will still be added to any contents list that is generated, but will be formatted according to the prevailing [FONT], [EXTRA_LEADING] etc tags. This is a Merrill policy $_$_SECTION ALL Suppress all colour markup -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Document colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies that all colour markup should be suppressed. This means all other colour policies will be ignored, and no default colours will be added. This can be useful when wanting to generate a page suitable for access by people with impaired vision. Selecting this option produces HTML which they can set the colours on using their browsers. Suppress all font markup ------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* Specifies that all font markup should be suppressed. This means either that no <FONT> tags will be generated, or that the FONT portion of any generated CSS style sheet will be omitted. This can be useful when wanting to generate a page which allows users to select their own fonts, e.g. because people have impaired vision. Suppress INFO messages ---------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Suppresses all "INFO" messages from the display. These are messages deemed to be "informational" The severity (reporting level) will match how important/useful the seriousness of the warning. Together with the [[GOTO "Error Reporting Level"]] policy, similar suppression policies and the /SILENT command qualifier, you have a fair degree of control of the level of reporting made visible during conversion. Suppress TAG ERROR messages --------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Suppresses all "TAG ERROR" messages from the display. These are messages reporting failure to implement inline tags and directives (if any) placed in your source text. However, you should really fix up all your tag errors if possible. Together with the [[GOTO "Error Reporting Level"]] policy, similar suppression policies and the /SILENT command qualifier, you have a fair degree of control of the level of reporting made visible during conversion. Suppress URL messages --------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Suppresses all "URL" messages from the display. These are messages that report the detection of URLs in the document being converted. Together with the [[GOTO "Error Reporting Level"]] policy, similar suppression policies and the /SILENT command qualifier, you have a fair degree of control of the level of reporting made visible during conversion. Suppress WARNING messages ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Suppresses all "WARNING" messages from the display. These are messages usually reporting that the program has possibly done something you may not have wanted it to, or not done something you might have wanted it to. For example if lines that could contain emphasis or headings are rejected, a warning will be issued. The severity (reporting level) will match the seriousness of the warning. Together with the [[GOTO "Error Reporting Level"]] policy, similar suppression policies and the /SILENT command qualifier, you have a fair degree of control of the level of reporting made visible during conversion. Suppress program ERROR messages ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Messages Menu location : Settings -> Diagnostic messages Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Suppresses all "PROGRAM ERROR" messages from the display. These are messages indicating that the program itself thinks it's done something wrong. There's not much you can do about such errors, other than ignore them, or report them to the author so he can fix the software. Together with the [[GOTO "Error Reporting Level"]] policy, similar suppression policies and the /SILENT command qualifier, you have a fair degree of control of the level of reporting made visible during conversion. TAB size -------- Possible values : Tab size. Usually a multiple of 2 or 4 Default value : 8 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies the size of TABs in your source document. During analysis the program converts all tabs to spaces assuming using this tab size. This becomes important only when comparing lines that use tabs to lines that use spaces for alignment. If problems occur you may find indentations appear strange, or tables are not quite right. Note, text that is all tabs or all spaces should experience no such problems. If you know your source file uses a different TAB size (e.g. Notepad files use a value of 4), try adjusting this policy. Table Extending factor ---------------------- Possible values : 1-10 Default value : 5 Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : Analysis -> Table Analysis Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a When detecting preformatted regions, this indicates the degree to which lines adjacent should be included in the region. A value of 10 means almost all adjacent lines will be included up to the nearest page break of heading. A value of 1 means virtually no lines will be included unless they too are clearly heavily formatted Table Font ---------- Possible values : "<face>, <Type>, <size>, <prop>, <serif>, <charset>" Default value : "Times New Roman, New, Regular, 12" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* This tells the program what font should be used for any tables. The default font will differ between RTF and HTML generation. The value is a comma separated list which has the same format as that described in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy. Table of contents Font ---------------------- Possible values : "<face>, <Type>, <size>, <prop>, <serif>, <charset>" Default value : "Times New Roman, New, Regular, 12" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.1]]* This tells the program what font should be used for any TOC generated The default font will differ between RTF and HTML generation. The value has the same format as that described in the [[GOTO Default Font]] policy. Text Colour ----------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Document colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the text colour of the HTML page(s) created. This value is a HTML colour that is used to set the TEXT attribute of the <BODY> tag. Text justification ------------------ Possible values : "left", "right", "center" or "none" Default value : "left" Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> File Structure Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy is important in detecting pre-formatted text. If text is centered then padding spaces may be added. This has to be ignored when detecting pre-formatted text. Somewhat confusingly "center" here means what most word processors would call "justified". Top margin (in cm) ------------------ Possible values : Text string Default value : (see below) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies size of margin at the top of the page. If omitted the Word default of 1 inch (2.54 cm) will be used. Treat each line as a paragraph ------------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Analysis Menu location : Analysis -> General layout Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Indicates that each line of text in the file should be treated as a new paragraph. This should only ever be set to "yes" if the source file was created in a text editor that relies on word wrap to set the line size. Such files usually don't have much structure above and beyond the paragraphs. Unvisited Link Colour --------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Document colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the colour of "unvisited" hyperlinks, that is the colour of the hyperlink before it is selected for the first time. This value is a HTML colour that is used to set the LINK attribute of the <BODY> tag. See also :- [[GOTO "Active Link Colour"]] [[GOTO "Visited Link Colour"]] Use .HTM extension ------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether or not the generated HTML files should have a .HTM extension. The default is to use a ".html" extension, unless DOS-compatible files are requested. This will be enabled whenever [[GOTO "Use DOS filenames"]] is selected. Note this policy may be overridden by the more general [[GOTO "Use .HTM extension"]] policy. Use <CODE>..</CODE> markup -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies that where a code fragment has been detected or marked up, what sort of HTML markup should be used. HTML provides a special <CODE> .. </CODE> markup that is suited to variables being quoted in text, but is not well suited for marking up several lines. In particular, you have to add non-breaking spaces and <BR> markup if you wish to correctly lay out several lines. This makes the resultant HTML harder to read and much larger. For this reason, AscToHTM defaults to <PRE> .. </PRE> markup for code fragments. The only reason for reversing this might be if you needed the <CODE> tag for a particular style sheet to take effect. Use <DL> markup for defn. paras ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether or not definition paragraphs should be marked up using <DL><DT>..<DT> <DD>..</DD></DL> markup. The default is "yes", but if you find that too much text is being marked up this way, either disable this policy of disable [[GOTO search for definitions]]. Use <EM> and <STRONG> markup ---------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether <EM> and <STRONG> markup should be used in preference to <I> and <B> when placing text in italic or bold markup. Strictly speaking <EM> and <STRONG> should be used as these are "logical" as opposed to "physical" markup. The preference has become a near religious decision which I avoid, by giving you this policy so you can choose (if you really care) Use <P> markup for paragraphs ----------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Style Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether <P> or <BR> markup should be used for paragraphs. In most browsers <P> markup produces more white space with apparently a "blank line" placed between paragraphs. A <BR> doesn't have this effect. You should use this policy if you wish to reduce the amount of white space in your output document, in which case you should also review the [[GOTO "ignore multiple blank lines"]] policy. This policy is switched on by default. We don't recommend you change this, especially if you plan to use the font and CSS abilities being added in V4.0 and above. Use CSS to implement fonts -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Style Menu location : Output -> Fonts Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This tells the program that Cascading style sheets (CSS) should be used to implement any font markup. CSS is new in HTML [[TEXT 4.0]], and is a more efficient way of implementing fonts than using the <FONT> tag (which is being phased out from HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] onwards). You should leave this policy unchanged, unless you experience trouble with your fonts. Note, CSS is incompatible with HTML [[TEXT 3.2]], whilst the <FONT> tag is incomparable with "HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Strict". Both may be used in "HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Transitional". Use DOS filenames ----------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : File generation Menu location : Output -> File generation Command line option : /DOS Related directives : n/a This specifies whether or not the names of the generated HTML files must be DOS compatible. This policy has the same effect as using the /DOS qualifier on the command line. If selected the filenames will all have a ".HTM" extension, and be given upper case names. Any file name whose root exceeds 8 character will be shortened by keeping the first 3 characters, and adding a unique 5-digit number derived from the longer name. See also :- [[GOTO "DOS filename root]] Use Preprocessor ---------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Dynamic analysis policy]] Policy file section : Preprocessor Menu location : Analysis -> preprocessor Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy tells the program whether or not the preprocessor should be used. If it isn't used, then all preprocessor directives are ignored and a straight conversion from input to output files occurs. Note: If this policy is set to "no", all related preprocessor policies will have no effect. We don't normally recommend you change this. Use any existing contents list ------------------------------ Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Contents Menu location : Output -> Contents List Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a This policy specifies whether or not you wish to use any existing contents list found in the source document. If you disable this option, any contents found will be discarded. A contents list will only be added if you select the [[GOTO "add contents list"]] policy Use first heading as Title -------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the first heading in the document may be considered as a candidate for the document title. See the discussion in [[GOTO "Document title"]]. Use first line as Heading ------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4.2* Specifies that the first meaningful line in the document may be considered as a heading as the start of the document. "Meaningful" in this context means a line recognised by the program as a headings which is more that 2 characters long once trimmed of all leading and trailing white space. Use first line as Title ----------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Title, description etc. Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that the first meaningful line in the document may be considered as a candidate for the document title. "Meaningful" in this context means a line recognised by the program as a headings which is more that 2 characters long once trimmed of all leading and trailing white space. See the discussion in [[GOTO "Document title"]]. $_$_SECTION RESERVED Use of HTML 4.0 entities code ----------------------------- Possible values : -1,0,1,2 or 3 Default value : 0 (varies according to version of HTML being produced) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not HTML entities introduced in HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] may be used. Normally this follows the version of HTML being generated ([[TEXT 3.2]] for the SEC or [[TEXT 4.0]] for Merrill). The different browsers support these entities to differing degrees. The failure mode when not supported also varies. The possible values for this policy are as follows:- -1 all known HTML 4.0 entities may be used 0 no HTML 4.0 entities may be used 1 symbols not supported by Opera 3.5 are allowed 2 symbols not supported by Opera 3.5 or NN4.x are allowed 3 symbols not supported by Opera 3.5, NN4.x or IE4.0/IE5.0 are allowed The defaults values are HTML 3.2 0 (none allowed) HTML 4.0 1 (Matches NN4.x and above, but not Opera 3.5) $_$_SECTION ALL $_$_SECTION MERRILL Use incremental indentation markup ---------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies that - for tagged indentations - incremental indentation may be attempted. This only applies when generating HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] code. The program places most text inside <P> tags set inside "blocks" of indent. Each block is roughly 20 units, so an indent of 50 requires an "incremental" indent of 10 on top of the two blocks of 20. Incremental indentation can only be achieved using CSS STYLE tags, using the margin-left and marin-right attributes. Dues to bugs in Netscape, this implementation cannot currently be used reliably. $_$_SECTION ALL Use Landscape mode ------------------ Possible values : Text string Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ For conversions to RTF only, this specifies whether or not the document should be placed in Landscape mode. If omitted document will default to portrait mode. Use main footer in footer frame ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ This has exactly the same effect as [[GOTO "Use main header in header frame"]], but this time for footers. See the discussion in that section. See also :- [[GOTO Use main header in header frame]] Use main header in header frame ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : Yes Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Frames Menu location : Output -> Frames Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version 4* _Only applies to FRAMES production when HTML is being generated_ When this policy is set the software will attempt to move any HTML header defined for each page into a header frame. This allows the same policy file to be used for both FRAMES and non-FRAMES generation. In non-FRAMES generation the supplied header will be included at the top of each page generated. If this policy is enabled, then in FRAMES generation the supplied header will be placed in a header frame, and omitted from each page generated. This means the header will always be visible in the header frame, as the generated pages are displayed and scrolled in the main frame. Further modification of this behaviour is possible by using the [[HYPERLINK URL,"tag_manual_3.html","HTML fragments"]] feature to define specific HTML fragments to be used in particular frames. See the section on HTML Fragments in the Tag Manual. See also :- [[GOTO Use main footer in footer frame]] $_$_SECTION RESERVED Use of Microsoft entities code ------------------------------ Possible values : -1, 0, 1, or 2 Default value : -1 (all values allowed) Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Merrill Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Specifies whether or not HTML entities introduced in HTML by Microsoft. These entities lie outside the HTML standard, but many are supported by other browsers mainly because they don't want to look bad when displaying pages authored using these entities. Non-Microsoft browsers generally lag behind in implementing these entities, which . The failure mode when not supported also varies. The possible values for this policy are explained below -1 - all known Microsoft entities may be used 0 - no Microsoft entities may be used 1 - all symbols except the EURO, and "s caron" allowed 2 - as above, plus the EURO and "s caron" The default value follows the version of HTML being produced as follows HTML 3.2 Value is -1 (all allowed) HTML 4.0 Transitional Value is -1 $_$_SECTION ALL Use of RTF Styles ----------------- Possible values : 1,2,3... Default value : 1 Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ This policy specifies how you want the software to apply RTF Styles to the text during conversion. The software can place text in styles according to the Analysis as follows. The styles are divided amongst a number of $_$_BEGIN_DIAGRAM Normal (generic normal text style) | +-- 1 Body (main body text) | | | +--- 11 ShortLine (short lines) | +--- 12 Bullet (bullets and numbered lists) | +--- 13 Quoted ("quoted" text as found in emails) | +--- 14 Hanging (hanging paragraphs) | +--- 15 Definition (definitions) | +-- 2 Table (Table text) +-- 3 Preform (preformatted text) +-- 4 Diagram (diagrams) +-- 5 Code (code samples) | +-- 6 Heading (generic heading style) | | | +--- 61 Heading1 (level 1 headings) | +--- 62 Heading2 (level 2 headings) | +--- 63 Heading3 (level 3 headings) | +--- 64 Heading4 (level 4 headings) | +--- 65 Heading5 (level 5 headings) | +-- 7 TOC (generic TOC style) | | | +--- 71 TOC1 (level 1 TOC entry) | +--- 72 TOC2 (level 2 TOC entry) | +--- 73 TOC3 (level 3 TOC entry) | +--- 74 TOC4 (level 4 TOC entry) | +--- 75 TOC5 (level 5 TOC entry) o $_$_END_DIAGRAM How the software marks up the text in styles depends on the value of this policy as follows 1 All of the above styles are available 2 Only the major styles Normal, Headings, Table, Fixed and TOC are used 3 Only the style "Normal" is used Use original bullet text ------------------------ Possible values : Text string Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF Menu location : Output -> RTF Settings Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a _Only applies to RTF generation_ *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]]* For conversions to RTF only, this specifies whether or not the bullet characters in the original text should be used as the bullet markers in the generated RTF. Normally RTF uses special bullet symbols, but these can cause problems if you want to cut and paste the RTF text into a plain text editor. If this policy is enabled, the marker in the original source will be copied to the output. If this policy is disabled, the result will then depend on the [[GOTO Characters to use for bullets]] policy. $_$_SECTION RESERVED Use percentage widths in tables ------------------------------- Possible values : Yes/No Default value : No Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Tables Menu location : (only available by editing policy file) Command line option : n/a Related directives : [[HYPERLINK TAGGING, "TABLE_USE_PERCENTAGES"]] For tagged tables only, this specifies whether or not the WIDTH attribute added to the <TABLE> tag should be expresses as a number of pixels or as a percentage. There was some experimentation to see whether tables were rendered best when the width was specified or not, and in percentages or not. The conclusion was that most browsers are safer rendering in percentage terms, although results do vary. If pixel sizes are used, difference in font sizes between browsers can cause cropping and overprinting. This policy is best left to be set automatically by the software, and may be removed in later versions. See also :- [[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]] $_$_SECTION ALL Visited Link Colour ------------------- Possible values : [[GOTO HTML colours]] Default value : "" Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : Added HTML Menu location : Output -> Document colours Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a Identifies the colour of "visited" hyperlinks, that is the colour of the hyperlink after is has been selected at least once. This value is a HTML colour that is used to set the VLINK attribute of the <BODY> tag. See also :- [[GOTO "Active Link Colour"]] [[GOTO "Unvisited Link Colour"]] WinHelp Resource File --------------------- Possible values : yes/no Default value : no Policy scope : [[GOTO Fixed output policy]] Policy file section : RTF help file Menu location : Output -> Make Help File Command line option : n/a Related directives : n/a *New in version [[TEXT 4.2]] _Only applies to RTF generation_ If you are attempting to create a WinHelp file for one of your own software applications you will need to supply the name of the .hm resource file from your project that defines the topic IDs that your software will want to be defined in the help file. This .hm file will be added to your project file and is a crucial link between IDs used in your software, and topics defined in your help file. See also :- - [[goto Make Windows help source file]] $_$_SECTION MERRILL 6 The Rule sets introduced for Merrill ====================================== Two rule sets have been introduced for Merrill. These are called "SEC" and "Merrill". There was discussion of introducing others for proofing or for customer copies, but these were never implemented. In any case a rule set is simply a device for avoiding the need for or shorting the policy file used, so new sets of rules can be invented through the policy file device. 6.1 Policies common to both SEC and Merrill rule sets Policies common to both rule sets are primarily used to disable all the intelligent analysis that the program would attempt by default. $_$_BEGIN_TABLE //- default page layout [[GOTO Page Width]] 80 [[GOTO Text justification]] Justified (Indents) (none) //- Added RTF [[GOTO First line indentation (in blocks)]] 0 //- switch off policies that will be explicitly controlled via // Merrill Tags [[GOTO Keep It Simple]] No [[GOTO Expect numbered headings]] No [[GOTO Expect Underlined headings]] No [[GOTO Expect Capitalised headings]] No [[GOTO Expect Numbered bullets]] No [[GOTO Expect Alphabetic bullets]] No [[GOTO Expect roman numeral bullets]] No [[GOTO Expect Code Samples]] No [[GOTO Look for white space]] No [[GOTO Look for MAIL and USENET headers ]] No [[GOTO Look for preformatted text]] No [[GOTO Look for indentation]] No [[GOTO Look for short lines]] No [[GOTO Look for bullets]] No [[GOTO Look for quoted text]] No [[GOTO Look for horizontal rulers]] No [[GOTO Look for hanging paragraphs]] No [[GOTO Search for definitions]] No [[GOTO Search for emphasis]] No [[GOTO Attempt TABLE generation]] No [[GOTO Ignore multiple blank lines]] Yes [[GOTO Add TABLE WIDTH markup]] Yes [[GOTO Use percentage widths in tables]] Yes [[GOTO Minimise HTML file size]] Yes [[GOTO Break up long HTML lines]] No //- Tagging [[GOTO Monitor tag generation]] No [[GOTO Remove redundant tags]] Yes [[GOTO Start tag delimiter]] "[_[" [[GOTO End tag delimiter]] "]_]" //- switch off hyperlink generation [[GOTO Create NEWS links]] No [[GOTO Create Gopher links]] No [[GOTO Create Telnet links]] No [[GOTO Create FTP links]] No [[GOTO Cross-refs at level]] 0 (none) //- Generate a contents list [[GOTO Add contents list]] Yes [[GOTO Contents style code]] 1 (not bolded) //- Markup [[GOTO Use <EM> and <STRONG> markup]] No [[GOTO Add <P> inside list usage code]] 1 (use <P> on all bar first para) //- Messages [[GOTO Suppress URL messages]] Yes [[GOTO Suppress INFO messages]] No [[GOTO Suppress WARNING messages]] No [[GOTO Suppress TAG ERROR messages]] No [[GOTO Suppress PROGRAM ERROR messages]] No //- Font details [[GOTO Base FONT Size in pts]] 10 [[GOTO Delta FONT size in pts]] 0 [[GOTO Add FONT markup]] Yes [[GOTO Add FONT SIZE markup]] Yes [[GOTO Apply FONT to empty table cells]] Yes // Note, CLASS and STYLE attributes will be filtered out // in HTML 3.2 production [[GOTO Label style classes]] Yes [[GOTO Add FONT STYLE markup]] Yes [[GOTO Colour tables with DOT_LEADERS]] No //- table spacing // Don't want *any* padding, because we rely on adjacent cells to // make the gutter text align correctly, and we don't want a visible // gap in numbers like (123) -> "(123" + ")" [[GOTO Default TABLE cell spacing]] 0 [[GOTO Default TABLE cell padding]] 0 $_$_END_TABLE 6.2 The SEC ruleset The SEC rule set is intended for publishing documents in compliance with SEC filing rules. In broad terms this rule set is aimed at giving HTML 3.2 compliance (or rather the SEC's view on this), and code that may be viewed in a V3 browser (ditto). The HTML code makes non-standard use of <UL> tags for indentation and can additionally contain non-HTML tags to mark up REDLINE sections, although those tags are stripped by the SEC before the HTML goes public. Also the HTML allows the use of non-standard Microsoft character entities. [[GOTO Avoid tag breaks]] Yes [[GOTO Create mailto links]] No [[GOTO Create hyperlinks]] No [[GOTO List markup code]] 1 (Use <DL> markup) [[GOTO Indentation markup code]] -1 (Use <UL>) [[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]] -1 (all) [[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]] 0 (none) [[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]] No [[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]] No 6.3 The MERRILL ruleset ----------------------- The Merrill rule set is intended for producing documents suitable for use on customer's Intranet sites. In broad terms this rule set is aimed at giving "HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Transitional" compliance. It uses a mixture of CSS and <FONT> markup (HTML [[TEXT 4.0]] Strict would disallow the <FONT> tag). The HTML code produced is, I believe, fully standards compliant (something the smarter customer should insist on). [[GOTO List markup code]] 1 (use <DL> markup) [[GOTO Indentation markup code]] 2 (use <DIV STYLE>) [[GOTO Use incremental indentation markup]] Yes [[GOTO Use of Microsoft entities code]] -1 (all) [[GOTO Use of HTML 4.0 entities code]] 1 (supported by NN4 and above, not Opera 3.5) [[GOTO Create embedded style sheet]] Yes $_$_SECTION ALL