On 30/09/2020 14:41, Wendell Piez wapiez(_at_)wendellpiez(_dot_)com wrote:[...]
> To Word Styles, I would like to add Word Outlining to the list of
> features that are exploitable. [...]
I'm surprised it's not used more, particularly by those who loved the
outliners people used in the days of DOS systems.
> [...] And how does one convince authors to learn and use such a
> feature, much less respect the validation and the design constraint
> it represents?
Authors who are accustomed to writing structured text (documenters and
most academics) don't have a problem with the constraints but are
sometimes surprised to find that (in XML) you can run a check on
structure and that it's even part of the editing software's job to keep
the structure in line with the type of document.
The concept of "type of document" is a major stumbling-block. To many
writers, all documents are the same: they just include or exclude
certain features.
Convincing them to learn and use these features is a lost cause while
publishers require Word (or perhaps LaTeX for math) and there is no
editing software — yet — that can adhere to a schema/dtd AND export
seamlessly to Word including a specific publisher's named styles AND
re-import seamlessly from the publisher's Word post-editing.
At least not that I have seen, but I may have missed it. Many excellent
editors come close in some aspects of this, but there is nothing you can
hand to a writer and say, "Hey, try this!" and they can just sit down
and use it without a training course.
Peter
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