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The HTML versions of this document has, of course, been produced using AscToHTM itself, no post-processing has been done to the HTML pages produced. The contents list, the navigation bar and all the hyperlinks have been generated from a single source file a2hdoco.txt (approaching 4,000 lines and still growing having spawned the 5,000 line Policy manual) and a few small configuration files.

See section 6.1 of this document to see a list of the actual files involved.

Any RTF version has been generated by the new text-to-RTF program (name yet to be chosen) which uses the same analysis engine as AscToHTM.

This document describes AscToHTM version 3.2, which will be available in Autumn 1999

1.1 AscToHTM's design objectives

1.1.1 Intelligent analysis.
1.1.2 Human-readable HTML
1.1.3 Simple user input
1.1.4 Standards compliance.

1.2 Expected uses of AscToHTM
1.3 Other uses of AscToHTM

2.1 VMS installation
2.2 Windows installation

2.2.1 InstallShield version
2.2.2 Simple .ZIP file version
2.2.3 Console application

3.1 The big assumption
3.2 The analysis pass
3.3 The collating pass
3.4 The output pass

3.4.1 Generating HTML
3.4.2 Generating a contents list
3.4.3 Splitting the document into many HTML pages

4.1 Windows version

4.1.1 Launching the program

4.1.1.1 Normal activation
4.1.1.2 Execution from a command line
4.1.1.3 Drag'n'Drop execution

4.1.2 Using the Windows Interface

4.1.2.1 Doing a straightforward conversion
4.1.2.2 The File menu
4.1.2.3 The Conversion options menu
4.1.2.4 The Settings menu
4.1.2.5 The View menu
4.1.2.6 The Language menu
4.1.2.7 The Help menu

4.1.3 Program settings

4.1.3.1 Documentation
4.1.3.2 Diagnostics
4.1.3.3 Drag and drop execution
4.1.3.4 Results viewers
4.1.3.5 Use of policy files

4.2 VMS and console application versions

4.2.1 Command line arguments
4.2.2 Command line qualifiers

4.2.2.1 The /CONSOLE qualifier
4.2.2.2 The /CONTENTS qualifier
4.2.2.3 The /DEBUG and /LIST qualifiers
4.2.2.4 The /DOS qualifier
4.2.2.5 The /INDEX qualifier
4.2.2.6 The /LOG[=filespec] qualifier
4.2.2.7 The /OUT=filespec qualifier
4.2.2.8 The /POLICY qualifier
4.2.2.9 The /SILENT qualifier
4.2.2.10 The /SIMPLE qualifier

4.3 Getting the most from AscToHTM

4.3.1 Making your first attempt

4.3.1.1 From the command line
4.3.1.2 From Windows

4.3.2 Refining your results

4.3.2.1 Using a policy file
4.3.2.2 Using a link dictionary
4.3.2.3 Using multiple policy files
4.3.2.4 Creating DOS-compatible files
4.3.2.5 Use the pre-processor and in-line tags

4.3.3 Processing several files at once

4.3.3.1 Using wildcards
4.3.3.2 Using a steering command file

4.3.4 Generating log files

4.4 Other tips and tricks

4.4.1 General
4.4.2 Link dictionary
4.4.3 Contents List detection
4.4.4 Using "Send to" in Windows 95/NT
4.4.5 Tables

5.1 Text layout

5.1.1 Indentation
5.1.2 Hanging paragraph indents
5.1.3 Bullets

5.1.3.1 Bullet chars
5.1.3.2 Numbered bullets
5.1.3.3 Alphabetic bullets
5.1.3.4 Roman Numeral bullets

5.1.4 Centred text
5.1.5 Definitions

5.1.5.1 Definition lines
5.1.5.2 Definition paragraphs

5.2 Text formatting

5.2.1 Quoted lines
5.2.2 Emphasis

5.3 Added hyperlinks

5.3.1 Contents List lines
5.3.2 Cross-references
5.3.3 URLs
5.3.4 Usenet Newsgroups
5.3.5 E-mail addresses
5.3.6 User-specified keywords

5.4 Section headings

5.4.1 Numbered headings
5.4.2 Capitalised headings
5.4.3 Underlined headings
5.4.4 Numbered paragraphs
5.4.5 Mail and USENET headers

5.5 Pre-formatted text

5.5.1 Lines and form feeds
5.5.2 User defined pre-formatted text
5.5.3 Automatically detected pre-formatted text

5.5.3.1 Tables
5.5.3.2 Code samples
5.5.3.3 Ascii art and diagrams
5.5.3.4 Other formatted text

5.6 Added value markup

5.6.1 Document Title
5.6.2 Contents lists

5.6.2.1 Contents lists in default conversions
5.6.2.2 Contents lists in conversions to a single HTML file
5.6.2.3 Contents lists in conversions to multiple HTML files

5.6.3 Directory page
5.6.4 Headers, footers and JavaScript

6.1 An example conversion
6.2 Analysis policies

6.2.1 Overview ("look for") policies
6.2.2 General Layout policies
6.2.3 Bullet policies
6.2.4 Headings
6.2.5 Pre-formatted text
6.2.6 Contents List policies

6.3 Output policies

6.3.1 Added HTML details
6.3.2 Hyperlinks
6.3.3 File generation
6.3.4 Contents
6.3.5 Preprocessor policies
6.3.6 Style
6.3.7 Table Generation
6.3.8 Link Dictionary
6.3.9 Directory Page

6.4 Saving and loading policy files

6.4.1 Overview
6.4.2 Generating policy files for your document

6.4.2.1 Partial policy files
6.4.2.2 Full policy files

6.4.3 Naming policy files

7.1 Marking up sections of text

7.1.1 User SECTIONS
7.1.2 TABLE and DELIMITED_TABLE sections
7.1.3 CONTENT sections
7.1.4 HTML sections
7.1.5 CODE sections
7.1.6 DIAGRAM sections
7.1.7 PRE (pre-formatted text) sections
7.1.8 IGNORE sections

7.2 Commands that influence the <HEAD>..</HEAD> of a file

7.2.1 The TITLE command
7.2.2 The DESCRIPTION command
7.2.3 The KEYWORDS command
7.2.4 The STYLE_SHEET command

7.3 One line pre-processor commands

7.3.1 The INCLUDE command
7.3.2 The HTML_LINE command
7.3.3 The CONTENTS_LIST and NAVIGATION_BAR commands
7.3.4 The LINERULE command
7.3.5 The TOC (table of contents) command

7.4 The TABLE commands
7.5 The CHANGE_POLICY command

8.1 Format of inline tags
8.2 Summary of in-line tags

8.2.1 BR
8.2.2 COLOUR <value>
8.2.3 CONTENTS_LIST
8.2.4 ENTITY
8.2.5 FONT
8.2.6 GOTO
8.2.7 HTML
8.2.8 HTML_COMMENT
8.2.9 HYPERLINK
8.2.10 LINKPOINT
8.2.11 NB or SPACES
8.2.12 SOURCE_FILE
8.2.13 SUPER and SUB
8.2.14 TEXT
8.2.15 TIMESTAMP

9.1 Purchasing AscToHTM

9.1.1 Why should I purchase AscToHTM?
9.1.2 What happens if I don't register the shareware version of AscToHTM?
9.1.3 Can't I get something for nothing?
9.1.4 I'm convinced. How to I purchase AscToHTM?

9.2 Contacts on the Web

9.2.1 The home page
9.2.2 E-mail
9.2.3 Support

10.1 Bug reports
10.2 Features
10.3 Coming soon... or not.

11.1 Version 1.01 (April '97)
11.2 Version 1.04 (early July '97)

11.2.1 Bug fixes
11.2.2 New functions
11.2.3 Other changes

11.3 Version 1.05 (late July '97)

11.3.1 Bug fixes
11.3.2 New functions
11.3.3 Other changes

11.4 Version 1.1 (August '97)

11.4.1 Bug fixes
11.4.2 New functions
11.4.3 Other changes

11.5 Version 2.00 (October '97)

11.5.1 Bug fixes
11.5.2 New functions
11.5.3 Other changes

11.6 Version 2.10 (never officially released)

11.6.1 Bug fixes
11.6.2 New functions
11.6.3 Other changes

11.7 Version 2.20 (Feb '98)

11.7.1 Bug fixes
11.7.2 New functions
11.7.3 Other changes

11.8 Version 2.3 (late April '98)

11.8.1 Bug fixes
11.8.2 New functions
11.8.3 Other changes

11.9 Version 3.0 (August '98)

11.9.1 Bug fixes
11.9.2 New functions
11.9.3 Other changes

11.10 Version 3.2 (October '99)

11.10.1 Bug fixes
11.10.2 New functions
11.10.3 Other changes

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Converted from a single text file by AscToHTM © 1997-99 John A. Fotheringham