austraLasia #2243


An Aussie invention worth a try - it won't bite, or bounce!

BRISBANE: 31st August 2008 -- Here is a part-solution that can be adopted by almost any reader who produces word-processed documentation of any kind. It is free and open source software courtesy of the University of Southern Queensland. 

    'Solution' implies a problem - most word-processed documents are produced inefficiently, allow for only a single delivery environment (print) and will not stand up easily to long-term preservation.  If you think seriously about those three issues, you begin to realise that 'born digital' docs these days, in the hands of us ordinary types, are a mess! I am proposing a simple, single solution to all three problems, as developed by USQ's 'ICE' project. ICE stands for Integrated Content Environment. The entire project offers much, much more than we are presenting here, but what you have here is enough for now.
    A part-solution to the inefficiency-delivery-preservation trio is to encourage people to use 'styles' in either Word, Writer, or ......  But they don't, or won't! In Word, styles are not all that easy to apply; in Writer they are measurably easier, but it still requires effort and many do not know why you would want to use them anyway. 
    But if you had them staring at you and could see that it's easier to use them than do anything else, then why wouldn't you?
   
    USQ worked out that to get their students and staff to use them they had to (1) develop a style set that would work across Word and Writer in exactly the same way and (2) could be a toolbar add-in (Word) or extension (Writer).  They have achieved both!
    The page I will send you to will explain how to add an add-in or an extension ... you can have the toolbar up and running in minutes in your favourite word-processor. Word users go to http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/templates/ice_toolbar_addin.htm and Writer to http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/templates/ice_toolbar_ext.htm
   
    How will it make you more efficient?  The styles will cover your normal writing structure needs (think 'format', but it actually that is secondary), so hitting 'p' for a paragraph or 'T' for a title and so on is much easier than creating blank separator lines, emboldening and choosing larger fonts styles and so on. Writing this way is much easier, much quicker, and the result is far more efficient for reasons explained below.
    How will it enable flexible delivery? A document created this way will be logically structured and utterly consistent - it will therefore convert, even using Word or Writer's rather messy 'save-as-xhtml' commands, to valid xhtml for the web [but see below, 2nd tip, for a much better conversion method]. In Writer's case the pdf output will be better. Your structured content enables re-use of bits of the content with no other work than cut-and-paste. The real end-point to flexible delivery, however, is the rest of the ICE system which doesn't concern us for now. You can read about it on their pages if you wish. Please note that two items on the toolbar, the HTML and Atom possibilities, will not work without the full ICE setup. Just ignore them.
    How will it enable long-term preservation? Because it simplifies eventual conversion into XML which is the secret to long-term preservation. If I were to take your ICE-prepared document, for example, and put it into SDL the original and the xml converted version will be a better bet in the long term future for anyone who wishes to read it, long after Word and Writer have disappeared from this world. Writer users have their documents in xml natively, possibly without their even knowing it, but a machine knows it and can read it.
   
    I have indicated that this is a part-solution. You could further enhance this approach by downloading the ICE Template for Word and Writer (go here in both cases  and take the .dot for Word and .ott for Writer:  http://ice.usq.edu.au/svn/ice/downloads/latest/templates/ ). That would enable you, if you wish, and you may, to alter the Times Roman 11 pt font to something larger and more aesthetic by adjusting the template once installed, and to alter header arrangements.  Of course, what it really says is that a full solution is to  always employ templates based on styles. ICE merely gets you used to that.
    You could do worse than to try the toolbar as a start.  jbf
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And while we are at it, did you ever want a simple, efficient, high quality document converter?  E.g. to get a Word document into pdf, or any kind of office document into any other kind of office document?  Then use a small java program to do it. Free of cost, of course! The online converter is at http://www.artofsolving.com/online-document-converter . There is no point in paying for something that can be done better for nothing. Getting pdf into Word (in fact .rtf, which can be opened in Word or Writer) can be a bit more tricky. But there is no better online service for this than www.koolwire.com . Most people believe this kind of conversion can only be done at cost.  Not true. Koolwire does it for nothing.
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 AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.  It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.  For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there.  Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org

Title: australasia 2243
Subject and key words: SDB General, useful infotech tips
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2243