Re: word processor document format: what parts?

[Jean-Baptiste <jbnivoit ix netcom com>]

Mauro Condarelli wrote:
> 
> > Timothy Ritchey wrote:
> > >
> > > > > 2) Bob is a word clone.  It is a wordprocessor.
> > > > >       <MUCHO SNIPO>
> > > > However, I tend to think that the
> > > > distinction between an SGML editor and a WP is a false dichotomy.
> > > > My proposal would be to implement it that way: structure for full SGML
> > > > editing -- and then allow for a limited mode that only understands
> > > > typical WP stuff.
> > >
> > > To say something is a "WORD" replacement is only commenting on the
> > > interface. If someone doesn't know (or care!) if the underlying
> > > structure is SGML, then that should work too. Fankly, I would LOVE a WP
> > > that I could pound out a quick letter, WYSIWYG fasion, print it out, and
> > > forget about - all in SGML. I don't see why we have to have one and not
> > > the other. My goal would be to create SGML for the masses as it where.
> > I don't think this is really realistic, because most documents created
> > with word processors barely have a structure: people only care about the
> > look, and most of the time, they don't think of applying a structure to
> > their
> > document and *then* change the style of the various elements of the
> > structure. Now if everyone could use this, it would be wonderful.
> 
> I think he has a point here.
That's the result of dealing with this kind of problem all day long ;-)
 
> I can testify i know a lot of MS-Word [l]users who still type some tabs at
> the beginning of the line instead of using indentation (and hard break the
> lines). This seems to be common practice for the address and data at the
> beginning of a letter (while the letter body is free-flow, thanks God!).
> Finding documents using something else than "normal" is quite difficoult.
Now using tabs to imitate some sort of very basic presentation happens
all the time: most users don't care (or most often don't know about 
structure), they only want something that is formatted nicely, and that
prints approximately the same (well, that's what Word has got them used
to, 
at least).
 
> Forcing this kind of users to use styles could be a challenge.
> Could we think something like automatically creating a new style when
> the user does some formatting?
Yes. That is what my train of thought was leading me to. When a user
changes
the style of a paragraph, for instance, maybe it is an occasion for
adding
a new styled element to the stylesheet..

> We could pop up a menu with the nearest style and ask for a confirm or
> the request for a name to tag the new style.
Good idea, i think, it would also probably avoid that they create
hundreds
of style elements, when they really only need 5 or 10..

> IMHO this shouldn't be too annoying and the user could learn fast to re-use
> previously defined styles.
This would force us to impose some structure on their document, and
*that* could
be annoying (people don't like to structure, it forces them to think).
	
		jb.