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Formatting lost in User Tool...a better way?


Matt Ātack

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I have been trying to make a user tool but its just not working out. I've taken perfectly formatted word docs and converted them into .html files (also tried .pdf to .html conversion using acrobat pro) and when they are uploaded to accordance a great deal of the formatting is lost and it would be massively time consuming to correct it manually as the document is several hundred pages.

 

Is there a better program to use than Word or Acrobat Pro? Is there a different type of .html that works better or something? Or is the Accordance User Tools feature not that great? I noticed that it now automatically searches for bible references (a feature that theWord has had for years). I've used theWord (which is a FREE software) and have been able to make user modules without any difficulty. This is a feature that in my opinion needs the greatest attention. I realize that Oaktree is a business and doesn't want people distributing modules that they otherwise sell but we desperately need to open things up just a bit. There are hundreds of thousands of open source books available on the internet with no realistic way to get them into Accordance. We need a module creator tool...even if we had to purchase it! Some way to import pdfs or epubs or the like.

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The reality is that it takes days, weeks, or months for our experienced developers to create full Accordance modules from the variety of formats that etexts arrive in. If there was a way to automate this, we would use it ourselves. If there was such a way, making it fool-proof for the user would be a further massive undertaking.

 

Yes, we have many plans for improving our user modules, but an automated conversion to a fully formatted tool just isn't possible, at present anyway.

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Did you use word for MAC or word for windows to generate your html files?

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Did you use word for MAC or word for windows to generate your html files?

Word for MAC. Is one better than the other?

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I have found that word for windows solves a lot of the niggling formatting issues. The MAC version looses the spaces at the end of lines and if there are any italics it does not seem to recognise when they stop. It also seems to lose the formatting of some headings and make some paragraphs bold italic. The windows version seems much better on the condition that when you create the HTML file you save it as HTML,filtered. This option is not available in the mac version.

 

When loading it into Accordance the HTML file from windows seems to take a lot longer. if you have a large file It can take so long that you think it is not working - but give it time and it should work. I have certainly found much better results from it.

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I have found that word for windows solves a lot of the niggling formatting issues. The MAC version looses the spaces at the end of lines and if there are any italics it does not seem to recognise when they stop. It also seems to lose the formatting of some headings and make some paragraphs bold italic. The windows version seems much better on the condition that when you create the HTML file you save it as HTML,filtered. This option is not available in the mac version.

 

When loading it into Accordance the HTML file from windows seems to take a lot longer. if you have a large file It can take so long that you think it is not working - but give it time and it should work. I have certainly found much better results from it.

 

This proves to be epically better. There are a few minor things that didn't cross over correctly but I think I can figure them out save this: In my word document I have footnotes. Is there anyway to have these cross over into accordance? The superscript shows up like this: [15]

But there is no footnote to be found. I don't just mean there is not link but the I can't even find the content of the footnotes in the html when viewed in accordance.

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If I have had any footnotes in documents then they have not generally been MS WORD defined footnotes. I'm not sure how well word footnotes would come across into Accordance, if at all. I think that the Accordance import tool only works with a subset of HTML tags although someone from Accordance would have to confirm that. It would certainly not link the footnote number to the footnote.

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Hi Steve and Chairsteleos,

yes accordance only supports a subset of the html tags. A list can be found in the help files atfile:///Applications/Accordance%2010.2a1.app/Contents/Resources/Accordance%20Help/Default.htm#topics/05_dd/html_import.htm%3FTocPath%3DDigging%20Deeper%7CCreating%20Your%20Own%20Modules%7CUser%20Tools%7CImporting%20to%20a%20User%20Tool%7C_____3

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