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Subject:Re: Links from HTML to Word documents From:"Christensen, Kent" <lkchris -at- sandia -dot- gov> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Jul 2001 10:50:28 -0600
re: I have been asked to provide links from an HTML page to specific points
in a Word document, (i.e., 'Click here to go to Chapter 1,and so on).
Donal has replied "I don't think it's possible to link to a Word bookmark,"
and I don't dispute that. Rather I'd like to offer my humble view that the
whole concept is the wrong way to go.
First of all, it's pretty easy to just perform file/save as html in
Word--following which you can create anchors in the html document to which
your links can point. It's likely you should break large Word files into
small html files, perhaps a file per chapter.
I think it's important to discuss the notion that Word is not now nor has it
ever been a good vehicle for transferring information to be viewed on
screen. Rather, it's a vehicle for preparing information for printing.
Lots of things are different about these two goals.
Clearly there are the ergonomic issues. The Word document prepared for
printing likely features a serif font and is likely designed to cover the
whole page from left side to right side. In contrast, material prepared
exclusively for screen viewing is said better presented in sans serif fonts
and in narrower columns. Borders for tables are often useful for paper
printed material but might prove just clutter for screen viewing.
There are some technical problems, too. The Word document is designed
around the template normal.dot (and/or others) that existed on the document
creator's computer and which is not available to anyone viewing the document
from a Web server. This means there is no guarantee the person viewing the
document sees it the same way its creator intended ... which is not too cool
I think. Also, of course, there is really no guarantee the viewer even has
the same fonts available at his/her workstation. Lots of this is overcome
on tightly configured intranets, of course, but individuals are always free
to modify their normal.dot and what if they dial in from home? Another
"technical" problem is that there is a 15-sec. delay for Word to open and
then open the document whenever a "doc" link is clicked. Of course, when
another html link is clicked, the time required is just to load the
document, since the browser is obviously already open--more user friendly, I
offer.
In conclusion, and again IMHO, the Web is for viewing and Word is for
printing and there are just too many incompatibilities to merit combining
the two. "Quick and dirty" will look it.
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