CART Publisher Demo

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txt\using.txt
using|right||Using CARTHTML

Here we will try to explain, step by step, how to use CARTHTML.

For a start there should be a file: README.TXT that explains how to install the the software and run it for the first time. Unless you are reading this over the internet you have already gotten that far, including preparing thes demonstration pages.

Now you want to create some pages of your own.

There are two steps in this process.

First you need some data.

Second you need to prepare a configuration file.

These tasks are best tackled together or at least with a good understanding of both but you probably have data that you prepared before you stumbled on CARTHTML. So we'll tackle that probability first.

We'll start with the data.

As was mentioned in the Overview The only thing that matters is the file name so spend a few moments thinking about how you might name your files.

The trend seems to be away from the concise naming schemes that were forced on us by the old 8.3 format dictated by DOS. However there was something to e said for that standard, namely that it was a standard. It forced a consistancy that is no longer the norm but if you did develop your file naming habits in that environment this is going to be easy.

The simplest data set that CARTHTML considers is the single article, composed mostly of text and images with the occasional table or database.

All it takes to prepare such an article in the format presented in the Demo Article included in this set is to have all these files start with the same characters and to tell the software what those characters are.

In the example above the string "art" was chosen so all the files had to start with "art".
Thats all there is to it!
The files are sorted before they are assembled so you can tune things a bit by selecting your file names so that they sort in the order you want them presented but other than some Formatting and Linking options there is really nothing more you can do. If you examine the files and file names along with the Demo Article that was created from them it won't take long to figure out what is going on.

However there are a couple of problems.

1. You probably did not prepare your paper with an ASCII editor.

and

2. You probably have it all in one big file, whereas CARTHTML does a better (or at least more complete) job with more but smaller files.

The easiest way to deal with both of these issues is to bring up the document in whatever software you used to create it, then cut and paste the text into an ASCII editor such as "EDIT" or "NOTEPAD" and save it using an appropriate file name.
Easy!

To make it even easier you might want to add the CARTHTML formatting codes to the text while it is still in the word processor. This you do by going to the beginning of some text you want enhanced (Bolded for instance) (or a font change) and press "Enter" so that it begins on a new line. Then type in "{B}" or "{-1}" in front of it and another "Enter" at the end of the string.
There should be enough formating options available to satisfy those authors who actually have material to present. The "Medium before the Message" crowd will want to look elsewhere.

This done you should chop your document into its logical groups and add some linkages.

Start with the images as these require only the name change and perhaps some adjustments as to size and format.
Name them with your starting string plus numbers so that they will be preseneted in the order you want [string]001.gif [string].002.jpg etc.
Other support files such as database tables and comma delimited files are handled in the same way.

@@To be continued

and then there are the configuration files
There are two ways to create these, the easiest is to open one of the sample files with a text editor such as "EDIT" or "NOTEPAD" and modify it to suite. The other is to give a new name when you are asked for a configuration file and enter the modifications as prompted. You can get a feel for how this works by entering "article" at the prompt (this will prepare the demoarticle as a seperate document set).

Unfortunatly the editor for the multi page config files (.ch2) does not yet work so for such data sets you are stuck with the former option.

Another option is in the works in the form of a GUI Configuration Editor The use of this tool will be self-evident as long as you know what belongs in the different fields so take a look at the annotated examples configuration file .CH1 and configuration file .CH2 and at the current configuration files ARTICLE.CH1 , DEMO.CH1 and DEMO.CH2

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