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Material Format

It is essential that an effective format be established and maintained for the development and presentation of technical material. Here are some general guidelines:

• Requirements
  • Ease of information exchange, subject matter delivery
  • Efficient and effective preparation of text material for pdf / web
  • Efficient and effective preparation of mathematical equations for pdf / web
  • Efficient and effective preparation of graphics for pdf / web
• Solution
  • Delivery
    • Ultimate delivery format is to be pdf since it is the de facto standard, is compressed and any application that prints can generate it. An HTML front end (captured to pdf if desired) will be used for hyper linking the various modules. A fully web based approach is not advised because current html language standards do not permit adaquate control of page layout nor is it possible to zoom in on items of interest if desired. In contrast, pdf files are faithful representations of the original documents. In Acrobat Reader, the pdf file viewer, the user has full control over document viewing, including scale and rotation. There is a good article at http://www.hypertextnavigation.com/infoaxcs.htm by Michael Hoffman on the need for an evident document structure (ie a good TOC), whether on the web or on paper. The ability to jump around on the web does not remove the need for the reader to see a structure.
  • Text
    • Adobe FrameMaker would allow hyper links to be preserved in pdf files but Compose, an Acrobat plug-in, can compensate for that and FrameMaker poses a steep learning curve for potential authors. Therefore, nix to FrameMaker for now. Thus standard word processors such as WordPerfect and Word and other common office applications will be used to develop educational modules that can be mixed and matched. From there, pdf documents will be produced and annotated to make the final product for delivery (textbooks, classroom lectures, CD-ROM and web-based material). Word prints to pdf better than Word Perfect because someone devised a macro to retain bookmarks. Therefore, Word is the preferred word processor to be used for CANTEACH, especially when graphical issues are considered (see below). It imports wmf files without the problems that WordPerfect sometimes has in the subsequent printing to pdf.
  • Math
    • MathType is a superset of the new equation editor used in WordPerfect and the equation editor used in Word, the two most popular document formats. MathType installs itself in both these word processors and equations prepared in the subset editors migrate to MathType directly. MathType also exports to a variety of formats for the web and can be used standalone for creating equations for insertion into drawing packages, etc. MathType will be extended to include the emerging web standard for math, MATHML, so the growth path is there and the time and effort involved in creating a library of equations is protected.
    • Other standard formats exist, like Latex, but overall, MathType is the most mainstream, is easy to use, can do all that is needed and fits well with the model for this project: standard office application tools that we are all familiar with, the use of pdf and the use of the web.
  • Graphics
    • Graphics are stored either as raster images (bmp, jpeg, tif, gif, pcx, ...), ie pixel by pixel, or as Scalable Vector Graphics, SVG, (wmf, ai, wpg, ...). Most applications read and write to these formats. Line drawings are best saved and manipulated as vector graphics to reduce file sise and permit scaling without losses. Sometimes we only have a raster image and need to turn it into a vector image. Wmf seems to be the universal exchange format for vector based images. Several drawing packages (Adobe Illustrator, Flash ...) can vectorize a raster image but results are spotty. Best to get the vector source.
    • Incorporation into a word processor and the subsequent publication to a pdf file presents a few obstacles. Most graphical applications can save to wmf format, which can be read by standard word processors. Problems have been encountered, especially with Word Perfect, however, when the pdf files are produced; diagrams come out blurry, even using Adobe Distiller, a product specifically designed to counter such translation problems. This is probably an WordPerfect internal font issue. A number of applications were tested with the following results:
      • Visio 2000 - this is a standard office product that works well in general but the wmf graphics do not scale properly when the drawing is imported into Word Perfect and resized . Gif exports work well but a sufficiently high resolution is needed to avoid the ragged edges. Visio, now a MicroSoft product, interfaces well with Word.
      • Corel Draw - this package works acceptably well but native Corel Draw graphics in WordPerfect do not translate to pdf well. Conversion to wmf is required.
      • Adobe Illustrator - this is a well established program and a favourite among graphic artists. It integrates well with Adobe Acrobat, not surprisingly.
      • Macromedia Flash is an animation package for the web but it produces excellent results and exports to a variety of formats. Imports into word processors and translation to pdf is excellent for wmf and for gifs. File size is reasonably small. It is as good as the other packages but lacks the array of predefined objects that Visio has. However, Flash still graphics can easily be extended to include animation and thus represents an excellent growth path for the development of future learning material. Plus, Flash is superior to typical drawing tools for sketching out ideas, tracing images, etc. Thus Flash is recommended.
      • Inspiration Pro is a mind-mapping tool that is very handy for dumping ideas into boxes and charting them as concept diagrams. It imports into Word and WordPerfect well. It has a large library of shapes to enhance the maps. Good tool.
    • Diagrams, figures, drawings, etc, can be prepared via many commercial packages. Any graphic tool is acceptable as long as the files can be saved in a standard format and imports into Word correctly. Visio and Flash are the 2 best drawing editors; Visio is best for block diagram manipulation, Flash is best for details, curve manipulation, etc.
  • Summary of preferences:
    • Delivery format: html for overviews + pdf for details.
    • Text: MS Word.
    • Math: MathType.
    • Graphics: Visio and Flash, others as needed.
• Web Site Creation 101 - An Example Web Site for Nuclear Engineering Education: How and Why (pdf 102kb).
• An example of the format for authors (pdf 31kb).
• An example of a 'captured' web page with embedded pdf pages showing how web pages can easily be blended with pdf text documents (pdf 164 kb).
• Enabling Extremely Rapid Navigation in Your Web or Document - an article, by Michael Hoffman, calling for strong structure in web sites (pdf 110kb).
• MathType - for equation editing, a superset of the editor used in Word an WordPerfect.
• HTML, PDF and TXT: The Format Wars - the pros and cons from the Journal of Electronic Publishing.
• From Paper to Web, a book by Tony McKinley, does just what the title implies -- it provides strategies for merging the worlds of print and electronic documents.