Html As Doc Format

ConstEdit is a word processor that writes documents in the html format. Why bother to choose html as the format for office or personal documentation purposes, instead of sticking with old formats that are already widely used such as doc, docx, odt or rtf ?

widely-used and future-proof document format

The fact is that html is the most widely used document format. It is the de facto standard of all internet webpages. This format is practically future-proof because of its popularity. You don't have to worry that the format of your documents will one day become obsolete and have to go through another round of converting old documents to some more modern format.

Html as a document format in fact is already supported by various popular desktop document editors such as LibreOffice Writer. There is absolutely no worry that the format will one day become unsupported for editing.

Share your documents more easily

By using html as the format for documentation, there is no need to invest on installing any special software for viewing the documents. Your favorite web-browser will do the job because your documents are actually webpages. You can share your documents more conveniently. Your documents are viewable in all common computer operating systems, whether it be Windows, Linux, or Android. This is a document format that is truly cross-platform and cross-device.

For Bloggers

For bloggers, there is an additional benefit of supporting html. While regular word processors are not meant for webpage designers, you can, at least with ConstEdit, copy the underlying html source code conveniently from ConstEdit to the clipboard. If your blog authoring tool accepts html source code (e.g. Google Blogger), you will find it very handy to insert complex html elements such as tables into your own webpage. Or you can do it the other way round, copy data directly from webpages into your document, without loss of the formatting.

Total Separation of content from formatting

A shortcoming of common word processors is that you have to set the formatting of your sections, section titles, sub-sections, tables,... etc at the same time when you are writing your document. A significant % of your effort is thus wasted, while you, as the author, should be concentrating only on the authoring part.

The html format overcomes this by separating the presentation layer from content authoring. Formatting is done through an external stylesheet, which pre-defines how relevant html elements, such as sections, section titles, sub-sections or tables, are formatted in the document which the stylesheet is assigned to.

Styling is done automatically according to the stylesheet, at the same time while you are writing the document. For example, when a new section is inserted, the new section is already rendered with the designed style with the correct numbering on it; when you demote a main section to becoming a sub-section, the numbering on the section title is updated immediately and the section is re-styled as a sub-section. There is no more need to set the styling manually and repeatedly.

Another advantage of using external stylesheets is that you can change the look of old documents to become more modern or stylish by simply updating the stylesheets, without touching these documents. All documents pointing to the stylesheets will have the new fresh look the next time they are opened. This benefit is particularly valuable in a business environment where a standard and consistent document formatting style is often desired.

ConstEdit provides a function for you to design and create your own stylesheets for styling documents to your own taste.

Sections structure management with html5

The document outline in traditional word processors is not defined directly within the underlying code of the document, but is inferred indirectly from the formatting styles of headers. A document section in this sense is a collection of paragraphs separated by text formatted with the various header styles. Again the author has to spend a significant amount of his/her effort on keeping track of the formatting styles of all the headers used within the document.

Html5 provides elements specially designed for the purpose of document sectioning. There is no longer any need to do any kind of document structure inferring. A section is now simply a Section element. You insert a section by inserting a Section element directly, no more messing with header styles formatting. With html5, you can visualize your document structure more easily. This is particularly useful if you are used to writing your documents in the top-down approach; i.e. you determine the document structure first, and then go into the detail of each section.

Html5 sectioning elements are used in ConstEdit. You can visualize the big picture of your document easily and manage sections structure with drag-and-drop. This is much like novelists re-arranging their storyboards.