Chapter 4--Getting the Best Results

Terry Morse Myrmidon does a very good conversion job on most document types, although certain applications present challenges. Following a few guidelines when creating your documents will help make the best looking Web pages and prevent unwanted "surprises."

Paragraph Justification

Most word processors provide the option to justify text in paragraphs. A justified paragraph lines up the text along both the left column and right column. Most newspapers, magazines, and books use justified paragraphs. To force the right edge of the text to line up, additional space is inserted between words to force the right edges of the lines to match up. HTML does not support justified paragraphs, and Terry Morse Myrmidon may not convert justified text well. Therefore, un-justifying all text in a document is recommended before converting to a Web page.

"White Space"

Terry Morse Myrmidon looks at the layout of a document's printed page to decide how to build the Web page. It doesn't have the advantage of seeing the original document's paragraph breaks or column structure to help make its decisions. Instead, it looks at the white space between objects in the document to guess what layout was intended. If the white space between objects is very small, Terry Morse Myrmidon may not notice the separation and mistakenly run objects together. To prevent this, it is best to provide adequate white space between columns and graphics (1/4-inch is usually enough spacing).

Kerning and Tracking (QuarkXPress & PageMaker)

Kerning and tracking are typographic methods that modify the normal spacing between characters (the two most common programs that perform kerning and tracking are QuarkXPress and PageMaker).