HTMLDOC On-Line Help

Contents

Loading and Saving Books

HTMLDOC stores the HTML files, settings, and options you have chosen in .BOOK files. The buttons on the bottom of the HTMLDOC window allow you manage these files and generate formatted documents.
Button Description
Help Displays this on-line help.
New Creates a new .BOOK file.
Open... Opens an existing .BOOK file.
Save Saves the current .BOOK file to disk.
Save As... Saves the current .BOOK file to disk using the name you specify.
Generate Generates the current .BOOK file into a HTML, PDF, or PostScript file.
Close Exits HTMLDOC.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Input Tab

The input tab lists all of the source files that are used to generate the document. You can also specify the type of document (book or web page) and the title and logo images.

Setting the Document Type

Normally HTMLDOC generates indexed documents from your structured source files. To convert a single unstructured document (or "web page") click on the Continuous or Web Page radio buttons. The Web Page type inserts page breaks between each file or URL, while the Continuous type does not.

Structured HTML files use heading elements (H1, H2, etc.) to delineate chapters and headings within a document.

Adding Input Files

Click on the Add File(s)... button to add one or more HTML or Markdown files to your .BOOK file.

Adding URLs

Click on the Add URL(s)... button to add one or more URLs to your .BOOK file.

Deleting Input Files

Highlight the file(s) in the input file list and then click on the Delete button to remove one or more source files from your document. The files are removed from your document but are not deleted from disk.

Editing Input Files

Highlight the file(s) in the input file list and then click on the Edit... button to edit one or more source files in your document. By default this starts the gedit editor under Linux, the bbedit editor under macOS, and the Notepad editor under Windows.

The editor can be changed in the Options Tab.

Reordering Input Files

Highlight the file(s) in the input file list and then click on the Move Up or Move Down buttons to change the order of the input files.

Selecting a Letterhead Image

The letterhead image can be shown in the header or footer of pages in the PostScript and PDF output files. Click on the Browse button to select a letterhead image file using the file chooser.

Selecting a Logo Image

The logo image can be shown in the header or footer of pages in the PostScript and PDF output files. Click on the Browse button to select a logo image file using the file chooser.

Selecting a Title File or Image

The title file or image is used for the title page. Click on the Browse button to select a title file using the file chooser.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Output Tab

The output tab specifies where your document will be generated, the output format, and some of the output options.

Selecting File or Directory Generation

HTMLDOC can generate a single EPUB, HTML, PDF, or PostScript file, or a series of files to a directory when generating HTML or PostScript output.

Click on the File radio button to select single file output. Click on the Directory radio button to generate multiple files to a directory.

Selecting an Output File or Directory

The output file is the EPUB, HTML, PostScript, or PDF file you wish to generate from your source files. Click on the Browse button to select an output file using the file chooser.

Selecting the Output Format

Click on the corresponding Output Type radio button to select an output format. You can select the PostScript language level in the PS Tab and the PDF version in the PDF Tab.

Selecting Grayscale Output

When generating PostScript or PDF files you can choose to convert all images to grayscale. This is necessary for many Level 1 printers that do not support color images and can reduce the size of output files considerably.

Click in the Grayscale check box to enable or disable grayscale output.

Title Page

The title page is the first page in your generated file. Click in the Title Page check box to turn the title page on or off.

JPEG Big Images

JPEG compression is a great way to reduce the size of large photographic or continuous-tone images. It is supported when generating PDF, PostScript Level 2, and PostScript Level 3 output. HTMLDOC uses JPEG compression when the output image cannot be reduced to 256 colors or less.

Click in the JPEG Big Images check box to enable or disable JPEG compression.

JPEG Quality

Drag the JPEG Quality slider to change the JPEG quality setting. The JPEG quality setting determines the relative quality of the compressed image. Since JPEG is a lossy compression algorithm, higher compression generally yields lower quality. Typically a quality of 75 or higher provides excellent image quality with a high amount of compression.

Compression

PDF 1.2, PDF 1.3, PDF 1.4, and Level 3 PostScript files can be compressed using Flate (a.k.a. ZIP) compression to substantially reduce the size of files. Drag the Compression slider to set the amount of compression to use.

Unlike JPEG, the Flate algorithm is lossless and will not cause any loss of visual quality at any level of compression.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Page Tab

The page tab defines the page header, footer, size, and margins for PostScript and PDF output.

Page Size

The page size option is only available for PostScript and PDF output. HTMLDOC supports the following standard page size names:

Click on the Page Size arrow button to select a standard page size. You can specify a custom page size by double-clicking on the page size text and entering the page width and length separated by the letter "x". Append the letters "in" for inches, "mm" for millimeters, or "cm" for centimeters.

Note: This option does not set the page size on the printer. It only generates pages using the specified size. See the PS Tab to enable printer commands for PostScript printers.

2-Sided

Click in the 2-Sided check box to select double-sided (duplexed) output.

Note: This option does not select duplexing on the printer. It only generates pages with the left/right margins swapped on even numbered pages and forces all chapters (and the table-of-contents) to start on an odd-numbered page. See the PS Tab to enable printer commands for PostScript printers.

Landscape

Click in the Landscape check box to select landscape output.

Page Margins

The left, right, top, and bottom margins can be changed by clicking in the appropriate text field and entering a new margin. Append the letters "in" for inches, "mm" for millimeters, or "cm" for centimeters.

Header and Footer

Select the desired text from each of the option buttons to customize the header and footer for the document/body pages. The left option buttons set the text that is left-justified, the middle buttons set the text that is centered, and the right buttons set the text that is right-justified.

The left and right header and footer are swapped automatically when generating duplexed output.

Number Up

The Number Up chooser selects the number of document pages that will appear on each output page. Click on the chooser to select a different number of pages.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Table-Of-Contents Tab

The table-of-contents tab defines the number of levels in the table-of-contents and the page header and footer that are used when generating PostScript and PDF files.

Customizing the Table of Contents

To change the number of header levels listed in the table of contents, or to turn off table-of-contents generation entirely, click on Table of Contents chooser and select the number of levels desired.

Numbering Table of Contents Headings

To number the headings in your document, click on the Numbered Headings toggle button.

Customizing the Header and Footer

To customize the header and footer for the table-of-contents pages, select the desired text from each of the option buttons. The leftmost option buttons set the text that is left-justified, while the middle buttons set the text that is centered and the right buttons set the text that is right-justified.

Title

Enter the desired title for the table-of-contents in the Title field.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Colors Tab

The colors tab specifies the colors and background image that should be used for the document.

Body Color

The Body Color field specifies the default background color. It can be a standard HTML color name or a hexadecimal RGB color of the form #RRGGBB. Click on the Lookup... button to pick the color graphically.

Body Image

The Body Image field specifies the default background image. Click on the Browse... button to pick the background image using the file chooser.

Text Color

The Text Color field specifies the default text color. It can be a standard HTML color name or a hexadecimal RGB color of the form #RRGGBB. Click on the Lookup... button to pick the color graphically.

Link Color

The Link Color field specifies the default link color. It can be a standard HTML color name or a hexadecimal RGB color of the form #RRGGBB. Click on the Lookup... button to pick the color graphically.

Link Style

The Link Style chooser specifies the default link decoration.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Fonts Tab

The fonts tab contains all of the document font options. The default options roughly correspond to those used by most browsers.

Base Font Size

Click on the left arrow buttons to decrease the font size and the right arrow buttons to increase the font size.

The font size value is in points (there are 72 points per inch).

Line Spacing

Click on the left arrow buttons to decrease the line spacing and the right arrow buttons to increase the line spacing.

Body Typeface

The body typeface is the font used for paragraphs and most other text in a document. Click on the Body Typeface option button to change the body typeface.

Heading Typeface

The heading typeface is the font used for headings. Click on the Heading Typeface option button to change the typeface used for headings.

Header/Footer Size

Click on the left arrow buttons to decrease the heading and footer font size and the right arrow buttons to increase the font size. The font size value is in points (there are 72 points per inch).

Header/Footer Font

The header/footer font is the font used for headers at the top of the page and footers at the bottom of the page. Click on the Header/Footer Font option button to change the header/footer font.

Character Set

Click on the Character Set option button to change the encoding of text in the document.

Options

The Embed Fonts check box controls whether or not fonts are embedded in PostScript and PDF output.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The PS Tab

The PS tab contains settings specific to PostScript output.

Language Level

Select the appropriate language level by clicking on the corresponding radio button. Level 1 output is the most portable, however most PostScript printers manufactured in the last 6 years support Level 2. Level 3 output supports Flate compression, however very few printers support Level 3 PostScript at this time.

Send Printer Commands

Click in the Send Printer Commands check box to enable to disable printer commands in the PostScript output files. Printer commands are not supported for PostScript Level 1 output.

Include Xerox Job Comments

The Include Xerox Job Comments check box controls whether or not the output files contain Xerox job comments. Click in the check box to enable or disable the job comments.

Job comments are available with all levels of PostScript output.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The PDF Tab

The PDF tab contains settings specific to PDF output.

PDF Version

The PDF Version radio buttons control what version of PDF is generated. PDF 1.4 is the most commonly supported version. Click on the corresponding radio button to set the version.

Page Mode

The Page Mode option button controls the initial viewing mode for the document. Click on the option button to set the page mode.

The Document page mode displays only the document pages. The Outline page mode displays the table-of-contents outline as well as the document pages. The Full-Screen page mode displays the document pages on the whole screen; this mode is used primarily for presentations.

Page Layout

The Page Layout option button controls the initial layout of document pages on the screen. Click on the option button to set the page layout.

The Single page layout displays a single page at a time. The One Column page layout displays a single column of pages at a time. The Two Column Left and Two Column Right page layouts display two columns of pages at a time; the first page is displayed in the left or right column as selected.

First Page

The First Page option button controls the initial page that is displayed. Click on the option button to choose the first page.

Page Effect

The Page Effect option button controls the page effect that is displayed in Full-Screen mode. Click on the option button to select a page effect.

Page Duration

The Page Duration slider controls the number of seconds that each page will be visible in Full-Screen mode. Drag the slider to adjust the number of seconds.

Effect Duration

The Effect Duration slider controls the number of seconds that the page effect will last when changing pages. Drag the slider to adjust the number of seconds.

Options

The Include Links check box controls whether or not hyperlinks are included in PDF output.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Security Tab

The security tab allows you to enable PDF document encryption and security features.

Encryption

The Encryption buttons control whether or not encryption is performed on the PDF file. Encrypted documents can be password protected and also provide user permissions.

Permissions

The Permissions buttons control what operations are allowed by the PDF viewer.

Owner Password

The Owner Password field contains the document owner password, a string that is used by Adobe Acrobat to control who can change document permissions, etc.

If this field is left blank, a random 32-character password is generated so that no one can change the document using the Adobe tools.

User Password

The User Password field contains the document user password, a string that is used by Adobe Acrobat to restrict viewing permissions on the file.

If this field is left blank, any user may view the document without entering a password.

Contents | Loading and Saving Books

The Options Tab

The options tab contains the current HTML editor and allows you to save the current settings as defaults.

HTML Editor

Type in the program name in the HTML Editor field or click on the Browse... button to change the HTML editor that is used. The "%s" is required and is replaced by the file to edit.

Browser Width

Drag the Browser Width slider to specify the width of the browser in pixels that is used to scale images and other pixel measurements to the printable page width. You can adjust this value to more closely match the formatting on the screen.

The default browser width is 680 pixels which corresponds roughly to a 96 DPI display. The browser width is only used when generating PostScript or PDF files.

Search Path

Enter a list of directories in the Search Path field to specify a search path for files that are loaded by HTMLDOC. This is usually used to get images that use absolute server paths to load.

Directories are separated by the semicolon (;) so that drive letters and URLs can be specified.

HTTP Proxy URL

Enter the URL for the HTTP proxy in the HTTP proxy URL field to specify a proxy host for all HTTP requests.

Tooltips

Check the Tooltips button to enable tooltips on GUI controls.

Strict HTML

Check the Strict HTML button to enable strict HTML conformance checking in HTMLDOC.

Save Options and Defaults

Click on the Save Options and Defaults button to save the current HTML editor, page, table-of-contents, color, font, PDF, and PostScript options. Default options are used for new documents and when generating documents from the command-line.