ozean wrote:
Shouldn’t it be possible to open and read the xml file anywhere? You have to unzip the xml and then open it in a text editor / word processor. That way you would always have access to the text (and the images) in the file.
Technically true, but the average user is likely to be confused by the perhaps 1000 lines of Mellel-specific style info and formatting that starts every Mellel XML file... not to mention that _at best_ you would only get the plain text out.
Not a dead loss, but I strongly suspect that the average user wants more than wading through a complicated tag soup in order to get completely unformatted text.
And shouldn’t it also be possible to use the HTML converter that someone wrote to transform the MelXML into HTML?
Yes. Moreover, it is relatively straightforward (due to the nature of XML) to write other converters. I have a OpenDocument (i.e. OpenOffice/KOffice) conversion half written in addition to the aforementioned HTML converter. I may even get around to releasing it one day! A Word XML converter is also technically possible, although I haven't had the time to seriously play around with such a thing.
Shouldn’t it be possible to open and read the xml file anywhere? You have to unzip the xml and then open it in a text editor / word processor. That way you would always have access to the text (and the images) in the file.
Technically true, but the average user is likely to be confused by the perhaps 1000 lines of Mellel-specific style info and formatting that starts every Mellel XML file... not to mention that _at best_ you would only get the plain text out.
Quite. The XML format is more of an insurance policy for a sad future day when there's no software that reads and renders Mellel XML as formatted text.
I have a OpenDocument (i.e. OpenOffice/KOffice) conversion half written in addition to the aforementioned HTML converter. I may even get around to releasing it one day!
The sooner that day comes, the better. Your work would make Mellel about twice as useful to me (and I suppose to lots of other people too), assuming that the export would preserve style names, so the output could be restyled in OpenOffice or exported from there and restyled in Word, or poured into InDesign. If the convertor would also work the other way, bringing in styled text from OpenOffice files, it would double Mellel's usefulness again.
I have no XML expertise or I'd offer to help. I'll happily do some beta testing, though.
