Chapter 8 Text

The one portion of multimedia that everyone feels familiar with is text. Text files form one of the largest segments of the multimedia developer's base of information. Many multimedia applications will be mainly text driven— developed by converting a book into an online multimedia application.

The target format for Windows with Multimedia is either straight ASCII or Rich Text Format (RTF—output by Word for Windows). Whenever you convert text files, however, you invariably lose some original formatting. You still must add the proper formatting, indexing, and other referencing tags to make the text useful. This chapter provides an overview of the three main ways to get your text into a form compatible with Windows with Multimedia.

Retyping it

Scanning it in from print

Converting it through the use of a computer program.

With the proliferation of word processors, desktop publishing programs, and electronic typesetting systems, almost everything currently being printed also exists in one electronically readable format or another. If the issues associated with text preparation seem overwhelming, you have another alternative: pay someone else to do it. There are a number of data preparation houses that will gladly take your money and your text and return a finished product.

Note:

The Rich Text Format (RTF) is documented in the Word for Windows Technical Reference, available from Microsoft Press.