[HP4GU-FAQ] possible solutions to the FAQ problem

[Paul Kippes]

I've checked with Heidi about using the FA server.  Space is not a
problem.  And I would have no problem setting up a special area (or
two) for HPFGU stuff and give everyone on this list the FTP info to
do updates.  This would allow us to distribute the upload effort.

The only reason I used that initial MS Word converter is it was the
ONLY one I found that handled footnotes correctly.  If we could place
a ban on footnotes, I'm certain we could maintain everything as a MS
Word document for those of us who have no decent HTML editor. 
FictionAlley uses a decent MS Word converter although it doesn't
maintain footnote info.

Since the files are few, moving shouldn't present much of a problem. 
If you package them up send them my way.  Yahoo Mail will allow up to
a 2 meg attachment.


--- hp_lexicon <hp_lexicon at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hey, gang:
> 
> When I originally offered to place the FAQs on the Lexicon
server
> it 
> was because nothing else was being offred and everything was at
a 
> standstill. The result was that we went from a lot of talk and a

> bunch of files in different formats that no one could access to
a 
> working site. At that time we talked about the fact that I was 
> already very busy with the Lexicon and wouldn't have time to do 
> frequent updates and that no one would be able to do the final 
> uploading except me, but even with those things it was still the

> best alternative we had. 
> 
> We tried to find ways for the files written in various formats,
> from 
> Word to pure text to heavily-tagged HTML, to be standardized
into a
> 
> form that would be easily uploaded to the server, but there
didn't 
> seem to be a way to do that. Paul had some kind of conversion
thing
> 
> going for a while there, but it still didn't do all editing that
> was 
> necessary, such as placing the index at the top of the page,
making
> 
> the layouts consistent, and so on. As a result, any file
uploaded 
> required quite a bit of my time to get it into usable form. That

> really was a problem for me since I don't a lot of extra time, 
> especially during the school year. 
> 
> I have absolutely no problem with moving the FAQs to another
server
> 
> so that someone else could take over editing and maintaining
them. 
> It's fine with me. What we would need to do is set up the space
and
> 
> just move the files. There aren't very many of them. Depending
on 
> how we move them, we may need to do a bunch of link-tweaking,
but
> so 
> be it. 
> 
> There is a better solution, in my opinion. If we want to leave
them
> 
> on the Lexicon server, we need to attack the problem of all the
> time 
> it takes for me to convert the wide variety of formats and
layouts 
> and styles of the original files. The way to do that is to
enlist 
> someone to do that formating for me so all I have to do is the
> final 
> upload. It's not that hard to do--it's pretty simple, actually.
If 
> someone wants to take the time to learn to use an editor like 
> Composer (sorry, no FrontPage or Word, they mess up the code 
> terribly) they could easily make the final pages and then just
> email 
> them to me. I've had people do that with Lexicon pages they were

> working on and it works great. It just means appointing an
editor. 
> I'll work with them so they know the style/formating
requirements 
> for the page and just upload whatever is sent to me.
> 
> Really, that would be the easiest and best solution in my
opinion. 
> No one has to move the files or fix the links or anything. If 
> there's someone who would be willing to take on that job, our 
> problem would be solved. 
> 
> To recap:
> The problem boils down to the fact that I don't have time to do
all
> 
> the editing required to turn raw files into finished pages. If 
> someone would be willing to do that, they can email them to me
and 
> I'll upload them within a day or two. If everyone would rather
move
> 
> the whole site, that's fine too, but it would be more work up
> front. 
> 
> Steve


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