Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
I've seen output from how Pages makes ePub. It's ghastly. Don't follow Apple.
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To be fair, they've gotten better. When I started writing my first three novels, I was using AppleWorks. At some point, I realized that I wanted more advanced formatting than was feasible using that tool, so I created a bunch of tools that would let me format things in various ways—one formatting style for drafts (double-spaced, squiggle underscore for bold, etc.), another style for final content in hardcover page size, another style for paperback page size, etc.
But in order to do that, I had to find a way to get content out of AppleWorks. So obviously I used its HTML export. Here's a snippet of actual output (edited only to wrap the lines and replace carriage returns with usable line breaks):
Code:
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><BLOCKQUOTE>Chief engineer’s log for April 6, 2333<BR>
</P>
<P><BR>
It has been three days since I upgraded the OS on the core machines to
the latest version. Critical systems are still being handled by my machine
in engineering, while non-critical systems have been transitioned gradually
back to the primary cores.<BR>
We have recently begun to experience new failures similar to those encountered
previously. Trivial investigation suggests that, while many of the attacks may
have occurred through known mechanisms, other forces may be at work.</I><BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
</P>
IIRC, content that looked like this was actually compatible with Netscape Navigator 1.0, and after it broke in Netscape Navigator 2.0, Apple never bothered to update their HTML exporter to make the tags match.
Note that the software in question wasn't discontinued until 2007....