RE: Quark -> XSL -> XML

> Does anyone have any experience with converting a Quark
> document to XML?
>
> Is it even possible?

We've done quite a bit of QuarkXPress-to-XML conversion - but it's one of
the more difficult conversions to control.

Our general approach is to first convert the Quark document to a more
neutral format, such as RTF, and then convert that format to an XML
vocabulary that is very good at capturing styles and formats, but is
otherwise semantically and structurally weak.

The final step is to map that "style captured" XML to the target XML
vocabulary using XSLT transformations. I am of the opinion that the
difficult part of any conversion, regardless of the format of the source, is
the creation of that logical mapping from unstructured (as implied by styles
and formats) to structured form.

The additional difficulty with Quark files involves the handling of stories
(flows), which aren't always ordered in convenient ways (at least not
convenient for conversion).

--------
Pete Beazley  mailto:pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ClearlyOnline, Inc.  http://clearlyonline.com
XML and XSLT Training & Consulting


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