Re: MS Word as XML editor?

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@home.com>]

[Williams, Tim]

> I saw a brief once by a guy from i4i and they produce a product called
> S4/Text.  I've seen couple attempts at making an XML editor out of Word
and
> most I've seen rely on the use of 'styles' which most of my authors don't
> use anyway.  This S4 product seems to only use Word as a presentation/ui
> while it as a  complete xml parser running in the background.
> http://www.i4i.com/biz_s4text.htm

 I've played with this and talked to i4i people.  Actually they do some
pretty complicated things.  They do run a parser in the background.  They
use the Office help facility - the one that pops up step-by-step help
boxes - to guide you through the structure (which is based on the dtd).  You
can edit like you would any other document, except that you don't just plunk
in a new paragraph or style, you select from what's offered depending on
where you are.  It maintains a context-sensitive knowledge of where you are
in the dtd.

When you save a document, you get both a Word and xml version.  You write
configuration files do describe structural and behavioral things.

It's quite an accomplishement, but it's a bear to configure, especially if
you don't know how already.

Cheers,

Tom P