On Tuesday 18 February 2003 04:44 pm, Jonathan Robie wrote:
> People associate the layout with the meaning. If people don't want tags to
> show, I think that a user interface would have to ensure that the only way
> a user could get things to display properly would be to create the right
> XML structures. In other words, allow "styles", which are a visual analog
> to the XML elements being used, but don't allow direct use of fonts.
You can do that in Word already with macros. I've done it for a couple of
customers, and in both cases, the users almost revolted. As it was, people
would use a "Heading 1" when they wanted REALLY BIG letters (sound
familiar?).
Here's the point: people need to be educated as well as coerced through
software, and even then, there *will* be exceptions.
If you think data accuracy is important enough, you *can* build controls into
the systems, but there are both real and intangible costs in doing so. Then
you also have to be prepared for the data formats to evolve... and the costs
that entails.
