| The LaTeX2HTML Translator |
|
Drakos/Moore |
|
Miscellaneous commands for HTML effects
Subsections
The html package, through the LATEX input file html.sty,
and its Perl counterpart html.perl, implements several
new commands that are intended entirely for effects within the
produced HTML files. In LATEX these commands, their arguments,
and any optional arguments are completely ignored.
\htmlrule and
\htmlrule*
One such device provided by html.sty,
is the \htmlrule command.
This puts a horizontal rule into the HTML file only;
being ignored in the .dvi version.
It is useful to provide extra visual separation between paragraphs,
without creating a new HTML page,
such as might warrant extra vertical space within the printed version.
Much variation can be obtained in the horizontal rule that is produced,
using extended forms of the \htmlrule command:
\htmlrule
\htmlrule*
\htmlrule[<attribs>]
\htmlrule*[<attribs>]
Whereas a ``break'' tag <BR> normally precedes the <HR> generated
by the \htmlrule command,
this break is omitted when using the \htmlrule* variant.
Furthermore, the optional argument <attribs> can be used to specify
attributes for both the <HR> and <BR> tags.
More specifically, <attribs> should be a list of attribute-names
and/or key-value pairs <key>=<value> separated by spaces or commas.
This list is parsed to extract those attributes applicable to the <HR> tag,
and those applicable to the <BR> (with the unstarred variant).
Using HTML 3.2, this allows variations to be specified for:
- the (vertical) thickness of the horizontal line in pixels: SIZE=<num>;
- the (horizontal) width of the line in pixels or points: WIDTH=<width>;
- alignment: WIDTH="..."
taking left, right or center;
- removal of the shadowed effect NOSHADE;
- positioning of the rule with respect to text-flows:
CLEAR="..."
taking left, all, right or none.
Some examples of these effects appear on
this page.
\strikeout{<text>}
With this command the <text> is processed as normal in the HTML version,
then placed between <STRIKE>...</STRIKE> tags.
Thus a horizontal line should be drawn through the middle of the <text>.
Currently the command and the <text> are ignored in the LATEX version.
\tableofchildlinks
As an extra aid to navigation within a long page,
containing several (sub)subsections or deeper levels of sectioning,
there is the \tableofchildlinks command.
This does not generate anything new, for a table of the child links
on or from a page is generated automatically by LATEX2HTML.
However if this command, or its variant \tableofchildlinks*,
occurs within the source code to appear on a particular HTML page,
then the child-links table will be placed at that point
where the command occurs.
Normally a break tag <BR> is inserted to separate the table of child-links
from the surrounding text. The \tableofchildlinks* omits this extra break
when it would result in too much space above the table.
For example throughout this section of the manual,
all subsections in which several explicit commands have been discussed
have their child-links table placed at the top of the page,
using \tableofchildlinks*.
This helps to quickly find the description of how the commands are used.
\htmlinfo
Normally an ``About this document...'' page is created at the end
of the HTML document, containing technical information
about how the document was created, by whom, or any other information
contained in the $INFO variable.
This information can be made to appear at any other place within the document
by specifying \htmlinfo at the desired place in the source.
For example, the information may be best suited for the title-page.
The variant \htmlinfo* places the information, but leaves out the
standard ``About this document...'' header.
Instead the \htmlhead command
can be used to place an alternative heading, prior to the \htmlinfo* command.
Neither this heading nor the $INFO contents appears
in the LATEX typeset version.
\bodytext{<options>}
The text and background colors, and colors for the text of hypertext links can
be set on an HTML page by giving appropriate attributes
with the <BODY ...> tag. This is particularly easy to do
using the \bodytext command,
which simply inserts the <code> as the desired list of attributes.
Warning: Any previous settings for the <BODY ...> tag
are discarded. Furthermore no checking is done to verify whether the given <options>
indeed contains a list of attributes and values valid for the <BODY ...> tag.
When using \bodytext you are assumed to know precisely what you are doing!
Other packages contain commands which alter the contents of the <BODY ...> tag;
notably the color.perl implementation of LATEX's color package,
and the (prototype) frames package, by Martin Wilck and Ross Moore.
In both these packages the requested information is checked for
validity as an attribute within the <BODY ...> tag.
\htmlbody{<options>}
This is similar to the \bodytext command, except that it adds the
value of an attribute, or allows an existing value to be changed.
Thus it can be used to alter just a single one of the text and background colors,
colors for the text of hypertext links or add a background pattern.
The <options> are given as key-value pairs; some checking is done to ensure
the validity of the attributes whose values are being set.
\htmlbase{<URL>}
This specifies that the given <URL> be included in the <HEAD> section
of each HTML page via a tag:
<BASE HREF="<URL>".
Such a feature is particularly useful...
- when preparing a document whose final location may be different from where it was created;
By making all internal references be relative (to the the provided <URL>),
a whole directory tree containing the document
and all its subparts can be moved to elsewhere.
A single edit in each HTML file produces the complete document intact
at the new location.
- by allowing just single page to be copied to another location, but act as if it were
part of the original document (provided this is accessible across the Web).
Relative URLs within the copied page are relative to the base <URL>,
rather than relative to the new location.
- Other uses for this feature are likely to become apparent.
\HTMLset{<which>}{<value>} and
\HTMLsetenv{<which>}{<value>}
The \HTMLset command provides a mechanism whereby an arbitrary
Perl variable can be assigned a value dynamically, during the LATEX2HTML processing.
A variable having name `$<which>' is assigned the specified <value>,
overwriting any value that may exist already. The \HTMLsetenv is for the same purpose,
but it is expanded in order as if it were an environment, rather than a command.
Warning: This is intended for Perl programmers only.
Use this command at your own risk!
\latextohtml
expands to the name LATEX2HTML, of this translator.
Commands for parts of names of important LATEX packages are also
included with LATEX2HTML: e.g. TEX, LATEX, AMS, XY.
(This is to make it easy to refer to these products, in a consistent way
within the HTML pages; you may still need LATEX definitions
for the typeset version.)
To: Active Image Maps
