Brief description
This module considers the production of documents using modern digital technologies. Traditional paper as well as World Wide Web documents will be covered. The emphasis will be on the disciplined production of well-structured and consistently presented material.

Problems and techniques in publishing documents in more than one medium and of managing multiple document versions will be covered.

Aims

A wide range of newer techniques for producing well structured documents is developing. This includes enhancements to word-processing and current and future World Wide Web mechanisms. Multiple versions and variants of documents and dissemination through a variety of media are increasingly supported. Many students have a need for and/or an interest in these technologies. In particular, as students are increasingly competent with word-processors when they enter college, they wish to extend that understanding and expertise.
This module (or equivalent experience) will be highly beneficial for all single honours students within Computer Science. It is expected that students from other departments, across all faculties, will find it of value.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to describe and discuss:

• the content, structure and presentational aspects of technical, scientific and of other highly structured documents;
• typical document structure elements including hierarchical sections, floats, lists, footnotes, indexes and bibliography;
• page design and simple typography;
• the problems and possibilities of automatic page layout and multiple format production;
• the basic language elements of LaTeX, SGML, HTML and XML and how they are used to achieve structure in documents;
• the advantages and disadvantages of LaTeX, SGML, Microsoft Word, HTML and XML for particular types of document;
• ways to achieve version control and co-operative document production;
• the fundamental principles and tools of information architecture applied to large web sites;
• the basic use of style sheets in LaTeX, Word, SGML, HTML and XML.

Syllabus

1. Introduction to electronic document production - 3 Lectures
Motivation for the module. Module overview. Overview of the principles of good document production. Document content, structure and presentation; confusion and separation. On-line versus traditional documents.

2. Introduction to Web Infrastructure - 1 Lecture
Client server protocols. FTP, HTTP. URLs and URIs.

3. Typography - 1 Lecture
Introduction to typography and page design. Typography and the WWW.

4. Advanced Use of Microsoft Word - 1 Lecture
Document templates. Integration of Word documents and other files (e.g. spread sheets and graphics). Support for distributed documents. Evaluation of applicability, especially for large, highly structured documents. Support for structure and multiple output formats.

5. HTML - 2 Lectures
Overview. Limited support for structure. Changing support for presentation. Introduction to CSS.

6. XML - 8 Lectures
Brief history and the motivations behind SGML and XML development. Structural overview of the language. The potential and difficulties of designing DTDs; HTML as an SGML DTD, XHTML, Docbook. Design and enforcement structure. Introduction to DSSSL; presentation and manipulation.

7. Mark-up word processing using LaTeX - 3 Lectures
Overview of LaTeX, its advantages and disadvantages compared with WYSIWIG word processors. How does it address principles of good document production? Incomplete separation of presentation and structure. Comparison with XML DTDs.

8. Information Architecture - Web design - 3 Lectures
Efficient use of hyperlinks. Organising information on large web sites.