Dispatch Support: File Analysis: Characters

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File Analysis: Characters
Last Modified: 4/4/2000

Dispatch analyzes QuarkXPress Tag Files (.xtg files) in three stages: Dispatch first locates extended or high-ASCII characters and asks for HTML equivalents. Then, Dispatch identifies each Quark Style for proper HTML treatment. Finally, Dispatch asks for HTML replacements for specific fonts. This process only happens the first time Dispatch encounters a new character, style or font.

C H A R A C T E R R E P L A C E M E N T

Within Quark, many publications use characters (usually some kind of punctuation) that haven't been standardized. Examples include "smart" quotes or letters with accents. Because these characters can vary from font to font, there's no way for Dispatch to translate them, so it asks you what they are. You're only asked about each unusual character within a font once.

For each unknown character, you will be given information to help identify what it should be:

What font contained the character
Which file first contained the character
An example of the character in use from one of your files
The character's decimal ASCII value (highlighted in red)

In the example above, highlighted in red (#213), is the ASCII value for the character in question. Ignore the value; it is just a placeholder for where the character appears in your content. From the context above you can see that this character is an apostrophe. Though the character is often obvious in context, you may occasionally need to look at your publication's original Quark file to know what character is being used.

TIP: Dispatch can't just use a character's ASCII value for translation, but when you become familiar with font families, this value can help you identify characters.

Once you know the character you want to use, type it in the "HTML Substitute" text box. The link titled "choose" will open a small browser window containing a character map. If you click on the appropriate substitute in this window, it will be automatically entered into the text box. This feature is useful for hard to find characters such as the copyright or trademark symbols.

IMPORTANT: Do not enter characters that require other keystrokes to compose, such as the 'Control,' 'Command', 'Alt' or 'Apple' keys. Use the choose menu or escape them according to the HTML standard. You may use either the ASCII (é) or name code (é).

TIP: You can place more than one character into the "HTML Substitute" text box. You can enter image pathnames, for instance, to replace art font characters (like a dingbat), or blocks of text/HTML, too. If you do replace a character with an image, we recommend using an absolute URL.

If you are unable to identify the appropriate character, you can insert a placeholder of some sort, such as an HTML comment. Later, when you have found the correct character, you can edit the entry in the Edit Font Settings section of the Dispatch Style Manager. Don't forget to also manually edit the story which contained the character you were unable to identify during import!

>>
File Analysis: Overview

>>
File Analysis: Styles

>>
File Analysis: Fonts

>>
Style Manager

<-- File Analysis: Overview File Analysis: Styles -->

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