ANNUAL MEETING REPORTS

The ABCs of Conversion

Chair: commonly used on the Internet because software needs, and portions that require Eli Willner of its accessibility to many different com- human tweaking. Data Conversion Laboratory puters. When saving a document as text, Step 2—Decide whether to do it in-house Fresh Meadows, New York choose ASCII as the target format. No or outsource it. Advantages of doing fonts, colors, or point sizes are converted. the project internally include total con- Presenters: • SGML—Standard Generalized Markup trol, absence of security issues, schedule Richard A Wiklund Jr Language. A combination of a coding flexibility, and ease of making changes. Cadmus Journal Services structure and ASCII. Coding structures Advantages of contracting the project Baltimore, Maryland are called document type definitions out are levels of expertise, low drain on (DTDs) and are used to customize ASCII. internal resources, lower cost, increased Robert Kendall Oberteuffer An analogy: different colors may be added accuracy and timeliness, and early identi- Johns Hopkins Medicine Center for Information to a paint base to get custom shades; the fication of major problems. Services DTD tells what “colors” should be added Step 3—Choose a DTD. Two options are Baltimore, Maryland to ASCII to reach the target of SGML. industry standards, such as OVID, and Can require several steps. government-funded public-domain Reporter: • HTML—Hypertext Markup Language. DTDs. Custom DTDs are expensive to Lori Cagle A basic DTD for SGML. Often requires develop, but semicustom DTDs offer a Texas A&M University manual intervention to reach desired end. happy medium by custom-tailoring stan- College Station, Texas • XML—eXtensible Markup Language. New dard DTDs to suit a particular project. technology that streamlines SGML so that Step 4—Choose the right combination of If successful relationships require good it can be used for online publication. human and machine to complete the communication, perhaps a friendlier bond project with maximal quality and minimal can be forged with computers if people learn Wiklund said that the goal of data con- expense. to speak their language. Receiving informa- version is data normalization—changing Steps 5 and 6—Develop a conversion sched- tion in a language unknown to a particular original material in various forms to one ule and create a conversion specification computer is a common source of frustration standard format. Although the process adds that maps out in writing exactly how the in this electronic age. Data conversion, the expense, it also provides opportunities. Con- converted data will look. ability to translate information into other version programs customized to a journal Other planning considerations that Will- forms, has become a valuable skill. style give editors more time for substantive ner noted are quality assurance, implementa- Richard A Wiklund Jr explained data editing. Normalized data can be marketed to tion, and staff education. conversion as the mapping out of steps to other companies, such as OVID, or used to Sharing his experience with data conver- convert an original document (origin) to a create indexes of authors, subjects, or nearly sion, Robert Kendall Oberteuffer presented desired end product (target). Some examples anything else. a case study of an SGML-to-HTML con- of the process are converting WordPerfect Following Wiklund’s answers to what and version. The project was the electronic into Word or SGML into HTML. why, Eli Willner explained how. Strategies for publication of Annals of Thoracic Surgery, The “save as” function is a data-conversion data conversion, Willner said, usually must a monthly journal of 100 to 120 articles, tool. Custom tools can also be developed in involve both software and human interven- each 2 to 7 pages long, with moderate use of the form of macros. tion. The key to successful conversion is to graphics. The project was handled internally, Wiklund described some of the most plan the steps carefully. and Oberteuffer discussed project goals, common text and graphics targets: Willner presented the following steps: conversion options and approaches, tools • PDF—Portable Document Format. A Step 1—Know your data. The amount of (software) and codes used, stages of devel- conversion of the electronic typeset page data, the original and target formats, opment, handling of special characters, and retaining all fonts and layouts. text and cross-reference complexity, and publication steps. He also listed some Inter- • ASCII—pronounced ask´-ee. The lowest type and quality of images must all be net resources for people interested in trying common denominator in data formats analyzed to determine costs, schedules, their own data-conversion project.

CBE VIEWS ♦ VOL 22, NR 6, 1999 ♦ 193