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Overview



Before !meDDLe can process a DDL document file the following three steps (at least) are needed:
1) A DDL document file needs to be loaded.
2) A ‘mapping’ needs to be made and confirmed.
3) A directory to hold the output file(s) needs to be set.

Step 1 must be taken first: but after that Steps 2 & 3 can be taken in any order. Any subsequent loading/re-loading of a DDL document file will require Step 2 to be taken again - but there is no need to carry out Step 3 again if the same directory is to be used.


The basic steps


1) A DDL document file needs to be loaded.
This is done by dragging the DDL document file to the iconbar or to the main window.
The result can be seen in the next screen-shot: the Pale Yellow icon in the Input section at the top of the main window reflects the dragged file path, and most of the rest of the icons become enabled.
Note also that the Red text at the bottom of the window is now prompting for the next required user action.

When a DDL document file is loaded the application also automatically scans the file and extracts a list of all Styles actually used in the document (which may not include all the Styles which were available to be used in the source OvationPro document). This list is used in the next step.
Picture Pics/pic002.png


2) A ‘mapping’ needs to be made and confirmed.
Clicking on Show mapping... opens the Mapping window (see next screen-shot) which is simply a 2-column presentation showing the Styles extracted from the loaded DDL file on the left, and the HTML codes that are to be substituted for them on the right. At first, the right-hand column will be empty.
Using the menu buttons on the extreme right (or by loading a previously stored mapping file) the user can choose which HTML codes to substitute for (to ‘map’) any of the Styles. It is not necessary to map all (or any) Styles: those that are not mapped will be ignored in the subsequent processing.
Picture Pics/pic003.png

When new mappings are chosen/loaded - or edited in any way - the changed HTML codes are shown in Red. When the user is happy with the list of mappings it is necessary to click on Confirm mapping before proceeding. All the HTML codes will then change to Black - and the Start processing button in the main window will be enabled (and the Red prompt text will change).

If a set of mappings has been confirmed and subsequent changes to the mapping list are made, then the Start processing button will be disabled again (and the Red prompt text will change correspondingly) - awaiting a new confirmation of the changed mapping.

Note also that clicking on the Confirm mapping button with <adjust> will make the confirmation and close the Mapping window.


3) A directory to hold the output file(s) needs to be set.
The ouput HTML files and any pictures will be placed in a directory of the user’s choice. So this step simply records that choice.
Create the output directory with whatever name and location you wish (or use any existing directory, of course) and then drag it to the main window. The corresponding Pale Yellow icon (in the Output section of the main window) reflects the directory path.
Again, the Red prompt test changes to show the next step. (If you have followed the above three steps in the shown order then the Red text will show “Ready to process ...”. However if you have skipped any of these essential steps the Red prompt will remind you.)

When the above three steps have been completed the Start processing button will be enabled and the Red prompt will show “Ready to process ...”.
If you wish to proceed using the default settings of the other items in the window it is just a matter of clicking the Start processing button.
The meaning of all the other items is contained in later sections but, for now, the default settings will produce:

- one HTML ‘page’ for each ‘chapter’ (OvationPro-speak) of the source OvationPro document - plus a summary HTML ‘page’ called Contents. The latter is a list of links to the other HTML ‘pages’ and the text of each item in this list is the first line of text on each ‘page’. None of the HTML ‘pages’ will have a user-chosen title in its title bar.
- any pictures will be processed (with no compression if they are drawfiles, sprites or Artworks) and ‘embedded’ pictures will be duly referenced in the HTML output.

Processing progress

The processing progress is indicated bytwo methods: the Red text shows the stage that the processing is currently dealing with, and an hourglass shows the percentage of that stage that has been completed.
There can be up to three stages, depending on the user’s choices in the main window:
- scanning for pictures;
- extracting and processing pictures;
- processing the text (and producing the HTML output).
For example, with the default settings, all three stages are involved and the percentage figure will correspondingly climb from 0-100% three times - and the Red text will show when each stage starts.
However, the amount of time spent on each pass depends entirely on the specific input document and its graphic content and one or other of the passes may be too fast to be seen. Conversely, large graphics may cause the percentage progress to pause for a several seconds.




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