How best to write documentation targeting both HTML and PDF? [closed]

Answer 1

I don't have enough points to comment, but to bolster the plastex answer, here is the updated plastex example link:

http://robfelty.com/2008/03/19/finally-a-better-latex-to-html-converter

Answer 2

I've used TeXinfo in the past and it does a good job. Here's an example: http://yootles.com/api. I'd prefer to stick with LaTeX though instead of use another language.

Answer 3

We were facing this problem in an academic project that involved Eclipse software, and we used plastex to convert Latex to HTML and Eclipse Help. Getting it to work was quite difficult, but the end result looks really nice. You can see all three versions here:

http://handbook.event-b.org/

Further, as this is an open project, the code (build scripts) are available. We have a continuous build system (Jenkins) that rebuilds everything when new Latex is checked in. This is particularly nice, as contributors don't need to install the toolchain on their systems. They just check in the new Latex and check on the server whether the HTML was produced correctly. Sources:

http://sourceforge.net/p/rodin-b-sharp/svn/HEAD/tree/trunk/Handbook/org.rodinp.handbook.feature/

Best, Michael

Answer 4

Yes, LaTeX-to-HTML converters used to suck (you've probably tried LaTeX2HTML), but of late they've got better. Tex4ht is highly configurable, and produces nice XHTML+CSS. See also other converters.

You can also use Docbook, if you can bear to write in it. There are converters from DocBook to both HTML and LaTeX (or to PDF directly); an example of the latter is dblatex.

See this post: LaTeX vs Docbook.

Answer 5

You could take a step back and use something like DocBook and render to PDF via LaTeX and HTML straight from the DocBook files. Alternatively, Adobe Technical Communication Suite (Framemaker) will let you single-source a document to PDF and HTML. See this posting for a rundown on various technical documentation systems.

Answer 6

AsciiDoc looks like an interesting possibility.