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

Answer 1

We've been using WebWorks ePublisher (www.webworks.com) which offers both multiple single-source formats (we are using Word) and the ability to output to many output formats (we output to Adobe PDF and Online Help (.CHM).

Answer 2

Read about EPUB format. Its e-book format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB

Answer 3

For documenting code, I also recommend Sphinx. ReStructured Text is nice because it is readable and somewhat marked up in plaintext, and can do a nice job converting to html and to pdf. I still like LaTeX for certain things. My wife and I use LaTeX to write our christmas letter, which we mail out via snail mail. The pdf version is pretty fancy, with two columns, and headers and footers. The html version is simpler. I convert with plastex. Examples here: http://fedibblety.com/annualReports

I don't think any binary format is a good choice (Word) for any sort of document that you might like to read 10 years from now. That is one of the nice things about LaTeX.

Answer 4

This is a personal choice but Latex in theory is perfect however in practice it's pain-in-the-arse. I'm using VS.NET HTML editor + raw HTML edit when I need it.

So I think using an WSIWYG HTML editor is best choice. You can always use a simple tool to convert it to PDF, and you can always edit HTML when you need something advanced. Also it's easier to put online when you need.

That's how I'm managing my software documentations and works fine for me.

Answer 5

If everything else fails you could grab an LaTeX to XML converter and write a simple XSLT stylesheet to convert it to HTML, or create a CSS style sheet and attach it to the XML file directly.

Answer 6

Since the answer mentioning Asciidoc was somewhat short on examples, here are some of the things your are looking for:

• A pdf generated with Asciidoc
• A cheatsheet with a side by side of the Asciidoc markup and the html result.
• A list of publications done using Asciidoc, including O'Reilly books and the git documentation (to see both ends of the user scale).