Using target specific converters

As listed in the intro above, there are various converters of this type.

First, find a converter for your target format. Let's assume HTML should be written. HTML can be produced from SDF, so one way could be to use pp2sdf and sdf in a sequence. But this would require several steps and results in one (and possibly long) single page. Another converter is pp2html, the well featured and stable converter by Lorenz Domke, which writes multi paged HTML in one step. Let's focus on that.

Now find out the calling conventions of the chosen converter. For pp2html, a basic call looks like this:

    pp2html source.pp

This call produces one page per chapter, right where you are. The slides are named slide0001.htm etc. Each page is reported by the run. The pages written are very straightforward in design, but well written and usable. A link filled contents page ( slide0000.htm) and an index ( slide_idx.html) are added automatically.

Lots of options are available to adapt this design. Many aspects can be fine tuned, including the target directory. To write into test, just add option -targetdir:

    pp2html -targetdir test source.pp

, and all the new files will be written to test/ which is made if required.

The filenames can be changed as well. Use the -slide_prefix and -slide_suffix options to do this:

    pp2html -slide_prefix page -slide_suffix html source.pp

With these changes, now the generated files are named page0000.html etc.

Likewise, colors can be adapted. As a simple example let's change the background and example boxes:

    pp2html -bgcolor cyan -boxcolor magenta source.pp

- and our pages are looking wild ;-)

There are lots of color options. All of them take the values that are accepted by the color options of HTML tags, so one can use hexadecimal codes with a preceding # as well:

    pp2html -bgcolor '#0e0000' test source.pp

Ok, but there are more things to tune. -center_headers centers headlines, while -nonum_headers switches off headline numbers:

    pp2html -center_headers -nonum_headers test source.pp

This is just an intro. Please refer to the docs of pp2html for a complete option list. The feature set is really rich.

But you do not have to remember and retype all necessary options again and again. The quickest way of option reuse is to store them in a file and let pp2html process this file instead of direct options:

    # This could be your option file.
  
    # target directory
    -targetdir test
  
    # filenames
    -slide_prefix page
    -slide_suffix html
  
    # color options
    -bgcolor cyan -boxcolor magenta
  
    # header options
    -center_headers
    -nonum_headers

Now, with a file like this, a call would be reduced to

    pp2html @options source.pp

The options collected in an option file define a certain layout style. As a further level of abstraction, pp2html supports option files stored in central places, which are called "styles". To make such a style, first collect all necessary options in an option file. Then, make a style directory, e.g. styles, to hold all your style setups. Store your option file under this path, in a subdirectory named as you wish to call your style, and name it <your style>.cfg. Here is an example:

    styles
     |
     -- YourStyle
         |
         -- YourStyle.cfg

Now you can use this style by specifying its name and the base path:

    pp2html -style_dir styles -style YourStyle source.pp

Additional files like templates and bullet graphics can be stored in the (specific) style directory as well. pp2html will copy them to the target directory automatically.

Note that while various options are shared by various converters, others can be different as each converter can define options of its own. Please refer to their documentations.