Q-HTML image Valid HTML 4.01!

Q-HTML - text to valid, optimized HTML converter

Q-HTML - Quick HTML (or "Cue HTML!")

Q-HTML (c). Current Version V3.0

Q-HTML is an advanced tool to convert text into HTML quickly and easily. The tool created this page below the banner automatically from a plain text sourcefile which you can find at
http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html.txt

The program is a mere 84K (help fight bloatware). Q-HTML performs the following operations:

Q-HTML converts all http:, mailto:, ftp: etc references into properly formatted working WWW links and news: references into followable newsgroup references. Q-HTML also converts all mail addresses into followable mailto e-mail references. The HTML generated is validated against the 4.01 transitional standard and optimised for search engines. Paragraph markers are inserted between paragraphs and line break markers are inserted where Q-HTML encounters apparantly pre-formatted text. There are 3 algorithms for this, and is more complex than just looking at the line length.

Any underlined text is converted into headers (level 2 or level 3 as appropriate). Special characters are also translated to ensure compliance to HTML standards.

The program can also handle structured files like FAQs, splitting them into smaller files for the WWW and crossindexing them automatically. This allows one version for both text and HTML to be maintained and the HTML to be generated automatically.

As well as working with "plain" text, the program also handles text with embedded <URL: ...> markers. You can also process multiple files in one sweep. Q-HTML also adds a title, header and body markers and (optionally) date/time stamped footers to the text. This produces a WWW page which will work instantly and save you a lot of time and effort.

I originally wrote the program to convert the soc.culture.scottish FAQ at http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/ quickly into HTML. Q-HTML has allowed me to convert this one 700K+ file into 285 HTML pages automatically in seconds and has saved me from hours of tedious and repetitive editing. I have put the HTML version of the FAQ, automatically sectioned and indexed by Q-HTML, at
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/contents.html
the original text which was passed to Q-HTML is at
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/scottish-faq.txt

User Comments

Here's what some users have said about the product:

I just wanted to drop you a note to say thanks for making such an excellent utility available. Q-HTML has given me the opportunity to scrap that horrendously useless plug-in called Internet Assistant for Word that I've been trying to use to auto-convert huge documents to html. (Ewan McDonell < ewan@digitality.com>)

When I first read your post I thought you were re-inventing the wheel, but I think you've come up with the pneumatic tyre. Well done! I tried it succesfully with a 792 kB text file under Win 95.

Many thanks Craig - a really nifty piece of software.

Downloaded Q-HTML the other day, and I have to admit it's the best utility I've seen to convert text files to HTML. It's fast (even under 16-bit Windows) and the resulting pages require little or no editing. It's saved me a lot of time converting a number of articles to HTML for later posting at my Web page.

Featured on

The Information Center : http://info.home.ml.org/
Listed in http://www.yahoo.com/.
Featured on the CD-ROM for What PC, March 97.
Kansas City's FREE Digital Magazine at http://www.infozine.com/ uses Q-HTML on all of their articles.

Q-HTML is also distributed as part of N.A.C.H.O.S., "The HTML editor that doesn't suck". This editor got "5 cows" from the Tucows software archive. More information at http://www.exit109.com/~oz/nachos/

Calling the program

If you run the program from windows and don't give it any parameters, the user interface will appear. The user interface supports three algorithms for dealing with newlines in the source document and also allows many files to be selected for conversion.

Alternatively, the program can be run in command line only mode, this is especially useful if you are running the program from a script to convert many files automatically.

To run Q-HTML in command line mode from the DOS prompt (Win95 or NT) or the "run" line, just enter:
q-html inputfilename outputfilename pagetitle

e.g. c:\q-html myfile.txt myfile.htm "Q-HTML homepage"

If the output file name is omitted it defaults to c:\output.htm If you miss off the output file name then don't specify a title, it won't work.

Optional file sectioning

If you have a large FAQ or similar document which you want broken into seperate files and indexed, then please note the following:

You need to already have an index in plain text at the start of your document, the section headers must have numbers enclosed in square brackets, and within the main body of the FAQ any such number at the start of a line is taken to be a section header. Numbers in the middle of lines (e.g. see section [2.5]) are converted to working links. To use this functionality within Q-HTML, use the following command line syntax:

q-html yourinputfilename FAQ "optional FAQ title here"

The "output filename" FAQ indicates to Q-HTML to perform sectioning and cross-indexing processing.

From the user interface, just click the "Split and cross reference output" checkbox to use this functionality.

The files generated are as follows:
contents.html
a_b.html where [a.b] is the name of a section in the original document. Sections can be in various forms ([4], [4.1], [4.2.3]) etc.
THESE FILES WILL BE DELETED IF THEY ALREADY EXIST
For an example of this structure, see
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/scottish-faq.txt

Locations

The latest version of the program may be obtained from here
http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html/q-html2.exe (UK) (32 bit)

If you have any problems running the program, please use the fully installable version which installs all required common files. This version is available from

http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html/q-html2.zip (fully installable 32 bit version - most current)

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/html/q-html2.zip (fully installable 32 bit version)

ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win95/apps/html/q-html2.zip (fully installable 32 bit version)

The 16 bit version of the program can also be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win3/apps/html/q-html.exe (UK)
Note this is the actual executable, not a zipfile.

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/html/qhtml111.zip (Simtel and mirrors)
http://www.winsite.com/info/pc/win3/winsock/q-html11.zip (Winsite and mirrors)

The software is written in Visual Basic, and has both a screen based interface and a command line only interface. The command line only interface will run from the DOS prompt in Windows NT/2000, Windows 95/98/XP. The 16 bit version of the program also runs under 16 bit windows but the DOS window under 16 bit windows doesn't allow the same command line features, so you'll need to execute the command from the run option in program manager or file manager, or set up an icon with the parameters.

The program requires vb40032.dll, comdlg32.ocx and mfc40.dll (all below). These files are all included in the fully installable 32 bit versions. If you encounter errors when running the program, please try the full installer. If that doesn't work, please send me an email: craig@siliconglen.com

Support files

Most machines will already have the necessary vbx and dll files for Q-HTML, but incase you don't I've put them here:

The progam REQUIRES the following files (these are included in the fully installable version)
http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html/vb40032.zip (vb40032.dll) http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html/comdlg32.zip (comdlg32.ocx) http://www.siliconglen.com/software/q-html/mfc40.zip (mfc40.dll)

Registration

The software is shareware and has an unlimited lifetime but will start nagging you after a while if you don't register. To register your software and buy licences, please send me an email at craig@siliconglen.com The cost per licence is $25 or the equivalent in Pounds Sterling. I accept payments to my craig@siliconglen.com paypal account, cheques in Pounds Sterling or Gift Certificates for Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Discounts are available for larger quantities.

Finally, enjoy! This tool saved me a lot of time and hopefully will help you too.

Please mail me at craig@siliconglen.com if you have any questions.


Q-HTML V3.0 by Craig Cockburn created this page on 10-Apr-2004 at 20:59:48