I would like to build a GUI/program such that I could select some text and pass it to another tool that adjusts the tracking interactively.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

Edited 15 Jun 2009 by jim_albright

Great, post on the forum when it's done, as that's something that other people might find interesting or useful.

Any clues on how to do it? I love solving difficult problems but if someone already knows the answer I'm not too proud to use it.

I might consider doing it in Python since that would be cross platform. What GUI do you recommend?

Any other design specs that you all can think of? I was thinking of modifying the HTML file so that I added/adjusted an attribute of "tracking" and the CSS then would use the value to adjust the paragraph.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

Python would work, but the important thing is to focus on the tools / development environment that you are comfortable with; make something that works well for you first, and generalise later, if at all.

Changing attributes in the document to modify the formatting sounds like a good approach, and could be used to control other parameters as well.

I am most comfortable with VB.NET. I have the modify tracking working but I have to change the tracking attribute by hand right now. So I know that that is a path for a solution.

Maybe Mono can make it cross-platform if I get it to work.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

In that case I would definitely recommend making at least a prototype in VB.NET and not worrying about cross-platform support until you've tried it out and seen that it works they way you want, unless cross-platform support is a specific requirement for you.

I have a GUI working now. I call it Princess to work with Prince. Let me know if you would like a demo. It handles interactive tracking, picture insertion, picture placement, and picture deletion. Windows only.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

I am very interested in seeing it.

Sending email.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators