                            ====================
                            Web2Text v1.0/32-bit
                    Freeware HTML to ASCII text converter
                    =====================================

Unlike all the other such programs to be found on the net (that I know of),
this one attempts to create a text file that retains some of the layout of
the web page being converted. Most other converters merely remove HTML
tags, which can leave you with a total mess, and lots more work to do.
Web2Text also keeps URLs intact, which only one other converter makes any
attempt at (and it does it very badly, so I'll name no names).

Installation:
=============

Unzip Web2Text.exe to a directory of your choice. Add it to your start menu
(Start|Settings|Taskbar...|Start Menu Programs|Add...) and run it from there. 

Uninstalling:
=============
Just remove the Web2Text.exe file and this text file if you extracted that as
well, then remove the shortcut from the Start Menu (Start|Settings|Taskbar...|
Start Menu Programs|Remove...). No .ini files are used nor is the registry
touched by Web2Text.

Web2Text handles the following:
===============================

<CENTER> - centers text. However, the ALIGN= property of various tags is *not*
supported. I feel <CENTER> should be used in addition to ALIGN=CENTER because
older browsers may support the former but not the latter. Modern browsers
support both.

<I> - italic text is surrounded by asterisks *like this*.

<B> - bold text currently appears the same as other text.

<TITLE> and <H1> thru <H4> - text within these is displayed with equals/minus
signs around it appropriate to the importance of the text. E.G. <TITLE> text
is --===like this===--

Lists <UL> and <OL> are supported correctly though text longer than one line
will not indent correctly. <LI> produces a number for ordered lists or a plus
sign for unordered lists. Make sure you use <UL> or <OL> as appropriate, as
use of <LI> without doing so can cause problems if you are already in some
other type of list. Netscape does not handle this correctly, but IE does and
will display the same results you get from Web2Text.

Tags that cause a new line: <P> </P> <BR> <TR> </CENTER> </Hx> </TITLE>

Supported entities: &gt; &lt; &amp; &pound; &copy; &quot; &nbsp; (though the
latter merely produces a space, not a non-breaking space). I've noticed some
browsers accept characters other than ; to end an entity. Well, I don't.

Images are ignored. URLs, providing they are absolute ones, are retained and
held in square brackets after the descriptive text assigned to them; e.g.
<A HREF="http://blah.com">this url</A> becomes 'this url [http://blah.com]'.
Relative URLs are ignored. URL types supported are: http, gopher, telnet,
news, ftp and mailto.

Problems:
=========

+ Tables are currently poorly supported. <TD> is treated as a tab, so columns
  will not line up correctly. Lines that wrap will not indent correctly. As I
  don't really need better support than that for my own purposes, I'm unlikely
  to change this but you can always ask.

+ This 32-bit version only handles files up to 409600 bytes long. This is an
  entirely arbitray number. I could change this if anyone needs it done.

+ Images used as hotlinks don't convert properly; you can see the IMG SRC tag
  in the converted text file. As I wrote this to convert a document without
  any such links, I haven't bothered fixing it. In fact, any tags between the
  end of a <A HREF="..."> and </A> tag are not processed and will be visible
  in the converted text file.

+ The line-length setting works only for lines without hard tabs in them. If
  your HTML file has hard tabs, they are incorrectly counted as being a single
  space. I couldn't be bothered putting in a tab setting, as you shouldn't be
  using tabs in HTML anyway. You may, however, have used them in <PRE> blocks,
  so watch out for that.

This program is FREEWARE. I accept no responsibility for any harm or loss
caused by the use of it. I.E. if you save over your company's end of year
report, don't come crying to me.

A 16-bit version is available; see the URL below for details. It handles much
smaller files and does not support long filenames but is otherwise identical.

-- 
Damien Burke
software@jetman.demon.co.uk
http://www.jetman.demon.co.uk/software/index.html
