Problems with styles in word processing: a weak foundation for electronic publishing with SGML

Most word processors have facilities for styles and document templates. These mechanisms may help maintain typographic consistency while editing, and they may support document exchange and conversion. Document conversion is of special importance to electronic publishing. Our own experience suggests that there are problems with the use of styles and templates. A sample of documents drawn from three case organisations confirms this suggestion, and indicates that the use of these mechanisms is infrequent and riddled with difficulties. An initial classification suggests that most of the problems with the use of paragraph styles can be described as ignoring or overlooking these mechanisms. These problems have consequences, and one should be careful in assuming that material written with current word processors easily can be converted to formats for electronic publishing. Careful organisational implementation of word processing may be critical. Our interpretation of the problems encountered also indicates that they may be related to the paper metaphor communicated by the principle of WYSIWYG. We claim that the paper metaphor does not communicate any understanding of the structure beneath the surface of a digital document.