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A structured text is composed of text objects,
in a hierarchy from book size through parts, chapters and sections,
to blocks such as tables, figures, lists, and the parts of sentences.
Texts differ greatly in their `syntax', and a number of limited types
will be discussed here.
Each text object is associated with conventions of presentation.
For example chapter headings may begin new pages, be assigned a number,
be printed in a special font, in bold face, centred on the page,
and so on. The conventions are the same for each object of the same type.
The important points to note are:
- all text objects of the same type have the same defining presentation properties;
- it is possible to emulate a structured object by simply typing in the relevant presentational properties separately, wherever they occur;
- this kind of emulation of a structured text is not a structured text;
- a genuine structured text can easily be given other forms of presentation (paper, web, CD-ROM,...), whereas this does not hold true of emulations.
© Dafydd Gibbon
Mon Jul 13 18:34:24 MET DST 1998