How do I quickly and easily

Question

I imported my word .doc file into robohelp to start the
project.
When I went to the HTML files to start the changes, I found
that the converter had given me a perfect copy of my word
formatting including putting margins in inches and "no page break
instructions in my tables.
The css file is about eight pages long!!!
To make things worse: not all of the formatting is in the
style sheet. Every table has cell padding and every list item is a
paragraph with a list having a class tagged with my Word
formatting.
I am looking for any tips or tricks to make this cleanup
easier, either before I convert it from word or after.
I would be interested both in people's individual techniques
as well at any site with tutorials or lists of techniques.
Thanks,
Marjorie

Answer 1

Marjorie, for what it's worth, I have experienced the same
thing trying to import a complex document into RH. So I kind of
reverse-engineered the process. For documents in Word that I want
to put into RH, I just design a style/CSS sheet in Robo and then
cut/paste the material into RH. It's not as "easy" of a method as
importing in that it does take a little longer and you do have to
reconstruct tables. However, I end up with much much cleaner HTML
and a better output.
For what it's worth, documents that are really complex (with
an complicated .dot style sheet, TOCs with more than one or two
levels/corresponding headings, and things like text boxes or frames
and captions) really do not import well directly into RH. A lot of
my Word docs are highly structured and the structures themselves do
not necessarily go straight into a clean CSS/HTML. I've had much
better luck directly importing simpler Word docs (uses only level
headings 1 and 2, perhaps a couple of tables, no complex TOC, no
captions, textboxes, or frames).