Developing InDesign docs for both print and web

Question

I develop InDesign documents for offset printing but now the organisation wants to drag itself into the 21st century by also putting these same documents up on the web (as interactive web pages that respond to user input). I am looking for a broad outline of the best way to tackle this, just so that I don't waste too much time trying to learn the wrong technology or the wrong software.
I have started to tag my documents with XML, so I am thinking that the route to the web is from InDesign to XML then via XSLT or CSS to XHTML. Is that the best and/or only way to do it? I assume DreamWeaver will also feature in the equation at some point.
These documents are test questions. They are pretty simple. All the paras will have para styles but there will be some overrides of the font like bold, italic, underline, subscript, superscript. Presumably these all need to be tagged with XML, perhaps using character styles? There are lots of inline graphics (ai and psd files) that will have to be converted to png, I guess. I also have attached metadata via XML attributes and I want that metadata to get to the web page and help direct the action based on user input (like which answer they give to a question).
Since I have always worked on print documents, I don't know XSLT, CSS, XHTML or even HTML so I just want to get started on the right foot.
Any suggestions welcome, including perhaps good tutorials or other resources. And obviously I want to automate this process as much as possible using scripts.
Thanks,
Brian

Answer 1

Hi Brian,
I wanted to do the same at my work, but my boss didn’t allow me this. So, I have a general idea about how to do it, but have no chance to implement it into a working solution. In my opinion you answered correctly to your own questions and you are on the right track.
As to tutorials and resources, I couldn't find much information on the subject so far.
The best tutorial I know about is in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Guide-Adobe-InDesign-XML/dp/0321503554
(Chapters 9-11)
See also this tutorial:
http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-export-basic-html-out-of-cs2.php
All the
paras will have para styles but there will be some overrides of the font like
bold, italic, underline, subscript, superscript. Presumably these all need to
be tagged with XML, perhaps using character styles?
There are a couple of ready to use scripts that do this — you can run such a script and then Map Styles to Tags.
There
are lots of inline graphics...
That's good — inline graphics are better then stand alone ones for XML export.
I don't
know XSLT, CSS, XHTML or even HTML so I just want to get started on the right
foot.
The above mentioned book gives you basics on all these topics, but it's not enough — you'll need a good book on Dreamweaver as well. I'd recommend you Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual Series.
Kasyan