jeroen said:

Then, adding ASCII versions also adds to the delay, as I can generate HTML from the SGML automatically, but ASCII simply is too hard to automate, which means redoing the tables again.

i am confused about your work-process, jeroen, perhaps you could explain it to me? it would seem to me that the _output_ of the proofing process is the raw text, which one polishes as the ascii version and then -- if one chooses -- marks up some way. but from what you say, you work a different way, the .sgml (magically?) comes _first_, and is used to generate other versions, including the plain-text. what gives? -bowerbird p.s. i guess i'm also perplexed _why_ it is difficult to generate plain-ascii from .sgml. isn't it a straightforward matter of converting (or, in some cases, stripping away) the markup? or printing to .pdf and recovering text from that?