jim said:

I no longer believe it is worth spending my time on, until somebody (else!) solves the issues I've just laid out.

thanks to jim for saying what needs to be said. now one specific point about one of the paragraphs in his post...

we need a process, using open-source, cross-platform tools -- the standarder the better -- to convert that XML into, at a minimum, plain text and HTML. Other formats are welcome but optional.

if you're willing to settle for plain-text and .html, then doing the files in plain-text and refining your text2html converter is _far_ more cost-effective. if -- sometime down the line -- the move to x.m.l. really is inevitable (and not just hyped to be that), you will find that your text2html converter can be improved so that it will convert to x.m.l., and you will have saved yourself an enormous tagging job... -bowerbird