Transit Central automates web publishing by converting documents from their native formats to standard HTML. As first impressions go, Transit makes a good one: the box lists a wide variety of acceptable source formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Write, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus AmiPro, Framemaker, Interleaf, Rich Text Format (RTF) and ASCII. Transit can accept any mix of documents as input and produce consistently formatted web publications as output.

Equally impressive is the list of graphic image formats that Transit converts to Web-standard GIF, JPEG or PNG files (user's choice).

How does Transit differ from, say, the "Save As HTML" feature in Microsoft Office products? Transit adds value in three ways. First, it produces solid, readable HTML (3.2 or 2.0, at user option), using the style information in source documents to structure output. Users can configure custom templates that map input styles to output tags and associated formatting. For instance, one can specify not only that Header 1 source content should translate to <H1> web content, but also that every Header 1 starts a new web page; that each such page has navigation buttons to the Previous, Home and Next pages; and that each page is listed in a top-level Table of Contents, generated dynamically at translation time.

Second, Transit automates the conversion of multiple documents to single, hyperlinked web publications. The product ships with an unusually attractive gallery of web graphics that can be applied consistently across sites.

Third, Transit Central is a server-based solution, enabling any number of remote content providers in an organization to contribute to web sites. This is an extremely powerful idea, seen in other web publishing products such as Net-It Software's similarly named Net-It Central (Transit came first). Productivity benefits derive from the fact that an administrator can centrally manage one or more web sites, creating company-wide translation templates without becoming a bottleneck. Business-oriented content providers then deposit their source documents (in native format) to a pre-defined network directory. Transit performs scheduled translations of these documents, uploading company-standard HTML pages to the target web site(s). Cool.

Theory vs. practice

It works. Transit Central (TC) really does provide the benefits cited above. To test it, I installed both the centrally located TC Server and client TC Station on a Pentium Pro 200 under Windows NT 4.0 (sp3). The documentation calls for at least 32 MB RAM (or 16 MB on Windows 95); Transit ran briskly in 48 MB.

When you work in TC Station, you always work in a publication, which contains one or more source documents, any optional reference pages you choose to build, and the templates you use to format the source documents and reference pages. In addition, you can create a publication hierarchy by nesting subpublications.

Launching Transit, I began the bundled primer called quot;Seven Easy Lessons" by loading a sample publication, lessons.tcp, which consisted of a single, lightly formatted Microsoft Word document. Translating the source document to HTML was a single-click affair. The results are shown side by side below, with the Word original at left, the translated web page viewed with Internet Explorer at right.

MS Word source document (Enlarge)

Output web page, viewed with MSIE (Enlarge)

Notice two things. First, Transit added a background and some graphic navigation buttons. Second, the translation and source look rather different. Both of these outcomes are a result of the template I used for conversion, which in this case was part of Transit's tutorial.

Rather than continuing linearly through the tutorial I wanted to see how easy it would be to customize this template. Clicking the Edit Template button I plunged into Transit's tabbed dialogs, which allow fine-grained control of translation elements. The result of ten minutes exploration is shown below.

Output w/ customized template (Enlarge)

Synchronized surfing

With a little practice any webmaster can become adept enough at controlling Transit's HTML output to automate the translation of diverse documents. You can create and store as many templates as you have distinct document structures or web sites. Each Transit template specifies a custom translation, so you can generate a detailed Table of Contents for one class of documents but not another, define different graphic styles for different document classes, even specify conversion to framed or unframed HTML pages.

True to its publishing pedigree, TC Station can also create four types of reference page: a publication Table of Contents (TOC), a List of Figures (LOF), a List of Tables (LOT), and an Index. Each reference page is a separate HTML file, which TC Station optionally builds during translation. Custom reference pages, such as a list of hyperlinked article abstracts, can also be defined with a little patience.

InfoAccess has done an excellent job of exposing translation controls through a visual interface. Since version 1.0 Transit has bundled an attractive Gallery of bullets, backgrounds and other web widgets, but the new version adds graphic dialogues that preview template choices on the fly, taking the guesswork out of page composition. Webmasters will love this well-realized feature, as I did.

The fine-grained customization TC Station enables isn't exactly a no-brainer, however, as shown by the screen shot below of a typical template configuration dialogue.

Template configuration dialogue (Enlarge)

Setting up the electronic document standards, templates and directory structures required to accomplish this isn't at all trivial. But once it's done, Transit Central 3.0 can maintain an organization's web content with zero user or administrative intervention.

Value proposition

Transit is quality software, offering usable power and robust performance. InfoAccess is no newcomer to electronic publishing (see sidebar, "About InfoAccess"), and the Transit line reflects this maturity. For organizations from workgroups to the enterprise level, Transit Central represents the ideal solution for converting source documents to HTML.

But as much as I like this product, its value model has a couple of problems in today's marketplace. One problem is that InfoAccess is targeting high-end IT shops with its server-based product line, evidenced by the following price chart:

Single box (1 server + 1 workstation)	$3,995
Additional workstations	$995 each
Workgroup (1 server + 5 workstations)	$6,500
HTML Transit (1 workstation)	$495

Other licensing arrangements are available; call for pricing.
Transit products come with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

These prices per se are not a problem; Transit is worth it. My concern is rather that Transit's output, HTML 3.2, represents only a shrinking wedge of the content pie needed for today's intranets and extranets.

Businesses are clamoring for, and vendors are delivering, tools that enable the creation of dynamic, data-driven pages. This is the market force behind Dynamic HTML, XML, JavaScript and Microsoft scripting technologies, Java applets and Java-based document transports, etc.

Even with frames and other HTML amenities, Transit cannot meet this growing need. It doesn't purport to, of course. Rather, Transit Central and HTML Transit are best-in-class tools for producing universally readable HTML. That's a proud claim. The challenge for InfoAccess going forward will be to address the fact that static HTML production, no matter how well automated, isn't strategic to web publishing.

InfoAccess Inc.
15821 NE 8th Street
Bellevue, WA 98008-3905
Ph: 800-344-9737 or 425-201-1915
Fx: 425-201-1922
E-mail: info@infoaccess.com

InfoAccess, Transit Central, Transit Central Station, Transit Central Server, HTML Transit and associated logos are either trademarks or registered trademarks of InfoAccess, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.