One of the things I would really like to see tech comm tools do is gracefully handle text boxes across formats. If you ever anticipate having to move content from a HAT to some other format, there’s little incentive to do anything other than a dull, single flow of content. No sidebars using divs because they don’t move well into other file types. I understand that in Flare, divs move well into a PDF, but not into Word.

I would like to see divs in HATs convert into text boxes in Word and into text frames in InDesign (or FrameMaker if that’s your bag). I realize this is mixing vendors and file formats something crazy. But that’s why I’m calling this my “Christmas wish.” I don’t expect it to happen. It would just be really slick if these aspects of various document creation tools moved text boxes nicely when exporting or importing.

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