3.2.1 Structuring converted webs

You can think of a WebMaker node as an individual web page. In WebMaker, you can generate webs made up of one or many nodes. A single-node web consists of a single HTML file; a multiple-node web has many HTML files. WebMaker can convert a FrameMaker document or book into either type of web.

The WML file for a multiple-node web generates nodes by mapping FrameMaker heading tags to node-generating WML rules. The WML file for a single-node web maps FrameMaker heading tags to plain HTML heading tags. For single-node webs, you can choose WML heading rules that will format the text to visually differentiate between logical levels. See Section 11, "WML Library Rules Reference" for more information on the available rules.

We recommend that you choose multiple-node webs for any document more than two or three pages in length. You should use a single-node web only if your document is small and simply structured. We recommend this for two reasons:

• A single-node web results in one HTML file, which for large documents is difficult to navigate.
• A single-node web does not allow you to take full advantage of WebMaker's ability to implement structure and logical organization.

WebMaker works best on documents with a consistent hierarchical structure, such as technical documents with numbered sections. WebMaker creates hypertext links based on that organization as well as on standard cross references. Inconsistent heading levels (for example, level 1 followed directly by before level 3) or "orphan" headings (sections with only one subsection) do not work as well as consistent structure in either FrameMaker or WebMaker. You can use FrameMaker's generated lists (such as a table of contents) to troubleshoot your document's structure.