Let me share the following information on style sheets and navigators in response to the numerous recent queries on the subject. Assuming that most of you wish to use a helper application like Panorama (www.inso.com) or Multidoc Pro (www.citec.fi) with your web browser (Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer), I will focus on those products. Other delivery methods- DynaText, Open Link, DynaWeb- have their own styles methods. What I say hereafter about Panorama is based on personal experience; comments on Multidoc Pro are second hand and therefore trust that there will be additions or corrections from those more familiar with this product. Panorama and Multidoc Pro seem to use the same underlying search engine or at least use the same type of style sheets and navigators. These particular stylesheets and navigators (S&Ns) are themselves SGML-encoded documents, constructed according to two dtds created by Synex Information AB of Sweden. Their dtds maybe found in Panorama Pro in the catalog subdirectory as the files sheet.ent and nav.ent. Panorama, at least, provides no direct technical documentation, such as a tag library, for these dtds. As these stylesheets and navigators are simply ASCII SGML files, one could use a basic text editor such as the Windows Notepad to create or edit the S&N files. More usefully, both Panorama Pro and Multidoc Pro provide an interactive editor for creating on modifying S&Ns. You will need to purchase Panorama Pro to create and edit them; the free, unsupported version (Panorama Free) does not include this functionality. (Note: this is not the same as the free demo version of Panorama Pro. There has been considerable confusion on this list over the fact that there are two "free" versions of Panorama- one an unsupported, view-only version and one a limited-time, but apparently fully functioning, demo version.) The Panorama manual provides adequate detail for using the editor to produce stylesheets. The directions for the navigator editor lack sufficient detail to be very helpful. I have found the most useful approach to learning how to use these tools is one of reverse engineering. Capture an existing stylesheet and then experiment, using the editor to see what happens as you make various changes. The styles language and editor are actually fairly powerful. I don't know if the editor in Multidoc Pro is better documented. Where do I get sample stylesheets? Easy. Every time you download an sgml file form someplace such as the LC, Harvard, or Yale sites, you are downloading the stylesheet and navigator as well as the sgml instance, the EAD dtd and all the assorted entity files. The files can be used interactively at that time and are saved on your hard drive so that you can come back and look at them later. Your browser will save them the SGML file in a temporary directory, usually in c:\windows\temp. Check the settings on your browser's configuration setup for the location. Panorama will save the other files, typically in its \tmp directory. Check the Panorama.ini file to confirm the location. Files will have arbitrary names like 30.ssh, 15.dtd, and 25.ent. Panorama Pro also includes several sample stylesheets and navigators in its entityrc subdirectory. To test editing an existing style, just right click on an element in a document you have downloaded as it appears in the right frame of the Panorama Pro viewer. Select Edit style and the style editor dialog box will appear. Remember that the style for a particular element may have been set in three ways: for that element itself in its full context (<archdesc><C01><C02><did><unittitle>); for the element in any context (<unittitle> wherever it appears); or by inheritance from the style of a parent or grandparent or great-grandparent element (the style for<C01><did><unittitle> is inherited from the style for <C01>). You might try experimenting first with altering font styles, colors, and sizes. Try inserting text before an element. Go to Before|Text|Specify and insert \att(label)\t for <did><unittitle>. It will insert the value of the attribute "label" and a tab (assuming that one has defined a value for this attribute in the document). With the forthcoming xml specification we will be both free of the helper applications (your browser will be able to handle EAD files directly) and we will have a single styles language for xml. What that will be has not been formally specified by the W3C group but is scheduled to occur this fall. Microsoft has just announced that it has made a proposal but that, in accordance with W3C requirements, cannot comment on what it is. There are at least three suggestions on the table, CCS (the styles language of html), DSSSL-O (which has its origins in the sgml community), and a proposal from Bitstream with which I am otherwise unfamiliar. Until then we must move forward with the tools we have. Good luck. Michael Fox Michael Fox Head of Processing Division of Library and Archives Minnesota Historical Society Voice: 612-296-1014 Fax: 612-296-9961 [log in to unmask]