Bring interaction to LaTeX
Porting your LaTeX documents to the web is more than just translation of the source code into HTML and CSS code. If you are still thinking about PDF, this is what you might think. However, a web page is more than just static content. It is an interactive experience. Let me explain how interaction with the user and having dynamic content improves your document reading.
We will start by cross-references. Cross-references are an essential feature of LaTeX documents. In a PDF document produced from LaTeX, if you click on a reference (like an equation number that corresponds to a labeled equation), the best you can expect is to jump to the equation. You have a look at it and go back to reading flow. Seems nice ? I think it can be much better.
In LaTeX2Web, clicking on a reference, like an equation number, will bring a copy of that equation next to the place where the reference is. This way, the reference is presented in context. The reference is distinguished from the current document flow by its background, which has a light gray color. And on mobile, where space is scarce, the benefit of this is even greater.
Clicking on the reference again makes it disappear.
This works also for theorems. If, somewhere, the document says "this follows from lemma 5", clicking on the number 5 will display the lemma just right where it is needed. Click on the lemma again and it will go away.
An interesting problem is the case of footnotes. In a web display where there is no page, so where do you put footnotes ? The intent of a footnote is to provide additional information without disturbing the reading flow. Our implementation of footnotes works like this : in the text, a speech bubble indicates the presence of a footnote. Clicking on the bubble inserts the footnote text on a light gray background right where it is required. Clicking on the footnote hides it.
The general approach is that the writer should never worry about the appearance of the document. This is the task of web design to achieve the best possible reading experience for the reader, while the author can concentrate on content, not form.
Below is an example of nested reference citations:
All the relevant content in one place!