Abstract

A style of document format known as compound document architecture is known, in which a document is broken up into a tree of objects or segments (e.g. document: chapter: subtitle: para: para: etc.), possible with a second layout tree. Two styles of such architecture are ODA and CDA. Conversion from CDA to ODA presents difficulties, as in CDA, a segment can contain e.g. text and graphic elements, while ODA has stricter formatting rules. One of a plurality of DAPs (Document Application Profiles) 12 is selected, depending on which subset of full ODA is being used. The DAP contains a structure converter component which starts to construct the objects of the ODA document. When an information element is reached (text, graphics, etc.), it is sent to the appropriate one of a set of content handlers 13. These call back to callback units (text, graphics, footnote, etc.) in the DAP when an ODA logical object is to be completed, and on each other (possible recursively, as for footnotes in text) when a change of information element type is reached.