# Synchronising Content Across Formats In-the-wild

Yann Trividic

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Yann Trividic. Synchronising Content Across Formats In-the-wild. Substrates’25 workshop of the <Programming> 2025 conference, 2025. hal-05385158

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# Synchronising Content Across Formats In-the-wild

## Position Paper for <Programming> 2025's Software Substrates Workshop

Yann Trividicª

a Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Inria, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique

**Abstract** To collaborate while using multiple authoring tools often fails due to the inability to smoothly synchronise content across formats. In this position paper, I tackle a particular angle for substrates, namely *substrates for conversion*, as a means to support document editing workflows. I first outline major remaining challenges in format synchronisation, which suggest that we are still far from fully resolving these problems. I then identify more immediate interventions to be made to produce actionable results in the short term. Subsequently, I introduce the concept of *floss moves* as a way to apprehend individual-scale technical contributions to “substratify” existing artifact ecologies. This approach is grounded in my work on two projects I have been developing in the context of my Ph.D.: Propage and OutDesign, two systems that support the production of multiformat publications in the context of independent book publishing.

ACM CCS 2012

* Human-centered computing → User interface programming;

* Applied computing → Format and notation; Multi / mixed media creation;

* Software and its engineering → Interoperability;

* Information systems → Document structure;

**Keywords** publishing, software substrates, vision paper, format conversion

# The Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming

Perspective

The Art of Programming

Area of Submission Social Coding, General-purpose programming, User interface programming

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>
1 Introduction

Contemporary digital work takes place in a world where heterogeneous software, operating systems, file formats, and practices coexist within an ever-changing technological stack. To collaborate effectively, people must navigate and compose through this diversity.

In the context of independent book publishing, which is my main field of interest, professionals collaborate by exchanging files across a range of formats, resulting in outputs that can take many different shapes [1]. Depending on their role in the book-making process, they work with formats such as PDF, INDD,<fnref n="1" /> DOCX—respectively in order to copy edit, design the layout, or write the actual book—as no single format can encompass the full range of tasks that the publishing process requires [5]. Moreover, working with freelancers often implies not having complete control over the workflow, as independent professionals come with their own expertise, technical habits, and artifact ecologies [3, 14]. All of them work on content that at least partially overlap, but in contexts that are only partially compatible—one can import a DOCX file into an INDD file, and then export a PDF, but these are typically one-way processes among formats that are by nature significantly different.

These modalities of collaboration necessarily involve branching content, in order to merge them back once their peculiar tasks are done. In an ongoing study with our team, ex)situ, we argue that synchronising content across file formats is an overarching problem in knowledge work. At every stage of the collaboration process, loops emerge that were unforeseen by the linear workflows originally designed, and PDF serves in many cases as a fallback boundary object [15].

In this context, which has its own specificities but that is also in many ways extensible to other domains of knowledge work, I am interested in how software substrates can be conceived as facilitators to support more efficient content synchronisation, and thus, enable smoother collaboration.

2 On the horizon: Substrates for file format synchronisation

My approach to substrates is deeply influenced by the theoretical work by Mackay and Beaudouin-Lafon in particular [12]. Beaudouin-Lafon defines substrates as follows:

> "A substrate is a digital computational medium that holds digital information, possibly created by another substrate, applies constraints and transformations to it, reacts to changes in both the information and the substrate, and generates information consumable by other substrates. Substrates are extensible, composable with other substrates, and they can be shared. They provide the fabric of the digital world." [4]

In the context of content synchronisation, a substrate for file synchronisation would include (1) *constraints* that ensure valid schemas are maintained regardless of the

<footnote n="1">¹ Adobe InDesign native file format.</footnote>
operation and (2) *transformations* that replicate operations applied in one format to the other. When working with text, or editorial content whatsoever, this addresses the problem of interoperability, and allows individuals to choose their preferred application for working on their document, without preventing collaboration.

For example, an author may choose to work in either a DOCX file, or a lightweight markup language such as Markdown. For a graphic designer, fulfilling their role might include IDML<fnref n="2" /> or CSS files.

Ideally, such content could be synchronised flawlessly, supporting multiple modes of collaboration depending on the project's stage. These functionalities—when they even exist—currently require setting up a tightly controled environment, in which file formats are sometimes imposed on the users. However, imposing an unfamiliar workflow on expert workers often leads to deskilling, and thus cannot constitute a default proposition [14].

In a perfect world, those transformations would systematically track data provenance and operate bidirectionally. Work has been done in this direction [6, 8, 11], but to my knowledge, most of these approaches rely on *ad hoc* environments, or require strong technical prerequisites to be met—therefore contradicting the need for flexible solutions—making them the vision of a long-term horizon.

### 3 At our doorstep: Substrates for file format conversion

My focus is on a lower-hanging fruit: conversion within the existing artifact of ecology [3]—that is, making the current technological stack more interoperable. Converting *in-the-wild* implies to make some trade-offs, as fully fledged conversion is rarely achievable [11].

In Figure A, I sketch what I believe could be an interesting take at what constitutes a *substrate for conversion*. Conversion tasks (import, export, convert to) are typically seen as isolated, native features of specific tools. Yet the technological stack, taken as a whole, already offers rich possibilities to convert from and to a broad range of formats. By building upon the sum of all converters already available on our personal computers, most of the material is already present, *within reach* (Fig. A5), to bridge some gaps between authoring tools.

Building on existing technologies does require compromising for certain features, and can sometimes be less straightforward than more intuitive prototyping. However, the benefits of relying on existing codebases and functionalities are considerable, as also noted in Heer and al. [7]. In another paper, Heer and Horowitz refer to the idea of considering the stack in Engraft as the *composition of tools and environments in the outside world* [9]. By advocating for interoperability, we can help avoid deskilling, while giving individuals a gentler learning curve when adapting their workflow is necessary.

<footnote n="2">² IDML stands for InDesign Markup Language. It is Adobe InDesign's open format "*to facilitate the inspection and construction of InDesign content outside of InDesign*". [2]</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>(1) Current stack</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>(2) Minimum</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>(3) Fantasy</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>(4) Pandoc</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>(5) Within reach</figcaption></figure>

■ **Figure A** Four file formats are represented in a series of graphs as four nodes (a), (b), (c), and (d). An extra [p] node represents the Pandoc AST. **Figure A1** illustrates the range of conversion possibilities usually available in a “casual” artifact ecology. Some formats are dead-ends, while some conversion paths form cycles. **Figure A2** outlines a dreamt world, in which one would only require a single Hamiltonian cycle, minimising the number of converters to the number of formats. Though, most conversion processes lose data in the process, and such a cycle would only preserve the intersection of information that is encoded by all formats. Also, users might want to prioritize some paths over others. **Figure A3** presents a complete fantasy graph that projects a complete ensemble of birectional conversions, and raises many questions currently without answers. **Figure A4** introduces Pandoc’s model, a many-to-many formats conversion engine that uses a pivot abstract syntax tree as a central node. **Figure A5** computes the union of A1 and A4.

Obviously, this angle comes with trade-offs, but presents the advantage of enabling direct, pragmatic, and actionable interventions. It does not aim to solve all problems—particularly those requiring fundamental changes to the stack—but it “substratifies” existing toolchains.

Thus, I introduce the concept of *floss moves*,<fnref n="3" /> code contributions that bring in-the-wild authoring tools closer to more malleable digital environments [10, 16]. Such moves require a clear view of both the state-of-the-art software stack and the practices of its users, in order to identify and isolate the minimal interventions to unlock or support practices and use cases—in the idea of performing a kind of “judo hold” to the stack [13].

## 4 Ongoing technical contributions

As part of this research, I developed two systems that target some specific issues in publishing work: Propage and OutDesign.

### 4.1 Propage

This first project addresses the need of an operational publishing workflow for the publishing house I am part of: éditions Burn~Août, an associative French publishing

<footnote n="3">³ FLOSS stands for *Free, Libre, and Open Source Software*.</footnote>
house. Propage is a multiformat publishing framework that aims to support indepen-
dent publishers wishing to disseminate their texts to their readership by automating
the production of a selection of formats (for the web, for print, for re-use), and to
cover all situations that may hinder access to a text. In other words, Propage is de-
signed for small publishing structures wanting to facilitate access to their books in a
way that is agnostic of their readers' access conditions, be they economic, physical,
material or geographical. The system includes a visualiser that shows content and
their provenance in different file formats, with a common source in AsciiDoc,<fnref n="4" /> and
*n* arbitrary views. Each view scrolls synchronously with the others, regardless of its
format—be it a regular webpage, paginated ready-for-print HTML, or a PDF.

To support this work, I contributed code to WeasyPrint,<fnref n="5" /> enabling the embedding of
metadata in PDF objects to allow turning WeasyPrint into an interactive PDF generator.

4.2 OutDesign

My second project is a system that helps reading IDML files through Pandoc,<fnref n="6" /> in order
to facilitate the reuse of InDesign documents, that might otherwise remain captive in
Adobe's walled garden. OutDesign is a *get-out-of-jail-free card* for liberating editorial
content, allowing it to be edited in any authoring tool of choice.

To support this work, I contributed code to Pandoc,<fnref n="7" /> to enhance semantic support for DocBook, which I use as an intermediary format to generate a Pandoc AST from IDML files.

I now plan to extend this work to an interface for schema mapping, in order to
allow for conversion customisation.

5 Conclusion

In this paper, I have argued for an incremental approach to substrates—one that
builds on the existing software ecosystem. By introducing the notion of *floss moves*,
I have outlined how targeted interventions can “substratify” everyday authoring
environments without imposing new constraints on individuals.

I look forward to continuing this discussion at the *Software Substrates* workshop,
where I hope to share these thoughts and experiments, and learn from other perspec-
tives on how to make our workflows more collaborative and coherent with real-world
constraints.

<footnote n="4">⁴ https://asciidoc.org</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ https://github.com/Kozea/WeasyPrint/pull/2192</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ https://pandoc.org</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/pull/10665</footnote>
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Synchronising Content Across Formats In-the-wild

About the author

Yann Trividic Ph.D. candidate in the ex)situ team, LISN.

More info: https://yantrividic.fr. Contact him at ytrividic@lisn.fr.

ID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-6918