Add parallel generation on multi-core CPUs
Summary
To increase speed, use more than one instance of Word in parallel when generating the *.wif file from the *.docx file. Add a setting to WebWorks ePublisher to set the maximum number of parallel processes.
Detailed Description
Almost all computers today have more than one CPU core, commonly 4. Word macros seem to use only one core, so WebWorks ePublisher Express typically uses only about 25% of the available computing power when generating the *.wif files from *.docx. This can clearly be seen by following WINWORD.EXE in Task Manager or Process Explorer: one CPU runs at full load and all other resources have spare capacity. This stage is CPU-bound because of the inefficiency of the Word macro processing. For projects with multiple source files, generating in parallel on a multi-core CPU will probably increase speed.
Generation of images may also benefit from parallel processing because these also involve processing the separate source files with Word macros.
WebWorks ePublisher should have a setting which sets the maximum number of parallel processes. This number of instances of WINWORD.EXE should be run if possible.
Use Cases
A suitable use case would be any project with multiple source files.