This question summarizes various more detailed questions. Anansi uses a twofold philosophy. Naturally, the first one is that software should be easy to use. This means that everything that can be automated, should be. If you always upload the same files you've just edited, you shouldn't have to tell which files you want to upload. Easy to use means that any function should be easy to reach. That's why I'd rather have tiny buttons than big buttons that offer a menu when clicked. Easy to use means that the interface should be quiet. I hate dialogs. Finally, last and least, easy to use means that the interface should be intuitive. I try to achieve this by using hints and by indicating advanced settings that you can skip. In general, easy to use is also an important reason to only offer the most useful tags. Personally I don't need my menu's cluttered with exotic tags that are not and will not ever be implemented with who knows what obscure browser. If you do need special tags, you can add them to the Custom Tags.
The second part of Anansi's philosophy is generating documents that will look good on any browser. This means I simply ignore new tags if older ones can do the same. Think about centering tables or headers. Newer browsers can do it with a attribute in the table or header tag. But any browser will do it with the old-fashioned center tags. So, Anansi uses only offers the center tag. If you do want to use the latest in fashion you can - again - easily add it to the Custom Tags. Fitting any browser requires that new features can only be used when they degrade gracefully on browsers that don't support them. Fortunately this rarely proofs to be a problem. I am a bit worried about layering with stylesheets though.
You have an old version. You probably have the same file opened more than once in Anansi. The first one locks it against writing by other editors. So when you try to save a second one you will fail. Just make sure your files are only opened once or simply upgrade.
Everytime you test a file with a browser, the file gets saved. I'm not quite happy with it either and will try to find better solutions for version 1.1.
Everytime someone reports this problem it turns out they have downloaded a 32 bit package while running 16 bit Windows. You need to download a 16 bit package for Windows 3.11.
The makers of Opera thought it a good idea to have Opera react to messages addressed to other browsers. If your're testing with multiple browsers, this can give some unexpected results.
Yes, it's supposed to be empty. It's up to you to tell Anansi which colors you want to use, if you want to use colors at all. To add colors rightclick at the colorbar. The standard Windows Color Dialog will appear where you can choose up to 16 colors at once. If you're done selecting colors, press OK and return to the Colorbar. Your colors will show up immediately.
You can have it anyway you want: all uppercase, all lowercase or mixed. Check Options| Editor Settings.
Why not use templates? Just create a document containing your own basic structure, save it, then insert it everytime you need it with the File| Insert File function. By the way, this function can take you directly to a dedicated directory, as defined in the settings of the Project Manager.
Yes.
There is a version for sponsors that will offer at least one major feature as a bonus. Currently this feature is spellchecking. Image viewing will probably be part of some kind of commercial version too. Viewing of gif images requires paying licenses to a company that has a patent on this format. They require payment for for each download, even if the software is free. So gif viewing is certainly a feature that will very unlikely make it to a freeware product. Hey, I don't have the financial muscle of Microsoft or Netscape!
I hope you at least understand the benefits of the Project Manager. If you don't then there's a chapter in the Anansi manual about this. If this chapter still leaves questions unanswered, mail me. Here I'll show how to set up a project quickly.
Projects are defined by File| Project Manager. Each project has a name, which can be renamed anytime. The Project Root Directory stands for the starting directory of your homepage. A sample:
| All files in c:\windows\homepage and subdirectories are accepted as part of the homepage or website called My own homepage. |
As soon as you have started working with your project, you'd better be careful to change the Project Root Directory again. In some cases it will be practically impossible. Consider having files in c:\windows\homepage and then trying to change the Project Root Directory to c:\windows\homepage\welcome. All the info about the directorystructure of your homepage will be worthless. This means Anansi will flush the lists of files in your project and you have to add the files again yourself, either one by one or all at once by dragging them form Windows' filemanager to the File| Open Project File window of Anansi