Contents
HTML Wizard's Assistant

Introduction

Editing Existing .HTML Files

Creating New .HTML Files

Future Features?


Introduction
HTML Wizard's Assistant

HTMLWizard is a quick sample 'Wizard' application for Windows 95.

While I of course have some interesting ideas on what this application will eventually do, today, its functionality is rather modest.

HTMLWizard will allow you to add an 'Edit' option to the context menus of your .HTML files. It will also allow you to easily create new .HTML files based on a custom template of your own design.

Originally, I had written up a small end-user article that illustrated how to do this manually by editing the registry. But I soon realized that not many people were comfortable doing this, and somebody suggested that instead, I write a program that would perform these operations automatically.

Eventually, I would like to expand the functionality of this Wizard, and allow it to also be used to dynamically create the base HTML files that people might want to use. I'm still thinking about how this might best be done.

Any updates to this program will be available via the Microsoft Internet Developers home page.

http://www.microsoft.com/intdev

Hope you find this tool useful!

-Robert Hess

 roberth@microsoft.com

 Software Design Engineer

 Microsoft Developer Relations


HTMLWizard will allow you to add an 'Edit' option to the context menus of your .HTML files. It will also allow you to easily create new .HTML files based on a custom template of your own design.


Topics
Editing Existing .HTML Files

HTMLWizard allows you to add an 'Edit' option to the context menu that is brought up when you right-click on a .HTML file. When envoked, the 'Edit' option will launch the application that you specify, and pass in a command line that indicates the name of the file you selected.


Topics
Creating New .HTML Files

When you right-click on the desktop, or with in a display pane of the Explorer, a context menu will come up with a number of different options on it. One of those options is 'New'. Off of the 'New' option, there is a pop up menu that lists a number of different document types that you can create.

HTMLWizard will allow you to add a new document type to this window that will allow the creation of .HTML files. You can specify a base template file and/or and application to run when a new file is created. If no base template is provided, the file will start out blank.


Completing the Process

...You're done. Hit the 'Finish' button and get on with it...


Topics
Future Features?

Since currently, there is really very little this wizard is doing, it would only make sense to see if it could have more functionality.

Some of the things I am looking into are:

•Additional Registration Settings to be manipulated

•The ability to dynamically create a base HTML template

•The ability to parse a custom HTML template, and prompt for values


Check this checkbox to add an 'Edit' option to the context menu for .HTML files.

Uncheck this checkbox to remove the 'Edit' option to the context menu for .HTML files.


Enter the name of the program you want to launch to edit .HTML files.

You may notice a '%1' listed in this box. This indicates where the name of the .HTML file will be inserted on the command line that is passed to the specified program.

If you want/need to add additional command line parameters for this be stripped off if you then 'Browse' for the file.


Check this checkbox to allow .HTML documents to be created from the 'New' menu option of the shell's context menu.

Uncheck this checkbox to remove the ability to create new .HTML documents from the shell's context menu.


Check this checkbox to allow a template file to be used to create the base .HTML document

Uncheck this checkbox to turn off the use of a template


Check this checkbox to allow a program to be automatically launched when you create a new .HTML file

Uncheck this checkbox to prevent an application from being launched when you create a new .HTML file


Here is where you will specify the name of the template file to use when a new .HTML file is created. Usually, this will be a file that contains the base level functionality that you are wanting your .HTML files to start out with.


Here is where you will specify the name of a program to run when a new .HTML file is created. First, any template file above will be used to generate the base content of the file, then this application will be launched to edit/modify the document.