Copyright: Copyright (c) 1998, by Sumit Gupta (Nostrum India)
Citation: ...from the Tarantula 1.9 Help File.


Payment
Tarantula Release 1.98

About Tarantula 1.98

Welcome to Tarantula.

Tarantula initially started out as a small program, which would just make the task of making web pages easier for the author. This ultimately has grown to a huge, full- fledged Web-designing tool, on its way to being a one-stop-shop for web development. Tarantula not only writes the HTML for you, it also creates text-related graphics with special effects. The latest versions are always available at

http://NostrumIndia.com/

or

http://www.pobox.com/~nostrum

Tarantula was initially written in Borland Delphi 2.0 (because when I started writing it, there was only 2.0). The newer versions are written in Delphi 3.0. No, it’s not written in C. It’s written in Delphi, mainly because C sucks. Pascal doesn’t. As far as Delphi is concerned, Thanks, Borland !!! for a fantastic powerful developer’s tool.

Credits

Tarantula, as it now is, would not have been possible without the (free : -) help of a number of people. The author wishes to thank

Geoff Vines (me@geoffvines.free-online.co.uk), from UK, who took painstakingly and meticulously documented all the bugs he could find, and put them down in neat little DOC files, with screen-shots and all. He’s responsible for half the bugfixes and enhancements of this version.

Lee Goddard (goddard@jove.u-net.com), a student of University of Sussex, UK, who has spent considerable time and effort in looking for errors in Tarantula. He also came up with a number of very useful ideas, most of which have been incorporated into Tarantula.

Theodor Kleynhans (theodor@gem.co.za), of Cape Town, South Africa, whose wonderful TGifImage component forms the basis of the GIF image handling in Tarantula. The Delphi 3 component is available free from his site at http://members.gem.co.za/~theodor/index.html

Jordan Russell (jordanr@iname.com), of USA, whose TToolBar97 component set has been one of the best things to happen to Tarantula. His component is one of the most exhaustive components which can be found on the web, and it’s free!! Check it out at his site at http://www.connect.net/jordanr/

Andrew Cher (Abcpp@Moscow.Portal.Ru ), of Russia, whose TanimatedMenu component is what provides the ‘Win98’ style sliding menus. Thanks. Check out his website at http://members.xoom.com/abcpp/

Sumit Gupta (sumit.gupta@NostrumIndia.com), of India, who… hey, that’s me ! I’m gonna have my picture too : -) …read on….

About the author

The author, Sumit Gupta, from New Delhi, India, is (almost :-) 25 years old, and has been programming for almost 11 years. He specialises in graphics/multimedia, and software dealing in text parsing. Thus, this package.

Currently he runs a software development & training firm based in New Delhi, called Nostrum India (NostrumIndia.com), which is basically into software development (such as this), and corporate training. Nostrum India also makes customized softwares such as CD-ROM browsers, CD-ROM text search engines etc.


Payment
Tarantula Release 1.98

List of acceptable currencies.

The following currencies are acceptable to us. If your currency is not shown, try to send equivalent amount of money in one of these currencies. If that is not possible, email to nostrum@NostrumIndia.com, putting ‘Currency Problems’ in the subject line, and we’ll get back to you. Please do not send cash : it’ll put me in jail and then you can forget about any upgrades : -)

•	US Dollars

•	Canadian Dollars

•	Australian Dollars

•	Singapore Dollars

•	Hong Kong Dollars

•	Japanese Yen

•	Pound Sterling

•	Dutch Guilder

•	Deutch Mark

•	Danish Kroner

•	Swedish Kroner

•	Italian Lira

•	Belgian Franc

•	French Franc

•	Swiss Franc


Registration
Tarantula Release 1.98

How to Register.

Registering Tarantula is a very simple process. You simply send US$90 per copy, (for bulk discounts, email to discounts@NostrumIndia.com ) or equivalent in any of the acceptable currencies to us by any of the following means. For Germany, we have German resellers who sell Tarantula at a price that includes VAT (for people who need invoice, tax benefits, etc.).

Credit Cards : We currently accept payments via American Express, Mastercard and Visa. Please visit our site for online registration. We also do registration by fax and phone. For further information on payments, please email to

payment-info@NostrumIndia.com for latest information.

Wire transfer (also called Telegraphic Transfer or Bank Transfer)

Please mail to us at pay-wire@NostrumIndia.com to get the details of the current methods of payment by wire transfer.

Banker’s Cheque, Demand Drafts & International Money Orders/Postal Orders

Please send these for the total amount, favouring  Nostrum India, payable at any US Bank, by mail or courier ( all charges to be borne by sender) to :

Nostrum India

455, Sector A, Pocket C,

Vasant Kunj,

New Delhi 110 070,

INDIA.

(Banker’s Cheques, DD, or IMOs take time, so please allow a couple of days for processing. Also, please add US$2 to the total amount for bank processing).

Please note that personal cheques, though accepted, take upto 4 weeks to be processed, so are not a preferred method of payment.

Money transfer firms.

If any of the above method is not convenient for you, you may utilize the services of any foreign exchange money-transfer firms, such as Western Union. Just make sure that the firm has a branch in New Delhi from which the amount can be collected, without any cost to recipient. In this case, transfer the money in the name of Sumit Gupta (address given below).

Whatever you mode of payment, please be sure to send a completely filled and signed copy of the order form (ORDER.FRM) via email (payments@NostrumIndia.com), fax (email nostrum@NostrumIndia.com for details), or snail mail to

Nostrum India

455 Sector A, Pocket C

Vasant Kunj

New Delhi 110 070

INDIA.

This will enable us to initiate the process at our end, so we can serve you faster.

As soon as we receive payment confirmation, we will email to you your registration key, based on the name you want the software to be registered to.


Creating Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Images

This section covers how images can be manipulated in Tarantula 1.98.

Creating Images.

Specifying Low-Resolution Secondary Image.

Specifying Alternate Text.

Scaling/Resizing Images.

Image Optimizer (Advanced Option)

Image Maps.

Supported File-formats.


Creating Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Creating Images.

Click on the Image button in the Toolbar. Then  mark the area in the design window where the image is to appear.  This specifies an Image Area. To specify which image is to be placed here, double-click on the area, and enter the filename. The size of the image (in bytes) is displayed above the image name. An ‘ImageID’ can be specified here for the image, which can be used to refer to this image later in any scripts.

If this image is to be used for an image map, this can be specified by checking the ‘Use this map’ box found in the ‘Image Map’ tab, and entering a map name in the given field.

To convert the image to GIF or JPG, or to optimize graphics files, click on the ‘Convert/Optimize Graphics’ tab.

Tarantula also (optionally) adds to the ALT text the size (in bytes) of the image being added. This size is calculated when the HTML is being generated. Since it is not hard-coded, you don’t have to change it every time you change the image. This behaviour may be controlled by using the relevant option in the ‘Images’ tab in the configuration dialog.


Low Resolution Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Low resolution images

Some browsers also have the capability to load an alternate low-resolution image (which generally appears before the main image). This image may be specified in the ‘Low-res Image filename’ box.


Image ID
Tarantula Release 1.98

Image Ids

In browsers which support Javascript, or some other forms of scripting, it sometimes becomes important to refer to the individual images on a page. In JavaScript 1.1, for example, which is implemented in Netscape Navigator 3.x and MSIE 4.x, the images in a document may be referred to by their name, such as :

document.imageid.src= “switchon.gif”

This would change the ‘Source’ for the image called ‘imageid’ to “switchon.gif”. This technique is commonly used to change the graphic when, say, the mouse is over a particular image/link.


Rollover Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Rollover Images

Tarantula makes it extremely convenient to create ‘Rollover’ images. These are special kind of images, which change their appearance when the mouse ‘rolls’ over them. After the mouse is no longer over the image, it changes it’s appearance back to the original.

To create rollover images, simply specify the name of the image that should be displayed when the mouse is over the image. Tarantula will automatically create the necessary link information, scripts etc., and generate JavaScript code to preload the images in the browser’s cache. This will make the browser load the images in the background, so that there is no delay between the time the mouse is over the image, and the time when the image actually changes.


Alternate Text for Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Alternate Text

It is a good practice to include a text description of the image, which appears in case the browser can’t load images ( maybe due to images being switched off). The condition of ‘images off’ can be simulated by clicking on the speedbutton with the crossed out image, in the main toolbox.

Tarantula also (optionally) adds to the ALT text the size (in bytes) of the image being added. This size is calculated when the HTML is being generated. Since it is not hard-coded, you don’t have to change it every time you change the image. This behaviour may be controlled by using the relevant option in the ‘Images’ tab in the config dialog.


Image Options
Tarantula Release 1.98

Other Options

Several other image-handling options are available, which change the appearance of the image on the page. If the ‘Stretch to fit area’ option is selected, then the image is enlarged or reduced as needed to fill up the currently defined image area. When the area is resized, the image automatically re-sizes to the new area size. However, since the area may not be of the same proportion as that of the image, stretching it may distort the image.

If the original aspect ratio has to be maintained, the ‘Best fit (Maintain aspect ratio) ’ option has to be selected. This ensures that even on re-sizing, the image does not appear distorted. Most images, on being enlarged, appear to become ‘jagged’. Tarantula can ensure that while re-sizing, the area size never exceeds the image size, so that the ‘jagged’ appearance doesn’t happen, simply by checking the ‘Don’t resize to larger than original’ option. This is used with the ‘Best fit’ option.

The image that is to be used on the page may have been created in a different directory. To copy the image file to the directory in which the page exists, check the ‘Copy to page directory’ option. This also makes uploading to the site easier, as all files related to the page are in the same directory. Of course, Tarantula ensures that the necessary changes are made to the ‘image source’ entry.

Some people like to keep the images of their web-site in a separate directory, called ‘Images’. Tarantula supports this as well, and by checking the option marked ‘Copy to image directory’, the image will be copied to the image directory. If no such directory exists, a directory named ‘images’ will be created as a subdirectory of the page directory. The links to the image will also be adjusted automatically.


Linking Images
Tarantula Release 1.98

Links

An image may be specified as being a link to some other point in the same document, or even some other document. This can be done simply by clicking the ‘Link to’ button, and specifying the target name (for the same document), or the document name, or both (for a jumping to a certain section in some other document). A script can also be attached in such a case.

Note that is a rollover image is being used, some event script is automatically attached to the link. This script should not be modified, or else the rollover might now work correctly.

Image Maps

Instead of linking an image to a specific URL, it is also possible to define a ‘map’ where different parts of the image lead to different links. See the section on Image maps  for  more detail.


Image maps
Tarantula Release 1.98

Image Maps.

Image maps are basically images which have designated hot-spots, that is, when a user clicks on a particular region of an image, the browser can load some specific URL. This feature can be used to design, say, online magazine covers, with a photo of the actual magazine cover, and linked regions on the image leading to the various articles. There are two kinds of image maps : server-side, and client side image maps.

Server-side image maps

In these maps, the browser sends the coordinate of the point on the image where the mouse was clicked. This coordinate is received by the server and acted upon according to given scripts. To specify such a map, just check the box marked ‘Use this map’, and don’t specify an image map name.

Client side image maps

A client side image map is processed by the browser itself. Thus, the various hot-spots on an image, and their associated URLs are included in the page itself. In order to mark an image map as a being of this type, just check the box marked ‘Use this map’ and specify the name of the image map to use. NOTE  : The map, at this point of time, need not exist. The map itself is specified separately from the image, and should be entered in (any) custom HTML/JAVA area. This makes using third-party image-map editors a breeze, as the MAP HTML can directly be pasted into this area. An integrated image-map editor is also provided, which can be accessed from the custom HTML/JAVA area by clicking on the ‘MAP’ button.


Image optimizer
Tarantula Release 1.98

Image Optimizer.

The Image Optimizer (accessible from the ‘Image file selection’ dialog box), is a very convenient tool to convert any supported graphic file to the standard JPEG format or GIF format. Also, it visually allows one to see the difference in size/quality of an image on recompression or resize, with a display of expected download times for different download speeds. The newly generated image can be saved, used on the page in place of the original, used as the low-resolution image, or even linked to the old image.

A number of advanced facilities are available, e.g., saving of JPGs with progressive encoding, or saving of GIFs as interlaced/non-interlaced files. Interlaced/progressive files are better for the Web, as they can convey a general idea about how the image will look even when the complete image is not yet loaded. Certain areas of a generated GIF can be made transparent if the ‘Transparent Color’ option is checked. In this case, a color can be picked out of the generated image, and designated as the transparent color. When such an image is used on a page, the background color/image shows through the areas which are colored with the selected ‘transparent Color’.

If the source image is an animated GIF, then a slider appears just below the image. By moving the slider, any frame of the animation can be selected, and stored as the new image. Currently, animated GIFs cannot be created in Tarantula.

Only images with a maximum of 256 colors can be converted to GIF files. Images with more colors automatically revert to ‘JPG’ if ‘GIF’ is selected. If you are facing problems in converting to GIF, try the conversion after de-selecting the ‘Resample’ option.

JPG files should be used when the image is photo-realistic, or has smooth color gradations. GIF images are smallest when they have a large areas where no color changes are involved, or images with ‘banded’ gradations.

While creating graphic-intensive pages, it is sometimes desirable to reduce the size (area) of the image. This can also be done from within Tarantula, either by specifying the exact pixel dimensions required, or by selecting a percentage, in which case the resize will be proportional. In fact, if the you specify a different filename while saving the newly created image, Tarantula will automatically (optionally) link the new image to the old one ! This is useful for creating image galleries, so that small thumbnails can be placed on the page and automatically linked to the larger images. These options are available in the ‘Thumbnail’ tab of the Graphics Optimizer.

If  the ‘resample’ option is checked, any scaling (resizing) done in the image optimizer is done using resampling. This generally produces much better results than resizing. A major benefit can be seen when a very small image needs to be resized to a larger area. Sometimes, a resampled image will produce a smaller sized JPG file than the original, while improving the general appearance. Note that the number of colors used by the image increase when it is resampled, and so in some cases, it may not be possible for the image to be saved as a GIF file.

If an image has been marked as ‘Best-fit’ (maintain aspect ratio), then Tarantula automatically provides assisted scaling of  the image. This feature can be turned off from the configuration dialog. Also, a threshold value can be set from the dialog for images. Any image which is scaled to smaller than the threshold value (30% by default) automatically brings up the image optimiser, where one can save the new sized image, or convert to thumbnail. All these features can be adjusted, or enabled/disabled via the configuration dialog.


Supported File Formats
Tarantula Release 1.98

Supported Graphic File Formats.

Tarantula supports a number of graphic file formats. It should be noted that the standard file formats for the Web are GIF and JPEG. Hence, only these should be used. However, any of the supported files can be used in Tarantula, which can be converted to the JPG or GIF format using the Image Optimizer, which is accessible from the Image File Selector.

The supported file formats are:

GIF (interlaced/not-interlaced/transparent/animated), JPG(linear/progressive), PCX, 24-bit BMP, TGA.

Tarantula is capable of creating all kinds of GIF images (except animated ones), all kinds of JPG images, and Windows BMP files.


Horizontal rules
Tarantula Release 1.98

Horizontal Rules.

Horizontal rules are used to separate two (normally un-related) parts of text. Most graphical browsers are capable of rendering the rules as 3-D bars. This is, hence, the default in Tarantula. However, one can specify that the rule should NOT be 3-D if so desired. Also, the width (either in pixels, or as a percentage of the page width) and the thickness of the rule (in pixels) can be specified.

Tip

By specifying the thickness to be more than the width, the effect of a Vertical

Rule can be simulated.

NOTE : Netscape Navigator has this habit of ‘rounding off’ the ends of a non-3d HRule. Due to this, such an HRule, with it’s thickness more than the width, may appear as a circular object (more like an ink-blob) on the screen.


Overview
Tarantula Release 1.98

Overview.

Tarantula is based on a unique concept of Web-page development, which allows free (pixel level) placement of text and images on the page, much like the visual development tools like VB or Delphi etc. place components on a form. The page is divided into Areas , each of which can hold a certain kind of object. Currently, Tarantula supports most of the HTML items such as text, images, multimedia etc. There is also a custom HTML/JAVA area, in which one can directly include HTML, Javascript etc. Tables and Image-maps can also be inserted here, using the integrated table-editor and the image-map editor . Tarantula also supports ‘TARGET’s for frames as well as support for linking any number of script/functions to most active objects (such as links and form elements). All features are easily accessible from menus as well as floating toolbars. In it’s endeavor to be a one-stop-shop for page generation, Tarantula also offers amazing graphics functionality such as converting text to GIF images, applying various filters and styles, without any need for third-party programs.

Tarantula follows a compiler-like approach to page building. The ‘source-code’ for a page is kept in a THD file, and a group of files belonging to a project is stored as a THP file. When a web-site has to be updated, the project needs to be ‘compiled’, i.e., the required HTML has to be generated. This is actually an extremely fast and easy (single-click) process. A very efficient, two-pass HTML conversion engine is used which generates extremely HTML small files. In fact, there is a full-fledged Project Manager built into Tarantula, and the entire project can even be uploaded (published) to the website from within Tarantula, by using Windows FTP.

All the areas can be moved around freely on the page, without any restriction (other than the fact that areas cannot overlap each other). The normal HTML limitations of left/right/center are not at all applicable in Tarantula (you have pixel level layout control), and the generated page HTML looks exactly like it was in the design stage. The only requirement is that the generated HTML will retain placement if the browser supports tables. Thus, it is normally not required to launch a browser to preview the page (except maybe when custom HTML or Java(script) has been inserted). To aid in designing for different screen resolutions/sizes, there are vertical lines at 640, 800 and 1024 pixels. Features like snap to (user-defined) grid make Tarantula still more easier to use.

Tarantula makes extensive use of the right mouse-button, as it provides context sensitive pop-up menus for all areas. These menus change not only according to what area is current, but also according to the number of areas selected, basically adding functions that can be performed to the group of selected areas in one go. Of course, Tarantula also provides a number of keyboard short-cuts to make working easier.

For projects which carry a specific look-and-feel through all pages, Tarantula also has support for user-defined document templates (stored as THT files ).

The main toolbar is always visible, and functional. Besides the tools for creating areas, there are some special tools available, e.g., the Select and the Clone tool. The Select tool is used to select one or more areas so that different actions such as color change or deletions can be performed on them. It is also used to move or resize any area (or a group of areas). The Clone tool is used to quickly create copies of any type of area, with the same size and contents, and place it anywhere on the page. A very powerful variant of the clone tool is the Replicate function.

Tip : The working of the Clone tool can be duplicated while still using the Select tool.  If the shift key is down while moving an object using the Select tool, it performs exactly as if the tool was the Clone tool.

Tip : Multiple areas can be selected by drawing a bounding box with the ‘Select’ Tool. Multiple areas which are far apart, or not continuous, may be selected by clicking on them while holding down the ‘Ctrl’ button on the keyboard.


Tables
Tarantula Release 1.98

Tables.

Tarantula does the placement of areas on a page mainly with the help of tables. Thus, each Area  may be considered to be a cell of a table. This approach makes it very convenient to design even complex ‘exploded’ tables.

By right-clicking on any text Area, the background color for the text can be specified, which is treated just like a cell color. Any text cell of the table may be made transparent by selecting ‘Transparent Background’ from the editor that can be accessed on double-clicking the Area.

A table with a specified number of rows and columns can easily be created out of any type of area, simply by creating an area, and right-clicking on it. Out of the menu that pops up, just select ‘Replicate’, select the desired options, and presto ! you have a table! In fact, this method is so powerful that if, while replicating, any of the cell overlaps an existing area, the table can even flow around that area ! See the section on Replication for further details.

For those who want more table support, Tarantula provides features virtually unheard-of. There is an integrated table editor (accessible from the Custom HTML area), which lets you build tables and paste them as HTML (in the custom HTML area). This powerful editor also lets you convert the table to a preformatted ‘text’ version, which remains like a table even in non table-capable browsers (like lynx) !!.

Tarantula is also capable of importing the table straight from a DBF file ( several files of dbase III+, IV, V and Visual dBase were tested without problems). Several import filters like date format and logical-field  formatting filters are provided which modify the data read from the table on the fly.


Image Map Editor
Tarantula Release 1.98

Client-side Image Map Editor.

Tarantula provides an integrated client-side image map editor. This can be accessed from the Custom HTML/Java Area. The map-editor generates HTML which is pasted as custom HTML. This is done to make integration of third-party image map editors extremely easy. If, instead of the internal editor, you wish to use some other editor, the map can be generated in the other editor and then pasted back into the custom HTML area. The placement and size of this area are not important at all. Unlike the text area, the contents of this area are not clipped by the areas boundaries. It can even be an extremely small area (big enough to be clicked for selecting at design-time), tucked away somewhere at the bottom of the page. The only requirement is that the image map name should be the same as the one specified in the corresponding image, and the any image map referred to on a page has to reside in the same page. Tarantula helps in specifying image map names as it can automatically provide a list of all image maps referred to in the page, as also a list of all images. To make things easier, only those images which are included in the page are listed.

Image maps can also be stored (as a THM file) for later use/edit. Any image map can be overlaid on any image. Any of the areas can be moved around or deleted.


Text Areas
Tarantula Release 1.98

Text Area.

Text areas are probably one of the most important areas, as most of the information on a page is normally put in the form of text. These areas can be created by selecting the text tool and marking the required area in the design window. To enter new text, double-click inside the area, activating the text editor. Text can also be imported directly from RTF (Rich Text Format) files, or plain text (TXT) files. Even existing MS-Word documents (.DOC files) can be imported, if Word is installed in your system. It can also be exported, converted to an image, and printed. Tarantula automatically recognizes and properly handles files brought from the UNIX platform. It is also possible to import text across Windows application using the clipboard.

Formatting Text

Tarantula integrates a powerful and feature-rich text editor, which is optimized for writing web pages, all with a very highly customizable floating toolbar based interface. It has many features found in Windows based word-processors. Some of these features have been implemented keeping in view the limitations of HTML, e.g., there are seven different font sizes available in Tarantula, corresponding to the seven possible sizes in HTML. However, features like Bold/Italic/Uline etc., and alignment of text still work as normal. Bullets are also supported, but if numbered lists are to be entered, a separate ‘Numbered List’ area should be created. For the sake of convenience, a separate ‘Un-ordered List’ area may also be created. Tarantula uses the FACE attribute in the <FONT> tag to implement different fonts that may be chosen by clicking on the ‘font’ button (clicking on the arrow next to the font button gives a selectable quick-access drop-down list of fonts currently used. Any character(s) in the text can have any color, selectable by clicking on the ‘color’ button. International characters/symbols can also be entered, by using the ‘character set’ button. For even stronger international character/font support, see the section on Converting Text to Image. This version of Tarantula also has support for custom user styles, where users can design combinations of styles they commonly use, and store them for later use.

The Editor Background Color

If the ‘Pick editor background from area’ box is checked, the color of the editor itself changes to the color of the text area that will hold the text. This makes it very convenient to enter text which would normally be hard to see on the standard ‘white’ background.


Text Areas
Tarantula Release 1.98

Converting Text to Image

Any text is made up of letters in a particular font. In a web-page, any number of fonts in any combination may be used. However, care has to be taken that the font used should be such which will be commonly available on most machines (as the person who’s browsing the page on the Internet has to have the same font installed in his machine to view the text properly). For most English-language fonts, this is not much of a problem as even if the font is not available in the browser’s machine, the closest matching font will be used, but at least the text will remain the same. However, if the text was originally written using a foreign language font, such as Hindi, Arabic etc., then it will be totally meaningless if the browser’s machine doesn’t have that font.

Tarantula has a workaround to this problem. After writing text in any language in any font, after you’re satisfied with the formatting & contents of the text area, just right click on that area and choose ‘Convert to Image’ from the popup. That’s it, the text area is converted to a GIF of the screen image ! No need to go to any other application to convert to image. Of course, you can still convert it to a JPG, but the GIF Tarantula creates is highly optimised, usually being only 4-bit/pixel images (if possible). Now, since the area is converted to an image, your text is no longer text, but goes as an image. Which means, anyone with or without the fonts you’ve used will be able to view what you’ve written, in the fonts you wrote it in !

Of course, since the text is now an image, it cannot be edited, except in an image editor. Thus, this conversion should always be performed as the last step after all text editing and layout has been finished. However, the text can be edited if desired outside the constraints of HTML : for example, any point size text can be specified, and size defined, just by clicking on the ‘Edit Text’ button. Also, any links inside the text are lost (this again, can be worked around by using the image as an image map and editing the links in the integrated image-map editor). A part of the original text is retained and automatically inserted as the ‘ALT’ text for the image.

The image can be created as a transparent image, which makes it easy to place the image anywhere on the page without bothering about matching backgrounds. Additionally, for text areas that were transparent, the image generated can optionally also include the original background image (i.e., the image will be exactly what the text looked like in the Tarantula design editor.

Tarantula also has a built-in graphics module, which can be used by selecting ‘Convert to image’ option. The graphics module allows you to add drop-shadows, filters like blur, soften etc, and effects like ‘ink-blot’, outline etc from within Tarantula !! You no longer have to go to third party graphics programs to create simple text-related graphics!

Tip : If you are using MS-Plus, or any other software which enabled Windows font smoothing, the image that Tarantula generates will automatically be anti-aliased (smoothed).


Text Areas
Tarantula Release 1.98

Background Color

Each text area can have it’s own background color, different from other areas, or even different from the document background color. To do this, simply right-click on the area, and choose ‘This text’s background color’ from the pop-up. Backgrounds of multiple text-areas can be changed at once by selecting the desired areas using the Select Tool, and then changing the color. The background can even be made transparent, in which case, the document color or background wallpaper under the text area will show through where there is no text. To mark an area as transparent, just select the ‘Transparent’ checkbox from within the text-editor (available by double-clicking the text area).


Importing Text
Tarantula Release 1.98

Importing Text.

Tarantula can import directly from MS-Word DOC files, RTF (Rich Text Format) files, or plain text (TXT) files. It can also import existing HTML files, so they can be manipulated on the page. A number of filters are available to you to import the files. Files can be imported into Tarantula in two ways. One is to create a text area, and double-clicking on it to bring on the Text-Editor. Here, the Import Text button can be used to actually import the file. Tarantula shows you the appropriate type of filter for the selected file, based on the extension.

The second way to import text into Tarantula is to simply drag & drop any importable file (DOC/RTF/TXT/HTM) from, say, Explorer, or File Manager, directly into the Tarantula design window. A text area is automatically created, and an appropriate filter is brought up, after which the file is imported. This forms a regular editable text area.

For more details on importing text from existing into text areas, see the sections on :

Importing Plain Text, and

Importing Pre-Formatted Text.


Importing Text
Tarantula Release 1.98

Breaking down text areas (Moving text to new areas)

Irrespective of the way in which a file has been imported, it can be broken down into smaller, more manageable parts. This is done by starting the text-editor for the area to be broken down. In the editor, just select the text to broken off, or position the cursor after which the entire text is to be broken off, and click on the Split at Cursor/Selection button. The selected area, or the area after the cursor, is automatically moved to a newly created area, which has the same size as the current area, and is directly under it (if possible). This is the preferred way to move text between areas, as this also moves any links associated with the moved text.


Importing Text
Tarantula Release 1.98

Importing Pre-formatted Text

If the text to be imported is contained in an RTF (pre-formatted) file, it is imported as it is, keeping most of the formatting. The color, font, placement and most attributes of text are retained. However, attributes which are not possible in HTML are automatically discarded. When a file is first selected for import, a preview is shown. If the user gives confirmation for import, then the text is reformatted. This is needed to discard illegal attributes, and also to convert the different font sizes present in the text to their closest HTML font size.

Importing and Formatting Plain Text

Plain text can also be imported into the text area. While importing, the text can be made to pass through a filter, which is able to extract heading, topics, and body text from the plain-text file, and apply different kinds of formatting options on them. For example, it can be specified that all topics in the text should be centered and underlined, and given a certain size, color and font, whereas all body text should appear as, say, italics. This is an extremely powerful feature, and can be used to convert large existing plain-text documents without the need for any re-writing.


Text-Editor Features
Tarantula Release 1.98

Features of the text editor.

The text editor supports a wide range of features that make it a very powerful and easy to use tool.

Some of the features found in the text editor are :

Text-importing,

Transparent Text Areas

Linking Text

International Character Set Support

Converting Text To Image

Breaking (Splitting) Text Areas

Spell Check

Printing


Text-Editor Features
Tarantula Release 1.98

International character / Special character support.

Tarantula provides a character selection box, in which international characters in the current font are displayed. Each character is in it’s own button, and the characters can be entered by simply clicking on the buttons. The character under the mouse is shown enlarged in a separate pane in the bottom right of the window.

If need be, the entire character set for that particular font can be displayed, and characters picked from there. This can be invaluable where complete foreign language phrases have to be entered, specially in scripts that do not resemble the Roman letters normally used. It should be noted that if such phrases are to be legible later when the page is being browsed over the Web, then the font used must be installed in the browser’s computer (However, Tarantula 1.98 also provides tools to work around that limit, see the section on Converting Text to Image).


Text-Editor Features
Tarantula Release 1.98

Spell Check.

Tarantula comes pre-equipped with a 1,00,000 word American dictionary. Spell checks can be performed on a complete text area, or even the entire project (from the project manager).

Printing

The current text area can be printed out to a printer to obtain a hard copy. The printout obtained is always the formatted version. The printer to be used may be chosen from a list of connected printers, one of which may be a fax driver. In this case, the text area can be directly faxed to a location, say, for approval of formatting.


Text-Editor Features
Tarantula Release 1.98

Linking

Any part of the text can be selected and the Link button pressed to specify a URL for this link. Repetitive words can be linked in one go using the ‘Find & Link’ button, with ‘Replace all occurrences’  selected. Commonly used URL can be stored & retrieved from the global URL database. While finding/linking using multiple option, make sure the direction of search is set right.


Project Manager
Tarantula Release 1.98

Working with projects.

Web sites are very rarely made up of single pages. Normally while constructing a site, a number of pages are involved, as also a large number of associated image files, multimedia files etc. Such projects can be easily handled by Tarantula using the Project Manager.

The Project Manager, accessible by selecting ‘Project Manager’ from the ‘Project’ menu, has a number of features to make file management an easy task. There are two main panes in the manager. The one on the left holds the documents (.thd) that make up the project (whose name is indicated below the right window). The right window hold the names of documents which are there in the project directory (found under the project name box), but not a part of the project. To make any document in this a part of the project, just select it and click the ‘Add’ button. The document moves into the left-pane. A similar process is done to remove a document from the project. If there is a need to physically delete a document from the project, it first has to be moved out of the project, and then ‘Delete’ can be pressed (to prevent accidental deletion from project).

Note that directories inside the project directory can be browsed and files selected from them to be included in the project. Since the project directory forms the root of the project, it is not advisable to select files from directories above this directory.

Reports for missing files ( including missing images etc.) can be obtained & printed by clicking the ‘Missing Files’ option in the ‘Structure’ menu. In case a list of files (documents, images, etc.) which are just cluttering up the project directory is required, then the ‘Unused files’ option may be in the ‘Structure’ menu may be used. This is very handy while removing unused files from a directory before publishing.

The entire project can be uploaded to the website by clicking on the ‘Upload’ menu item, which also gives a list of files used in the project. The upload dialog that follows has the option of creating a ‘FTP script’ which is a list of commands that would be required by standard FTP programs to upload the site. However, Tarantula has the capability to upload the entire project itself, by utilizing the FTP.EXE which is installed with Windows when TCP/IP / dial-up networking is installed. In fact, Tarantula can even websites ‘publish to disk’, in a particluar directory, which can go a long way in team development support.

A spell check on an entire document, or even the entire project can be performed by just selecting the documents and clicking on the Spell Check button.

The Project Manager makes it extremely easy to change existing file-names. Normally, on changing the name of any file, all references to the file have to be changed. This is done automatically in Tarantula, by clicking on the Rename button. File extensions can also be easily changed from .htm to .html and vice versa, with just a couple of mouse-clicks.

One major feature is the Project Structure Viewer, which can be accessed by clicking the ‘Inspect’ button.


Links
Tarantula Release 1.98

Specifying Link Details.

No Web-page would be complete without some links. Tarantula allows you to link an image (or area, using image-maps) or any part of the text to be linked to a URL (Universal Resource Locator). This URL may be the name of another html file that is part of the project, or it may be a link to a target ( a link to some part of the same page). A mailto: link may be specified if you want that the mailer should be activated when this link is clicked. The mailto:// is followed by the email address of the recipient.

The Links Dialog lets you specify a link for the shown (selected) text, or image. This can be either a new link, or may be one of the links that has been used somewhere on this page earlier also. You also have the option of adding this new link to a ‘global link list’, in which case this link will be available to you while making any page in Tarantula. Existing global links appear in the URL drop-down, below the dotted line.

The frame in which the new link opens can also be specified, just specify the frame name in the ‘Target’ field. One can also select from preset ‘target’s of  ‘_blank’ for a new window, ‘_top’ for the top-level window, ‘_parent’ for the parent window and so on.

Tarantula also allows you to attach scripts (eg., JavaScript/VBScript etc.) to the link. For example, the JavaScript event of OnMouseOver may be attached to a link, and an action specified which will be executed when, in this case, the mouse moves over the link. Note, that to view the script in action, one has to preview the page in a script-compatible browser.

NOTE : Since scripts attached to links basically call  functions located in some other Custom HTML/Java areas, one can enter a total of 255 characters for URL + Events.

In case the URL is extremely long, some placeholder may be used instead, and the URL insert using the OnClick event (using the construct this.href=”url”). This kind of a link, however, will only work in a browser capable of executing that script.


Custom HTML/Java Overview
Tarantula Release 1.98

Custom HTML/Java Areas

HTML specifications, which are the official standard of how HTML should be written, and what tags etc. can be used, keep changing. This is to incorporate new technology into web-page development. Tarantula recognizes this fact, and provides you with a space in which you can keep your own HTML. This ‘Custom HTML’ area can contain new HTML tags for which there may not be support in Tarantula. These areas are left totally untouched by Tarantula during generation, and the contents are included in the generated HTML as they are (without any modifications).

This may be useful, for example, to put in <PRE> preformatted text, or image maps, tables, Java Applets, plugins etc. This area may also be used to enter JavaScript, VBScript, or other similar script-programs, which may be called from anywhere on the page.

NOTE : The size of a Custom HTML/Java area does not matter, as even text which is not visible (if the area is too small) is inserted into the generated HTML. This is very useful in inserting non-visible code into the page, such as scripts, or image maps etc., without actually disturbing the general layout of the page.


Viewing the project structure.
Tarantula Release 1.98

Viewing Project Structure

Tarantula provided an extremely easy way to view the structure of any project. It shows the entire project in the form of a tree, with icons specifying the type of object. For example, any tree starts off with a ‘Project Icon’. When this is expanded, a list of documents in the project is shown. Clicking on any document further opens the tree, and the structure of the document is shown. If this document has a background image, it is indicated. It the document has a form, all the form-elements and their names can be browsed right here.

Double-clicking on any file in the tree will load the file ( if possible). Images & multimedia are shown within the Project Structure Window, documents are loaded in the design window.

Links, and external links (http: etc.) are also displayed in the tree.

Another major feature of this is that files/links which could not be resolved are marked with a red ‘cross’ mark on the icon. This makes it very easy to visually inspect broken links and missing files.

Other indications include the download times at various speeds for the current document ( on the bottom  left) , or for the entire project (bottom left).

NOTE : This speed is calculated assuming no compression. Practically, while most images will have the indicated download times, most pages will actually come upto four times as fast (due to hardware compression).


Form elements
Tarantula Release 1.98

Forms

More and more web-pages are now getting interactive, as commerce on the web increases. One of the main requirements of such pages is the ability to ask the user for some information, and process it in a pre-determined way. For example, a mail-order system could use such a page.

All this, and more, is accomplished using Forms. Tarantula has full support for forms, and can actually design & test forms visually. Tarantula can even show you exactly what information will be passed to the server when the user clicks on the ‘Submit’ button.

Form Basics

All forms consist of at least some basic parts : Information about where the form contents will be sent, and a control (Button), designated as the ‘Submit’ button, upon pressing of which the browser will send the information. This information can be gathered in fields like edit-boxes, text-areas, drop-down selection lists, check-boxes, radio-buttons etc. A button can also be designated as the ‘Reset’ button, upon clicking of which all data entered in the form is cleared (useful for the user to re-start filling the form).

In case of check-boxes, the user can select any (combination), or even all of the check-boxes on the page. However, in case of radio-buttons, the user can select only one radio-button out of a group. To specify which radio-buttons form a group, enter the same ‘Name’ field in the radio-button details dialog-box. To make this easier, a drop-down list of names of existing radio-buttons is also provided there. Also, in case of check-boxes and radio-buttons, the text that is alongside can be formatted as desired, with or without transparency.

When a button is designated as the ‘Submit’ button, Tarantula also shows you what data will actually be passed back to the server. This information is sent as command line options to the server in case the method of posting is specified as ‘GET’. If the method is specified as ‘POST’, then these values are passed as environment variables.

In any case, whatever form element is used, some scripts can be attached to the element from within Tarantula, by specifying the ‘script’ option from the ‘…details’ dialog. For example, a script for ‘OnBlur’ could be attached to a single-line edit area, and the script will execute when the user tabs out of that field.


Multimedia Areas
Tarantula Release 1.98

Multimedia

As computer systems become cheaper, and transfer speeds on the Internet rise, more and more people are opting for multimedia content on their pages, whether it be WAV, or MIDI or even AVI motion video sequences. Tarantula can handle any multimedia extension that is installed in your machine. However, care has to be taken that whatever multimedia content is put on the page will only work in the browser if the computer of the browser supports these extensions.

Tarantula is capable of displaying/playing multimedia content directly on the page, exactly as it will appear on the actual HTML page. In case of audio content, the multimedia drivers are utilized to play the content directly in the page. In case of video/animation content, the content is displayed exactly in the size & position that has been specified. Of course, all functions of Tarantula are still available even while these multimedia areas are ‘playing’ : these areas are just treated a normal areas with ‘dynamic’ content.

To create a multimedia area, simply click on the multimedia area button in the toolbar, and draw the bounding box of the area. Then double click on the area, and specify the filename of the content. That it ! You can specify additional options, like how many times the content will play etc.

In case of video content, the video does not resize when the area is resized. This is in keeping with how most browsers treat video content. In fact, most browsers have a white or grey box around video content, in case the cell is larger than the video. This behavior is duplicated in Tarantula : the white area disappears as soon as the size of the area equals the size of the video.


Replication of Areas
Tarantula Release 1.98

Replication of Areas

Although the clone tool, and the ‘shift+Select Tool’ short-cut has been provided to copy/clone areas, sometimes it is desirable to make multiple copies of an area maybe placed regularly, as in a table. Well, a function to do exactly that exists in Tarantula 1.98. This function is called the replicate function, and can be very powerful, producing amazing results.

The simplest use, and way to use it, is that assume that you want to create a table on the page. All that you have to do, is make ONE cell, the top-left cell of the table, choose it’s background color, and right-click on it. From the menu that pops up, just click on ‘Replicate’. The Replication Details dialog will now appear.

If you just want a table, all you have to do is specify the total number of rows and column your table should have, and check the ‘forming a table structure’ checkbox, and then click on Ok. Tarantula will immediately show you a preview layout of the cells, and ask you for confirmation. As soon as you confirm the creation, the one cell that was originally created is replicated, forming a table with the desired number of rows and columns. The spacing between the rows & columns can also be altered using the options in the dialog box. In fact, one can even specify that the first row or column of the table so formed should be of a different, specified color (the original cell remains untouched).

If a table is not desired, but the cells should only be repeated on the axis, just choose the checkbox labeled ‘only on axes’. This may be useful if the axes are formed around an image which has charts in it. However, just in case there is an image, or any other area already existing in the space where any replicated cell will be placed, one can specify whether the entire table should be abandoned, or only that specific cell that overlaps the existing area should be skipped. So now, you can make tables flow around images !


Working with color
Tarantula Release 1.98

Working with color.

Replacing the standard Windows color-dialog box is the color selector in Tarantula. This extremely easy-to-use selector not only makes it very convenient to choose colors, but is also able to remember your favorite colors across sessions (it’ll remember the colors even when you quit Tarantula and run it again later).

The red/green/blue sliders let you adjust the amount of each primary color that will ultimately mix to form the desired color (you can directly enter the color values also). The actual color formed is displayed in the rectangular area in the center of the color selector. Also, if any text were to be written with the color being edited currently, the two small areas at the bottom left of the window show how it would look against both the current document background, as well as the current text area’s (if any) background color.

To choose from any of the preset colors, just click on the color. There is a full color picker available (click on the ‘Picker>>>’ button). Now, Tarantula 1.98 goes a step ahead and lets you choose colors by name also, just click & select from the drop-down list containing more than 500 color names, with a small color patch, sorted by color (alphabetic sorting of the color names would make it hard to find colors similar or near to each other) [Inspired by the excellent rgb.txt of the X-Consortium]. Of course, the standard ‘web’ method of specifying color is supported.

If you have designed a specific color, that you want to keep using, even in later documents, you can easily store it in one of the ‘custom color’ areas. Just click on any empty area (the outline becomes red, to tell you the new color will go into this area), and after creating your color, click on the ‘Add/Modify Custom’ button. That’s it. At any time, if you wish to change/modify this color that you’ve just created, just click on it again… it’s loaded in the color mixer… edit the color, and click on the ‘Add/Modify Custom’ button again. This will change the old color to the new one.

If the ‘Show browser-safe colors only’ mode is on, the nearest browser safe color to the selected color is shown. If this mode is turned off, one can still select the nearest browser-safe color to the selected color by clicking on the ‘Safe Color’ patch that appears above the color palette (this patch only appears if  the current color is not browser-safe).


Working with the Page Wizard
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Page Wizard.

Tarantula makes it extremely easy even for beginners to design web pages. However, for people who want a basic nice looking page in the minimum amount of time, or simple to start off with a simple page, Tarantula provides a page wizard. This wizard automates the task of creating a simple page, and reduces the entire procedure to a step-by-step process.

The various options of the page wizard can be changed, setting individual preferences, and entering details such as page title etc. Please note that any of the options/preferences may be changed at any point of time by just clicking on the back ‘<-‘ button. At the end, press ‘Finish’. Tarantula will then prompt you to save the new page, and will then generate the HTML for you also. Next, it will attempt to load the HTML in your preset browser to give you a preview. All of these steps are automated, making it very convenient for the beginner to ‘get the hang of things’.


Working with fonts
Tarantula Release 1.98

Working with fonts.

Replacing the standard Windows font-dialog box is the new font selection box in Tarantula. This new enhanced font selector not only lets you choose the font, but also shows the font name in the font itself. It also shows the text currently selected in the text editor in the desired font.


Working with menus
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Menus.

Since Tarantula is based on an ‘Area-wise’ approach towards building web pages, the main menu basically consists of menus and buttons which create a certain kind of area on the design page. The main menu options are explained here (click on the item for which more information is desired):

File  Edit  Project  Tools  Document  HTML  Misc  Display  Help


Working with menus - File
Tarantula Release 1.98

The File Menu.

The file menu provides the standard file operations that are permitted from within Tarantula. Clicking on the ‘New’ option brings up the new page dialog box, from where various page options can be set. This is sometimes very convenient, as the options initially displayed are the ones that were used for the previous page, hence it is very easy to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the site. The ‘Open’ option lets you open a Tarantula Hypertext Document (THD) file, or a template (THT) file. Templates are very useful in designing pages which have a lot of areas/color schemes in common. To save the currently opened document, click on ‘Save’. To save the current document with a new name, click ‘Save As’. The ‘Revert’ option is useful where a number of changes have been done to a document, and all have to be discarded. Clicking on this will discard all changes to the current document, and will bring it to the state in which it was last saved. The ‘Page Wizard’ brings up the wizard for designing simple pages. These pages can be edited later from within Tarantula.

The ‘Send’ option can be used to mail the current THD file, with the associated images and the generated THD file to anyone by email. This uses MAPI features, which needs to  be installed on the machine before it can be used. Tarantula directly interfaces with the system address books, so the names and addresses of the recipients can be chosen directly from there. Also, a short message can also be send with the files.

Choose the ‘Exit’ option for …hmmm…uhhh…now what was this for…. :-)


Working with menus - Edit
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Edit Menu.

The edit menu provides basic selection and editing options. It allows you to undo the last change (if possible - deletions cannot be undone), by clicking the ‘Undo…’ option (or pressing Ctrl-Z). The option is most cases also specifies the action that will be undone.

To select all the areas in the current document, click on ‘Select All’ (you can also press Ctrl-A for this). To un-select all areas, click on ‘Select None’ (or press Ctrl-N).


Working with menus - Project
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Project Menu.

The project menu offers the options from the project manager up front, into the main menu. All the options in this menu can also be accessed from the Project Manager.

Clicking on the ‘Open’ option brings up the file selection dialog which lets one select the project file. Once the project file is selected, the project is loaded, and the first document of the project is automatically brought up in the Tarantula editor. The other options are self-explanatory.

The Upload option lets you upload the contents of the entire project in one go. It brings up the upload dialog box, which shows a list of files that are being used by the project. One can generate a FTP script (list of commands which will be used by any standard command-line ftp software), and can then upload all the files by entering the required information such as host-name, directory, username, password etc. For security purposes, these details are discarded (not saved) for the next session. Also, it is possible to publish the project to a directory which makes it convenient to distribute it, in case it needs to be shared.


Working with menus - Tools
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Tools Menu.

The tools menu offers access to the various design tools available in Tarantula. These tools are also accessible from the ‘Tools’ toolbar, and are probably the most important section of Tarantula.

The ‘Select’ tool is used to select area(s) for performing different kinds of operations, such as color changes or deletions, moves, resize etc. of areas. Multiple selections are also possible.

The ‘Clone’ tool is a tool to make a copy of an existing area. This area can be any kind of area, except a ‘Link Target’ area. If it’s a text area, the new area will contain the same text too. All links etc. and other properties of the original area are maintained. The clone operation may also be done by holding down the Shift key while using the Select Tool.

The ‘Text’ tool allows you to create text areas on the page. The Formatted Text area can contain any kind of formatted text, which is editable in the Tarantula Text Editor (which pops up when a text area is double-clicked). This may have been imported from different formats using the said editor. To create lists, both numbered and bulleted, use the specific area designed for those types.

The ‘Image’ tool lets you create an image area on the page. This area can hold an image, which can be of types such as GIF/JPG/PCX/BMP/TGA etc. However, the standard formats used on the Web is GIF and JPG. If the image is not one of these two types, the image converted may be used for conversion into these formats. This is available from the image dialog which pops up when an image-area is double-clicked.

The ‘Horiz. Rule’ tool is used to create areas which hold Horizontal Rules. These rules can be of varying sizes and thickness, and the appearance (3-D or flat) may be chosen from the dialog box which comes when a HR area is double-clicked.

The ‘Multimedia’ tool create an area which can be used to told multimedia objects, such as audio clips, midi music, videos etc. Different options, such as whether the clip will start playing automatically, or the number of times it will repeat etc., can be set when such an area is double-clicked.

The ‘Form-Element’ tool creates an object which is linked to a form. This may be a button, checkbox, radio-button, drop-down list, single-line edit fields, multiple-line edit fields etc. The default values for these can be specified by double-clicking the area. The first time a form element is created, the ‘Form Details’ dialog box also pops up, where information about the form needs to be entered.

The ‘Target’ tool is used to create ‘Link Target’ areas. These are areas which do not hold any content, but can be referred to in links in the same as well as other documents.

The ‘Custom HTML/Java’ tools is a very powerful tool designed to help people in harnessing the full force of HTML and it’s enhancements. Use custom areas to enter HTML which is of a new version, or scripts such as Javascript or VBScript etc. This area is also used to create Image Maps, Tables etc. The text editor that comes up on double-clicking such an area converts to a specialized editor. The edit area becomes a tag-based HTML editor, while allowing most of the operations of the text editor. Special operations like Ctrl-Enter and Shift-Enter are also available for aiding in writing Tag-based HTML. The contents of this area are not touched by Tarantula and are completely retained in the generated HTML file.


Working with menus - Document
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Document Menu.

The document menu holds options related to the page as a whole, for example, the color schemes, or the background image etc.

The page title can be set from the option. This is generally displayed by browsers in the caption of the window in which the page is displayed.

The Meta Information option lets you specify meta information for the page, which is often used by search engines to index that particular page. Besides information, the Document Pull feature of Tarantula is also accessible from here.

If any scripts need to be specified in the document <HEAD> section, they may also be specified using the ‘Scripts in <HEAD> section’ option. Note that when Rollover Images are used, Tarantula automatically generates and places some script in this section, so it can be edited if so desired.


Working with menus - HTML
Tarantula Release 1.98

The HTML Menu.

The HTML menu contains the options which work with the actual HTML representing the current document.

To generate HTML for the current document, click on ‘Generate’. To preview the generated HTML in the configured browser, click on ‘Preview’. This will load the generated HTML file in the browser. To read about HTML page placement options, see topic on placement options.

Sometimes, the HTML that is generated is large due to the placement of the areas. If very high accuracy of placement of areas is not needed, click on ‘Optimize’ to rearrange the areas slightly (maximum by the defined number of pixels), so that the new HTML that will be generated is smaller in size. Please note that Optimizing may sometimes not have any effect on the size of the HTML.

Selecting ‘Edit HTML’ brings up the integrated powerful tag-based HTML work-bench, where one can edit the generated HTML. Please note that any changes made to the generated HTML will be overwritten on the next generate (However, the HTML can be saved as a different name, in which case it will not be overwritten).

In very rare cases, the HTML that is generated does not maintain the layout in the browser as is visible in the Tarantula editor. This is caused because some browsers fail to properly parse the tightly generated HTML created by Tarantula. In such a case, click on ‘Disable level 2 generation’ option, and generate the HTML again. This disables the second optimizing pass that Tarantula internally performs to reduce the size of the HTML. Note that this may result in a larger sized HTML, but it will generally maintain the layout in most browsers. If the layout is still not maintained, check the ‘Generate extra ‘error control’ for this document’. This will generate a somewhat larger HTML, but is useful, for example, in case of MS-Internet Explorer 3.x where the generated HTML makes some areas ‘run-away’. These options are then remembered by the document, so that level 2 optimisation is disabled/enabled, and error-control is disabled/enabled for this document whenever it is generated next.

Note : Other documents will automatically still use their own generation levels and error-control.

Note : ‘Error-control’ option has no effect if level-2 generation is disabled.


Working with menus - Misc
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Misc Menu.

The Misc (miscellaneous) menu holds various other options which control the current appearance/state of Tarantula. For example, one can switch the area bounding boxes on or off. Note that the bounding boxes can not be turned off while the Select Tool is the current tool.

To have an idea of how the page will look if the images are turned off, check the ‘Show Images’ option. This is useful to set color schemes which will appear readable even if the background image (if any) is missing.

Other configuration options for Tarantula can be set by selecting the ‘Configure Tarantula’ option.

Clicking on ‘Made in Tarantula’ option automatically adds a read-only text area at the bottom of the page which contains the Tarantula version number and the name of the person who is designing the page (Tarantula’s registered user).


Working with menus - Display
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Display Menu.

The Display menu lets you change display resolutions on-the-fly. This can be very helpful in designing web pages and previewing them in different resolutions. The display menu lists all the display resolutions supported by your hardware in the current bit-depth. After selecting a new resolution, the user is given upto 8 seconds to decide if there is any need for this resolution, otherwise Tarantula automatically switches back to the initital resolution. This is important, as sometimes the monitor is not able to support a resolution that your video card switches to, and so the original resolution is reverted to in order to avoid  damage to the monitor.

The ‘Refresh’ option is used to redraw the design window, which may be needed in some cases if some operation has left ‘broken pieces’ or ‘leftovers’ on the screen.

If your machine has MS-Plus or other desktop enhancement software installed, then a ‘Smooth Fonts’ option also appears in this menu. If selected, this option will enable most screen fonts to appear smoother on the screen.


Working with menus - Help
Tarantula Release 1.98

The Help Menu.

The Help menu provides access to Tarantula’s online help system. Clicking on ‘Help Topics’ brings the table-of-contents of the Tarantula Help File. The help is arranged in a book fashion, with a brief overview of the concept of WYSIWYG page designing as it is implemented in Tarantula. The use of various areas, dialog boxes, and functions available in Tarantula is also explained in detail.

The What’s New topic lists the additions, enhancements, and bug fixes that have been put in the current version.

The Nostrum Information Client, which is accessible via the help menu, is a unique way of keeping track of Tarantula Upgrades as and when they happen. If the client is able to connect to the Nostrum Information Host, it will automatically pick up, format, and display information such as availability, features etc., of any new version of Tarantula that is available. It also displays the status of your copy of Tarantula, and can determine if it is an outdated/beta copy. Clicking on the ‘Tarantula’ icon in the top-right will open the current browser, and automatically connect to the Nostrum India web-site.

Tip : The Tarantula Help System is fully context sensitive : to access help at any point of time, just press <F1>, and a pop-up will explain the current dialog/entry field. Some dialog-boxes also have a ‘?’ button, which will lead you to that dialog’s help.


New features
Tarantula Release 1.98

What’s New in Tarantula Release 1.98

Major Features added

•	Automatic 'Rollover' images support.

•	CSS Positioning support

•	Selectable CSS/IE4-only HTML generation mode

•	Support for script in the <HEAD> section.

•	Complete MAPI support for mailing messages, THD, HTM, images etc.

•	Powerful multiple-directory handling in project manager.

•	CSE HTML Validator automatically integrats into Tarantula menus.

•	Enhanced interface + keyboard support for moving/sizing areas.

•	Keyboard support for sizing images, toggle snap to grid

•	Text editor for modifying text to be converted to image.

•	Support for browser-safe colors in color dialog-box.

•	'Align to grid' option for single/multiple areas.

•	Links support in custom HTML areas

Major Enhancements

•	Improved form-attributes handling

•	Improved ftp project upload.

•	Improved project inspector and related items

•	Improved HTML engine.

•	Improved Product Upgrade Information Client.

•	Site-upload details are now remembered by the project.

•	'Convert to lowercase' option while uploading files.

•	Transfer speed is now displayed for 33.6 Kbps modems also.

Major Bug Fixes

•	Page layout bugs which sometimes caused ‘partial’ areas in MSIE

•	Text-formatting tag's nesting errors.

•	Design window going off the screen at bottom on loading page.

•	Some overlapping 'window' problems in project manager.

•	Encoding of <TITLE> tag contents.

•	Fixed bug with cloning form elements.

•	Fixed bugs in Ordered list generation.

•	Formatting bugs in Automatic Site Indexer.

•	Fixed bugs in project upload.

•	Fixed bugs in 'Client Pull'.

•	Fixed bugs in 'HLS' section of color selection box.

•	Display of grid dots.


New features
Tarantula Release 1.98

Special effects for areas.

This release of Tarantula supports special effects for all areas. These effects are made possible using normal HTML 3.0 specs, written in special ways, and have been tested in most browsers like Netscape Navigator 3.x, MS-Internet Explorer 3.x, or later.

Note : These effects apply to any area, and not to individual characters inside, say, a text area. For creating drop-shadows and other graphical effects for text, see the section on Converting text to image.

The effects dialog always shows, in a WYSIWYG manner, the effect of applying the effects over any area. This includes changing of colors, thickness, etc.

Outlines

Any area can now have a colored border around it. The color can be defined using the Tarantula color dialog-box. Also, the style (thickness) of the border can be defined. Currently, there are two styles available : Thin and Thick.

Drop-Shadows

Any area can have a drop-shadow associated with it. The depth of the shadow, or the size, cannot be currently varied. The color of the shadow is automatically calculated by Tarantula, to be slightly darker than the current background color, to always give a ‘true’ shadow-like appearance. In case of very dark backgrounds, Tarantula automatically calculates a color which is visible as a shadow (this feature can be disabled from the configuration dialog-box). The shadows of all areas change to an appropriate color when the background color is changed. If a fixed, user-defined shadow color is desired, the auto-shadow color option can also be disabled from the configuration dialog-box, where a new shadow color can also be defined.

Note : It is possible to create areas that ‘overlap’ shadows of other areas. However, this should be avoided as this behaviour may not be reproducible by all browsers. Also, this may lead to improper layout of the generated HTML.

Note : Using the above effects, specially the ‘Drop-shadow’ effect, may change some parts of the layout of the generated HTML, and may cause it to look differently in the browser than in Tarantula. Also, these effects may not work well with the experimental ‘Auto:Expand’ page layout feature.


The HTML work-bench
Tarantula Release 1.98

The HTML Work-bench.

For those who would rather use a tag-based editor, or to put in finishing ‘personal’ touches to the generated HTML, Tarantula includes an integrated tag-based HTML work bench. The ‘editor’ can be activated by selecting ‘Edit HTML’ from the HTML menu (or pressing Ctrl-E), and loads up with the HTML for the current document. This WB supports advanced features like tag-coloring, on-the-fly character translation, etc. and is very easy to use, the interface consisting of menus and floating toolbars. The status line gives a readout of the current size of the HTML, and also tips like whether the cursor is inside a tag or not. Image-maps, tables, Java Applets etc can also be inserted by just filling in the details in the respective dialog boxes.


Placement Options
Tarantula Release 1.98

Placement Options

Tarantula offers placement options like no other. Placement options let you target your page for multiple resolutions. For example, a page that is created on a system with 640x480 resolution might appear to be in a corner in a browser running in, say, 800x600 resolution. Tarantula provides options through which the HTML generated is such that it can automatically align itself in any resolution in any browseron the fly, without being regenerated. You create one HTML, and that HTML will appear as if it’s made for the resolution it’s being viewed on. The (experimental) Auto:Expand feature will generate HTML which will stretch (expand and compress both) to fill the display in any resolution on-the-fly, while maintaining the general layout !

Also, please note that Tarantula can generate HTML in a number of ways, selectable using the ‘Target Browser’ option. The best way is to use the ‘Generate HTML for all browsers’. Using this option, Tarantula generates HTML that works in all table-capable browsers (Netscape Navigator, MS-IE ,etc.). This mode uses tables for placement. However, it this HTML will retain it’s placement in maximum number of browsers.

The second mode is one which is optimized for all version 4 browsers (Navigator and MS-IE). This uses CSS positioning for layout, and usually does not use tables. Hence, the HTML that is generated is smaller compared to the first mode. However, this HTML will appear properly only on version 4 browsers.

The last mode creates HTML which is very compact, but will only work in MSIE4+.


Project Upload
Tarantula Release 1.98

Project Upload

Tarantula supports complete project publishing, that is, the entire project can be uploaded to your web-site with just a couple of mouse-clicks. For this, Tarantula relies on FTP.EXE which is included with Microsoft Windows 95™.

Before we discuss the upload to web-site feature, let’s first see what the ‘Publish to disk’ can do for us. This feature is a very simple, yet very powerful feature which helps in team development of a web-site. This enables a user to publish the website on any directory (folder) accessible from the system. Tarantula copies all relevant files to that folder, creating any necessary directory structure under that directory. To aid in team development,  one can even ask the source THD files to be published along with the HTM files. This will allow modification (changes/corrections) of the pages by the person viewing the pages. Also, this allows one to copy the whole project on diskettes for ‘giving away’ or such purposes.

To successfully upload a site, enter the site domain name (no need to enter the ftp://) or the IP address of the site to upload to. Also enter the base directory (the one that will contain the first accessible file of your project, usually index.htm). If this directory doesn’t exist, Tarantula will optionally create it for you. Tarantula also needs to be told the login name (user-name) which is to be used to log-in to the site. The password is not displayed on the screen, and for security, is not saved.

If you are not sure what operating system your web server is running, leave the type setting to ‘Unix’. This setting basically effects all path-names, which are converted to Unix-style path-names.

To upload a project, click on ‘Create FTP script’. This will create the necessary commands to be sent to FTP.EXE (the name of the script will be the same as the name of the project, with ‘.FTP’ extension. After this, click on ‘Upload files’ button to start the actual FTP. Tarantula generally tries to abort the upload if some fatal error occurs (e.g., login failure, invalid base directory etc.). The upload can be manually terminated by pressing the ‘Cancel’ button. The actions of the ftp client are recorded in the project directory in the file ‘FTP.LOG’.

The upload list may be edited manually. Care has to be taken that any extra file to be uploaded with the project should start with one ‘space’ character. Paths may be specified, and are automatically created on the server also by Tarantula.

Note : If any extra files are added to the upload list, it will not be uploaded unless the upload script is not created again.


TWAIN support
Tarantula Release 1.98

TWAIN Support

Tarantula has extensive graphics manipulation software, which allows you to convert graphic formats, or even create your very own web graphics using the built-in graphics module. In order to be more of a complete tool, Tarantula also supports directly acquiring images into an image area using any TWAIN compatible device that is attached to your computer. Most image-scanners and digital cameras are TWAIN compatible.

To acquire an image, just create an image area on the page. Double-click the area, to edit the area properties. If you want to acquire image for the ‘Main Image’ section, click the ‘Acquire’ button next to the filename for the same. Otherwise, to acquire image for the ‘Lo-Res’ section, click the ‘Acquire’ button next to the filename for this one. This will bring up the Acquire Dialog. The exact features of the dialog depends upon the type and model of the TWAIN device, and also the version of the TWAIN driver in your system.

After acquiring the image and closing the acquire dialog, you will come back to the Tarantula acquire options. Here, you can either save the file (as a BMP file), or perform some basic operations on it. If the image is very large, the slider on the bottom right can be used to zoom in/out of the image. Please note that while zooming, the actual size of the image does not change, and all operations still work on the original size. Zooming is only provided for convenience in selection of image areas. To scroll the image, click on the Scroll/Pan button, and just drag the Image with the mouse in any direction.

Two basic operations are provided for the Image. One is ‘Crop’ and the other is ‘Frame’. To crop the image, select the area to crop (by moving/sizing the dotted rectangle). Clicking on ‘Crop it’ now will remove any part of the image that is outside the rectangle, and make the image size equal to the rectangle size. This can also be done while the image is zoomed.

‘Frame’ is similar to crop, except that the image size is not changed. Instead, the area outsize the rectangle is filled with the ‘frame color’, which can be user-defined. This is very useful while scanning of photographs, and adding a ‘border’ effect around it to look like a still-camera print.

Both the actions can be undone to one level.

The file which has been saved as BMP can be used for the Image area by clicking on the ‘Use this file’ button, which also closes the dialog box. This image can be later optimized/resized/resampled etc. and converted to GIF/JPG using the image optimizer.


Custom Style Libraries
Tarantula Release 1.98

Custom Style Library

While editing text, most people apply styles that are generally fixed for a particular kind of context. For example, in a newspaper, the headline is always of a specific font, color and size. The name of the paper would be in it’s own font and size etc. To make such a task easier, Tarantula supports the concept of custom styles.

A custom style is a style which is any combination of font, effect, color, size, alignment and such like text attributes. These attributes can be taken as a set, and given a name. This forms a custom style. In the above case, for example, the headline could be given a large sized Times Roman font, which is bold and centered, and has a blank line below it. This could be stored as ‘headline’. Later, whenever such a headline needs to be formatted, instead of manually setting the styles, one could just choose the ‘headline’ custom style, and Tarantula would do all the work.

To make the job of managing styles easier, Tarantula uses style libraries. Each library can hold a number of styles relevant to a particular context. For example, a ‘NewPaper’ library can hold styles which would be useful for formatting news-paper style text. These libraries can be switched at any point from within the text editor, which potentially gives access to an unlimited number of styles.

Tarantula also offers a special attribute for a style, which decides whether that style should be applied to the selected text only, or on the entire text. This is useful to make filters, such as a ‘plain text’ filter, in which all attributes can be removed from the entire text, and any color and font applied using a single click.

Note : These custom styles are different from CSS of Cascading Styles Sheets. The name given to a set of attributes is only to make the job of applying styles easier. After the style is applied, the text it was applied on will behave exactly as if each individual attribute of the style was applied manually.


Themes
Tarantula Release 1.98

Document/Project Themes

Most web-sites are very content-centric. Here, a lot of information is given as text form. While designing such sites, which can involve a large number of pages, each with a number of areas, it is very important that the general layout and looks of the page are decided upon beforehand. This should be done to ensure minimum amount of extra work that might be needed if, say, the colors have to be changed later.

However, Tarantula lets you concentrate on development on the content, without caring much about the initial color schemes etc. This is made possible by the use of Themes. Themes is a very common concept, whereby certain combination of colors, fonts, images etc. can be applied to a page or set of pages, altering the way they look, without even touching the content. This makes it very convenient to ‘try out’ various different kinds of looks (themes) for your site, even after you have finished putting in the content.

To make this concept even more flexible, Tarantula ships with several predefined Themes. However, these themes may be modified, and any number of new ones created. Any new theme automatically becomes a part of Tarantula, and integrates into the drop-down Theme selection.

Each theme is a set of specification for different kinds of color (text color, color of links, etc.), background images, fonts etc. Any or all of these attributes can be included in a Theme. This means, that one can design a theme which only effects, say, the background wallpaper!.

Taking this concept a little further, if invoked from the project manager, the looks for all selected documents in the project can be changed in one go. This saves a lot of time, and allows one to experiment with different color schemes, without actually manually changing anything.


Keyboard Support
Tarantula Release 1.98

Keyboard Shortcuts in Tarantula Release 1.98

Tarantula offers a very intuitive interface, most of which can be worked both with the mouse as well as the keyboard. To view the keyboard equivalents of menu items, please click on the main menu, and the keyboard shortcut for each item will appear listed alongside that item.

As a general rule, while editing text, the standard keys for clipboard operations will work. Cut (Ctrl+T), Copy (Ctrl+C), and Paste (Ctrl+V). Also, additional keys to be used for text attributes are functional, e.g., Bold (Ctrl+B), Italic (Ctrl+I), Underline (Ctrl+U), and so on.

In the design interface, the following keyboard shortcuts are vailable :

When the ‘select’ tool is selected, while moving any area, if the ‘Shift’ key is down, the area is cloned instead of being copied. This works exactly as if the ‘clone’ tool was selected.

Multiple areas, can be selected using the select tool by holding the <Ctrl> key down while clicking on the areas. This will toggle the selected state of the area being clicked.

A selected image can be re-sized to it’s original size (size in which it was made), by pressing Alt+Enter.

The ‘Snap-to-grid’ option can be temporarily enabled or disabled by keeping the <Alt> button pressed while moving with the area mouse. This toggles the current ‘snap’ state. Please note that this only toggles the ‘Snap’ feature, and not the display of the grid itself.

Selected areas can be moved and sized with greater control using the keyboard. Selected areas can be sized using the Arrow Keys, while the <Shift> key is down.

They can be moved by using the Arrow Keys, while the <Ctrl> key is down.