Chapter 9 - Customization

Overview

MSS HTML Editor can be customized in many ways. The easiest way is to edit the options in the options dialog. But there are many other ways to customize. You can edit the tag data files, or replace them with a new ones.

Options Dialog

To bring up the options dialog select 'Options' from the File menu. The options dialog has a listbox with cathegories. Select one of them to edit the options associated with it.

Editing Tag Information Files

MSS HTML Editor stores data about the html language in so called 'Tag Information Files'. These files are simple text files which can be read by any text editor. New in version 1.20 of the editor is the ability to edit these files directly through the editor. The format itself has also been extended and now supports multiple files and extensions.

Using the Editor

You can bring up the editor by selecting 'Tag Data' from the 'Tools' menu. This brings up a dialog with a tree control, where all tags are displayed. You can create a new tag by pressing the 'New Tag' button. To edit an existing tag, select the tag in the tree control and press the 'Edit Tag' button.

This brings up the editor for tag information. If you created a new tag, the first thing to do is to type in the name of the tag. It is recommended that you type it with upper case letters only. After that you select which group to put the tag in. You can also specify the context in which the tag may be used. If the tag can be anywhere in the code type 'ROOT' in the 'Within' edit box. If the tag must be placed within a certain tag type the name of the tag in the 'Within' edit box. You can specify multiple tags separated by a semi colon (;). Again, it is recommended to use upper case only.

Next, you should press the 'Update' button, which will take you back to the previous dialog. If you need to add any arguments to your tag, you must press the 'Edit Tag' button. You can not add arguments until you have pressed the 'Update' button at least once.

You can press the 'New' or 'Edit' buttons to add or edit arguments for your tags. This will take you to the editor for argument information. If it is a new tag, the first thing to do is to type in the name. As usual it is upper case only. The compatibility field can be used to specify which browser the argument is compatible with.

To be continued...

Editing Data Files

General Syntax:

(HEADER)
{
(DEFAULT)COMPATIBILTY
}

All files must have a header. It specifies for which tags this file should be used for. When you use the editor this file will be used for all tags with a compatibility which is the same as the one specified after (DEFAULT). If you just type (DEFAULT) or (DEFAULT)ALL this file will be used for all compatibilities which doesn't have it's own file.

[(EXTENSION)]TAGNAME
{
(OPTIONS)
ARGUMENT1
{
(OPTIONS)
VALUE1
VALUE2
...
}
ARGUMENT2
...
}

Tag Level Options:

(WITHIN)
Indicates that the tag must be used within this tag.

(GROUP)
Indicates which cathegory of tags this tag falls into.

(OPEN)
Means the tag doesn't have a closing tag.

(INFO)
Information displayed in Statusbar.

(SUSPEND)
Suspends interpretation of html code.

(TOTALSUSPEND)
Suspends interpretation of html code for the rest of the document.

Argument Level Options

(INTEGER)
The Argument can be an integer.

(PERCENT)
The Argument can be a percentage.

(COLOR)
The Argument is a color value.

(IMAGE)
The Argument is a link to an image file.

(JAVASCRIPT)
The Argument is a JavaScript.

(STRING)
The Argument is a text string.

(WINDOWNAME)
The Argument is a name of a window.

(URL)
The Argument is a link to a html document.

(LINK)
The Argument is a link.

(INFO)
Information displayed in the Statusbar.

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