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Preferences

General Preferences

Click the menu Tools->Preferences->General... to bring up the following dialogue box. You use the General Preferences dialogue box to control the way your GNNpress behaves.

General Preferences dialogue

Mail Address

The Mail address is used to provide a password for anonymous ftp, a return address for all mail sent from GNNpress and an identification line on all HTTP requests.

Name Server

The Name Server is optional in almost all cases. You may fill it in to override the default name server at your site. The name server interprets Web page addresses, finding the addresses that correspond to names.

Proxy

GNNpress does not handle gopher or WAIS requests. If you are browsing links to gopher servers you have to specify a Proxy server. When GNNpress finds an access method that it does not understand it sends it to the specified proxy server, which handles the request. Normally this is a CERN server, with a name in the form hostname:port, e.g. www.navisoft.com:81. Do not type the leading http.

If your site is behind a fire wall, then you even need to proxy http requests through that machine, so click the Always Proxy check box. If you are not behind a fire wall, do not check the Always Proxy box. You only want to proxy non-http requests.

If your site is behind a fire wall then you do not want to proxy domains on your side of the fire wall, so list them in the "except these domains" text field.

Load Remote Images

If you turn off Load Remote Images, then remote images in pages are not loaded unless you click on them.

Prefetch Pages

If you turn on Prefetch Pages, GNNpress preloads pages to which the current page has links (so when you click on one of these links it will already be loaded).

Unix Style Delete

On Unix systems either the Delete or the backspace keys deletes the previous character. On the PC the Delete key normally deletes the next character and the backspace key deletes the previous character. On the Macintosh the Backspace key is labeled Delete, and there is no real Delete key. Setting Unix Style Delete causes the Delete key to delete the previous character; not setting it causes the Delete key to delete the next character. A CTRL+D always deletes the next character.

Short Menus

Short Menus makes from the menu bar simpler. It includes only the most commonly used choices and does not show the shortcut keys.

MiniWeb File Type

Once this is set, any MiniWebs created uses file names that are either restricted to DOS eight-dot-three file name format, or restricted to Macintosh 30-odd character file names, depending on whether you select DOS or Macintosh. Unix servers usually allow 256-character file names. Selecting DOS (the most restrictive convention) makes it easier to port MiniWebs from one system to another.

Startup View

When GNNpress starts up, when given no arguments on the command line, it either displays a tutorial page, an untitled page, or an untitled MiniWeb and page, depending on which option you selec -- Home Page, Blank Page, or MiniWeb.

Text Edit Spacing

HTML specifies that adjacent white space characters (spaces, tabs, etc.) are displayed as a single space (except in "Preformatted" paragraphs). This is often confusing to people who expect typing two spaces to show two spaces. To get around HTML you may set this final preference to Non-Breaking space. If you do this, then when you type in multiple spaces, some are converted into non-breaking spaces as needed to keep HTML from condensing them into one space. This means that the text will wrap badly.

MIME Extensions and Viewers

When GNNpress loads a local file it needs to know how to interpret it. It does this by looking at the extension on the file name, from which it can generate a MIME type.

When GNNpress gets a link to a file which it does not know how to display (for example a video clip) it looks through this list for a program to run to display the file. GNNpress looks up the file's MIME type in this list, and if it finds anything appropriate runs that program. If it finds nothing appropriate it attempts to save the file on your local system.

The Tools->Preferences->MIME/Viewer... option associates MIME types (such as images in a particular format) with external programs that can view those files. This list causes the right external viewer to start, if necessary.

For example, tell GNNpress to use the xv viewer to display JPEG files:

MIME/Viewer dialogue

1. Click Tools->Preferences->MIME/Viewer to start the dialogue in Figure 88.
2. Select image/jpeg in the middle dialogue box.
   • If it is there, the name of the viewer should appear in the External Viewer box. If it is not, type in the full directory path and filename of the xv viewer.
     • You may also browse for the viewer; click Browse.
3. If image/jpeg is not in the middle dialogue box, type image/jpeg in the MIME Type box. Then type the full directory path and filename of the xv viewer in the External Viewer box.
   
   You can use other external viewers, e.g. PaintBrush on Windows.
4. To change a viewer, select the MIME Type, modify the viewer name, and click Change.

Filters and Icons

Save As Filters

You may have GNNpress invoke a program to handle translation of HTML to another format.

MiniWeb Icons

You may connect a MIME type to a 32X32 icon file to be used to display files with that MIME type in a MiniWeb.

• Icon file formats can be .gif, jpeg, or .xbm.
• Follow the same procedure as used for assigning External Viewers.

NaviServers

This is a list of known NaviServers that is shown to you at various points in the application. For example, the list of servers that appears in the File->Open dialogue is set in this Tools->Preferences->NaviServers... menu.

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