Preview Menu

The Preview menu contains a Preview command and three Browse commands. The Browse commands operate by requesting your browser open a specified URL. If you are not currently operating a server or are not using MacTCP (ie., have an IP connection to the Internet), the Browse commands will not work.

Preview This Document
Clicking on the Preview button saves the current HTML document as “HTML.edit.temp.html”, then opens your WWW browser (as specified in the Editor Preferences) and views the document.

Note that some browsers also allow you to set the application used for viewing the HTML source of the currently viewed document.  Set this preference to HTML.edit to use it to view and edit documents found online.

   >When I tried to preview my document, my
   >machine exploded in a great ball of light.

Note that various alpha, beta and full release versions of various www browsers handle the “OpenURL” or “GetURL” AppleEvent messages with varying levels of success. I've had the most consistent success using Netscape or Mosaic and having it already running in the background before attempting to preview the document, although the browser should  launch and open the URL without difficulty. This may not be rocket science, but things will blow up now and then…

Browse via BASE
If the current document contains a <BASE> tag, choosing this command will attempt to open the base URL using your currently specified WWW browser*. This command would generally be used to view the current copy of the document on the server, although you could view any document in this manner via its base element. I typically Preview the document once before saving it to the server,  export it to the server, then browse the same document via its BASE to make sure it got there OK.

Browse URL…
Queries you for a URL, then attempts to open the specified document using your currently specified WWW browser. 

Browse Hotlist…
Opens a URL as selected from the current hotlist, using your currently specified WWW browser.

Hotlist Maintenance
Describes how to import, export and customize the HTML.edit hotlist.

* FINE PRINT NOTE: The method by which I store the location of your browser varies between the Preview command and the three Browse commands. The Preview command uses the browser as specified under Editor Preferences. The location of the browser used by the Browse commands is stored within a compiled AppleScript handler, meaning that if HMTL.edit ever asks you to locate a browser when using one of the Browse commands (not the Preview command), the location and name of the Browser is then hardwired into the script. If you want to change the browser used by the Browse commands, use the "Set" button to reset the browser on Editor Preferences, which will override and update the Browse command's hardwired Browser reference.

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