Alpha HTML mode 1.2

August 1996

Introduction

HTML Mode is for editing HyperText Markup Language documents (suffix ".html", ".htm" or ".shtml"). It is not a previewer, nor is it a verifier, and you have to know at least some HTML to use it. If you do not know about HTML, I recommend that you read A Beginner's Guide to HTML. It is a good first text to read. I have collected some other links to HTML guides, see the section on HTML Tutorials and references.

The basic idea with this HTML environment is to save you time while typing, by having key bindings for all HTML elements. Also, you do not have to worry about misspelt HTML tags, missing end quotes, or missing end tags. HTML mode is probably most useful for HTML programmers with some experience of HTML, who are looking for an editor which makes the editing easier and faster.

When you use this package, by default you will see bullet characters (), called "tab marks", being dribbled near where you insert elements. These are supposed to be a feature. The tab key takes you to the next one, and automatically deletes the bullet. Read the section How to use tab marks, to learn to use them in the best way.

HTML mode features

HTML mode knows HTML 3.2 as well as Netscape's extensions to HTML.
Tools to easily and quickly insert HTML elements and give them attributes. Each element has got its own key binding.
Tools to easily change or remove HTML elements.
Tools for building lists and tables.
You can define colors with a color picker to use on your web pages.
You can check that all links between your files are ok.
You can move files between folders and automatically update all links between and in them.
Support for editing of JavaScript.
Translation of special characters, å, ó, ü etc. to and from their HTML entities.
Files are sent to your browser with one key stroke.
You can define new HTML elements. Therefore you don't have to wait for Alpha to be updated to use it for new HTML.
etc. etc.

Acknowledgments

First of all I would like to thank Pete Keleher for writing Alpha, the best editor in the world, without my TCL code would be pretty useless. I am also indebted to Scott Brim who wrote an earlier version of Alpha's HTML mode. Some ideas and tcl code were taken from html.el for GNU Emacs and latex.tcl for Alpha.

Feedback

I want feedback! All comments on HTML mode are welcome. In particular, please tell me

about bugs of any kind,
about some new feature you want to have included in the HTML mode,
if you think some function behaves stupidly,
if some HTML element is not defined correctly,
if something is not explained well enough in this manual.

You may also tell me that you like HTML mode. :-)

If you want to hear about beta releases, send me a mail and I will put you on the list.

Johan Linde jl@theophys.kth.se

If you like HTML mode and use it a lot, I would very much appreciate if you send me a postcard and tell me that. It would give me new energy to add new features to HTML mode. My address is

Johan Linde
Lojovägen 61
S-181 47 LIDINGÖ
SWEDEN

But don't give me credit for something I haven't done.

Language

My mother tongue is Swedish. Therefore you will, no doubt, find grammatical and other errors in this manual and in HTML mode. Please tell me about any such error you find, in a menu, dialog box, error message...

But before you complain, I must tell you that I know that "color" is spelt "colour". :-)

Navigating in this manual

You can navigate by clicking any of the three buttons at the bottom of each page, like the ones below.