Layout Master is not designed to replace your favorite WYSIWYG web page editor, HTML editor, or CSS editor. It is designed to work with these tools to let you quickly and easily create HTML and CSS based web page layouts. Layout Master has a couple of features that mean it is easy to work with it in conjunction with other web development tools.
Firstly, when a layout is open in Layout Master, and is changed in another application (such as an HTML editor), Layout Master senses this, and asks whether you want to update the layout. This allows you to easily switch between Layout Master and other applications, without having to worry about closing the layout in Layout Master before opening it in another editor.
Keep in mind that not every application has this feature. In many applications, if you have a document open, and change it in another application, then you will lose those changes when next you save the document.
With Layout Master you can also set up helper applications. You can then edit a layout with any of these helper applications simply by choosing a menu item.
There are a couple of steps to this process.
First, we need to set up the helper applications. In fact, though, when you first run layout Master if it finds
it adds them to the submenu of the menu. So you may in fact be all ready to go with your helper applications of choice. You can however add any application to this list.
You may well want to edit layouts in a text editor, an HTML editor, a WYSIWYG page layout editor and a style sheet editor. To do so, we first need to set up the tools we want as helper applications.
To add or remove applications to or from the list of helper applications
1. choose from the submenu of the menu.
the Edit Helper Apps window opens
figure 17: Edit Helper Apps window
2. click , then locate and select the helper application you want to add to the list
3. select a browser from the list and click to remove it from the list
4. click to close the window
The applications that you have selected now appear in the submenu of the menu.
The next step is to edit the current layout (that is the layout whose window is at the front) with a helper application.
to edit the current layout with a helper application
1. choose the name of the helper application you want to edit this layout with from the list of names in the submenu of the menu
Note that in many applications, if this document is already open (for example if you have already chosen to edit this layout with the application) then the application might not update the document if it has changed. For this reason, it is recommended that you close the document in your helper application when you switch back to Layout Master. If your helper application senses changes to the document, then this step is unnecessary. Style Master, the style sheet editor from westciv is an example of an application which senses when a document has changed, and updates it if that is your preference.
Note also that the helper application will read the document from your disk when editing it, so it is important to save changes before choosing to edit with a helper application. Layout Master prompts you to save your changes if necessary before editing with a helper application.
