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HTML-Ed v0.93b
(C) Copyright 1996, Ian Prest
All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for trying this beta of HTML-Ed! HTML-Ed is a full-featured
editor for HTML code. HTML is the markup language used on the World
Wide Web.
Note: This is a BETA copy of HTML-Ed. There may still be a few
buglets remaining in the program that I haven't found. There are
currently no known bugs, but I'm sure they're present, so please backup
all your data before using the program just in case.
This manual, like HTML-Ed itself, is in a constant state of
modification. I will be improving it over the next few revisions of
HTML-Ed.
The Features of HTML-Ed!
========================
1. HTML-Ed, unlike other HTML editors, features a built-in viewer! No
more waiting for WebExplorer to load; testing of HTML code is almost
instantaneous!
2. HTML-Ed support all of the common HTML 2.0 tags (with the exception
of forms), and selected HTML 3.0 tags (background, colours, etc).
3. HTML-Ed is FAST! It is written in pure C for speed. Most other
HTML editors have been written in VX-REXX and you are therefore
stuck with poor VX-REXX performance.
4. HTML-Ed is SMALL! It won't gobble megabytes of disk space, and
doesn't require much in the way of RAM to run. The executable file
is currently hovering around the 60 kb mark! Because HTML-Ed is so
small, starting multiple copies of it will not bring your system to
its knees.
5. HTML-Ed has an intelligent keyboard interface. Most of the common
tags are easily available from the keyboard.
6. HTML-Ed was designed with speed of use in mind. Everything is
keyboard driven; there is no need to use the mouse. There is
(currently) no graphical toolbar to get in the way.
7. HTML-Ed is configurable. You can toggle word-wrap, toggle the
loading of graphics (in TEST mode), change the font of the MLE, and
save the window position for future use.
8. Multi-File editing via a ring-type system (like EPM).
Installation
============
Installing HTML-Ed is easy. Simply unzip the archive it came in
(HTMLE093B.ZIP) and move the files to a directory of your choice.
Then, change the current directory so that you're in the same directory
as HTML-Ed (this is important! The program object will not be created
properly if you don't do this), and run the INSTALL.CMD file. It will
ask you if you want to create a program object for HTML-Ed in this
directory. Enter 'n' and ENTER if you want to quit, otherwise, press
'y' and ENTER.
You will then be asked if you want to associate *.HTM? files with
HTML-Ed. If you answer yes to this question, any time you double-click
on an HTML file from the WPS, HTML-Ed will be started with that file.
The install program will then Create a program object for you on the
desktop with the correct icon. Then you can double-click on this icon
to start HTML-Ed. Or, you can drag an HTML file (or any text file) to
the HTML-Ed program object, and HTML-Ed will start using that file.
Starting HTML-Ed
================
From the command line:
HTML-Ed accepts only one command-line parameter - a filename. You can
tell HTML-Ed to load an HTML file by specifying the file to load on the
command line. If you put HTML-Ed somewhere in your path, or you add
the HTML-Ed directory to the path statement in CONFIG.SYS, using
HTML-Ed from the command-line becomes very easy.
As of v0.93b, HTML-Ed accepts multiple files and wildcards on the
command-line. They will all be loaded into the file ring.
From the desktop:
After you create the program icon for HTML-Ed (see "Installation" for
more information), you can start HTML-Ed is one of several ways.
The easiest method is to simply double-click on the HTML-Ed icon.
HTML-Ed will then start, and you will be able to edit a new document.
Another method is to drag an HTML file to the HTML-Ed program icon.
HTML-Ed will then start and open the file you dragged to it.
If, when you ran the installation program, you answered yes to the
association question, you can simply double-click on any HTML file
(with an extension of .HTM or .HTML) and HTML-Ed will start and load
the file you double-clicked on.
How to use HTML-Ed!
===================
The Menus
---------
File - The FILE menu contains items pertaining to files. You can open
a file, create a new file, save the current file, or close the
current file. NOTE: The OPEN and NEW menu items will insert a
new file into the file ring - they do NOT close the current
file. Also, under the file menu you will find:
CLOSE FILE Closes the current file in the ring. If the file
has been changed, you will first be prompted to
save it. If this is the last file in the ring,
choosing "Close File" will exit HTML-Ed.
RING LEFT/RIGHT These commands move one file left or right in the
file ring. See "The edit/file ring" for more
information.
FILE RING This menu option will bring up a dialog that
displays a listbox with all the files in the edit
ring. You can switch to another file by selecting
one with the arrow keys and clicking on OK. EXIT
Exits HTML-Ed. If any files have been changed, you
will be prompted before exiting.
Edit - From the EDIT menu you can CUT, COPY, PASTE, or CLEAR, marked
text, or UNDO the last action. Also, you can:
SELECT ALL Selects all the text in the editor. The cursor is
moved to the end of the text.
DESELECT ALL Unselects any selected text. The cursor is not
moved.
CONVERT \ TO / Converts all DOS-style backslashes to UNIX-style
forward slashes in the selected text. NOTE: You
MUST use forward slashes, even for local viewing,
or the TEST window may not load the correct
graphic, or link to the correct page.
CONVERT TAGS You can convert all HTML tags in the selected text
to uppercase or lowercase.
REMOVE TAGS Removes any HTML tags in the selected text (removes
anything between '<' and '>').
Search -
SEARCH Allows you to search for a text string in the
current file.
REPLACE Allows you to replace a text string in the current
file with another.
FIND NEXT Repeats the last search or replace command.
GO TO LINE Allows you to jump to s specific line in the
current file.
Options - The first two menu items in the OPTIONS menu are toggles. The
first is a word-wrap toggle for the editor. The second, the
"Load Graphics" option, toggles whether or not you wish to load
graphics when you TEST your HTML code. Not viewing graphics
will speed up the display, and allow you to get an
approximate idea of what the page would look like without
graphics.
Note that word wrap is enabled/disabled for the current file
only, and when new files are entered into the ring, they
inherit the word wrap style of the current file.
The third menu item is a submenu, and allows you to change
the font used in the MLE. There are currently five choices.
The "Registration" menu option will bring up the registration
dialog. In this dialog, you can enter your name, and the
Registration Code you receive upon registration. If the code is
accepted, HTML-Ed will no longer pause on startup, and when you
quit.
The final choice under the OPTIONS menu, "Save Options/Position"
allows you to save your pre-set options, and the current window
position for future sessions.
Page - The PAGE and STYLE menus are where you will spend most of your
time. The PAGE menu contains tags that affect the layout of the
text, such as lists, the paragraph tag, etc, as well as tags
that indicate entities - images, anchors/links, and
horizontal rules.
The HTML Skeleton command is new in HTML-Ed v0.93b. It will
place a general HTML skeleton into the editor.
Also new in v0.93b is the "End Paragraph" tag, </P>. This tag
is optional, and does not have to be used. It can be added to
your document with the Ctrl+Shift+P hotkey. If you mark a block
of text and select either the "Paragraph" or "End paragraph"
menu options, the selected text will be wrapped in a <P>...</P>
pair.
There is now a "Other Special Character" dialog box, available
in the "Page/Special Characters" submenu. This dialog allows
you to insert the character-based names for much of the ISO
Latin character set. To insert a code, simply select it in the
listbox and click on OK, or press ENTER. Alternatively you can
double-click on the entry in the listbox.
You can use the radio buttons in this dialog to display only the
foreign letters (accented letters, mostly), only
symbols/punctuation, or both.
Style - The STYLE menu contains options that will directly affect the
way the actual text looks. This menu contains items such
as "Bold," "Italics," "Underline," etc.
HOTKEYS: In HTML-Ed, I have set up the hotkeys so that similar
functions are invoked similarly. STYLES are all "Control"
hotkeys, which are hotkeys using the Ctrl key. Likewise,
FORMATTING codes such as paragraphs and line-breaks are
Control-hotkeys.
On the other hand, entities such as images, links, special
characters, etc. are all "Alt" hotkeys, invoked using the Alt
key. The menus are also activated with the Alt key.
Spend some time to familiarize yourself with both the PAGE and
STYLE menus, and their associated hotkeys. This will
significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to compose
most HTML code.
Test! - The TEST menu option will put HTML-Ed into TEST mode. In this
mode, you get to see exactly what your HTML code will look like,
right in the same window! To do this, HTML-Ed employs DLL's
from WebExplorer 950814 (beta of 1.03) or later. Since most
OS/2 users have WebExplorer installed, I didn't include this DLL
in the package.
Since HTML-Ed relies on WebExplorer for it's inline testing, any
bugs in WebExplorer could possibly manifest themselves in
HTML-Ed. To minimize the possibility of the dreaded swapper
growth bug in WebEx, I have dutifully disabled the "Streaming
graphics" option in the WebExplorer window. Any graphics will
have to completely load before they will be displayed.
When you choose TEST, most of the menu options will be disabled.
After the page has completely loaded, the TEST option will
change to "WRITE" which will take you back to the editor when
selected. The hotkey "Alt-T" will toggle between TEST and WRITE
modes.
Note, only one file can be tested at once. If the current file
is being tested and you switch to another file (via the arrow
buttons or the file list) then HTML-Ed switches the file back to
WRITE mode first.
Help - The only option currently available under the Help menu is the
product information dialog, which displays information about the
program and author.
The Dialogs, and Inserting Tags
-------------------------------
I specifically designed HTML-Ed to be easy to use from the keyboard
only. You do NOT need to use a mouse for anything. I feel that using
the keyboard, and memorizing a few simple hotkeys, can and will
drastically improve productivity.
However, I also wanted HTML-Ed to be easy to use from a novice's
standpoint, as well as relieve myself from having to remember many
different tags and their attributes. I have, therefore, included
dialog boxes to facilitate the editing of several tags.
For all of these dialogs, if you wish to do the editing yourself,
simply press ENTER (or click on OK), and the code will be inserted
without any information. The cursor will be placed in an appropriate
position. In this way, you can easily avoid the dialogs if you prefer.
I've also made it easy to add tags to text AFTER you've typed it. For
example, type some text, select it, then press Ctrl-B (or choose
Styles/Bold from the menus), and the selected text will be enclosed in
a <B>...</B> pair.
On the other hand, if you press Ctrl-B without first selecting any
text, your cursor will be placed within the two tags, allowing you to
then fill in the text that will be bolded.
Similarly, if you select text and then select one of the dialog box
commands, the selected text will be inserted into an appropriate place
in the dialog. When creating a "Definition Term," HTML-Ed treats any
selected text as the definition. When creating an anchor/link,
selected text is treated as the anchor text.
In several of the dialogs (ie: the Anchor/Link and IMG dialogs), there
is a FIND button beside an entryfield. If you press this button, you
will be presented with the standard OS/2 file dialog, and will be asked
to choose a filename. The filename will be parsed and then returned to
the entryfield. If you choose to manually enter the filename, remember
to use forward slashes ('/') instead of backslashes ('\'), or you will
have problems viewing the file, or following the links.
Please play with the tags and dialogs, and let me know if there are any
further enhancements I could make that would improve the usability of
the program.
Test vs. Write Modes
--------------------
In WRITE mode (the default), you are allowed to edit your HTML-Code.
When you select TEST from the menu, HTML-Ed switches to TEST mode.
In TEST mode, you are presented with a WebExplorer window that will
show you exactly what your web page will look like (when viewed with
WebExplorer anyways). In TEST mode, most of the menu options are
disabled. To return to WRITE mode, select WRITE from the menu (it
replaces TEST).
In TEST mode, you can follow _LOCAL_ links. This will allow you to
make sure your local links are working properly. Currently, the file
you are editing is not changed when you follow a local link, nor are
the other pages inserted into the edit ring.
As mentioned earlier, switching between documents via the file list or
the right/left buttons will switch you to WRITE mode if you are
currently in TEST mode.
The Edit/File RING
------------------
HTML-Ed now supports loading multiple documents via a file ring. This
means that while only one document is visible at once, the others are
available by clicking on the right or left arrows on the title bar.
Also, you can switch between documents by selecting "File/Active File
List" from the menu, or pressing the hotkey (Alt+`).
Selecting NEW from the FILE menu will create a new file and insert it
into the edit ring. Similarly, when you OPEN a file, it is inserted
into the ring. To remove a file from the ring, use the CLOSE command
from the FILE menu.
Since the file ring is a new feature with v0.92b, there are bound to be
a few problems with it still. I believe I have found most of them,
but it always pays to be careful. Be sure to report any problems to me
ASAP so they can be fixed.
Planned Enhancements
====================
1. Online help. I am definitely going to get write some online help
for the GA... anything would be better than this manual <g>.
2. The ability to use an external browser (for those of you who like
Lynx better <g>).
3. Printing.
4. Suggestion from users! I need suggestions! What tags do you need
in an HTML editor? What am I missing? What am I doing wrong?
Please, send me comments! I am toying with the idea of adding
forms, and will eventually add table support (probably not in the GA
though), but I want to know the best way to go about it. What would
be the easiest method, from a users point of view? Please, without
your comments, HTML-Ed will not get any better!
5. Bug fixes - please report any bugs you find, ASAP!
6. Improved documentation <g>.
A Note about the "File Dialog" crash and FixPack 17:
----------------------------------------------------
To those of you who've experienced the "File Dialog" crash (this is a
crash that occurs when HTML-Ed tries to open a standard file dialog -
it can occur either from the "Open" or "Save/Save as" menu functions,
as well as from any of the "Find" buttons present in dialogs): I
believe the problem can either be attributed to
a) Fixpack 17; or
b) LXLITE 1.01
I had run LXLITE on my OS/2 directories. This had several side effects
- one of which was a problem with HELPMGR.DLL - so I decided to back
out of Fixpack 17 in order to restore myself to original DLL's (albeit,
Fixpack 10 DLL's). As a result, the "File Dialog" crash stopped
occurring.
It must, therefore, have either been a problem with lxlite, or with
FixPack 17. I tend to believe it was FixPack 17, as the crash occured
occaisionally before I compressed everything. The final nail in the
coffin is that FixPack 17 altered the standard file dialog, so it's
likely it also altered the code behind it. Either way, using FixPack
10 and uncompressed DLL's, the File Dialog crash doesn't occur anymore.
If you are experiencing the File Dialog crash please mail me and tell
me what FixPack you're running, and if you've compressed your DLL's
with lxlite or not.
Another problem has cropped up, this time with pre-FP17 systems. It
seems that on FP17, you can have multiple wildcards listed in the
filespec (eg: "*.GIF;*.JPG") as I was doing with the IMG and BODY
"Find" buttons. Apparently this doesn't work on pre-FP17 systems. I
have, therefore, changed the wildcard to "*" for v0.93b.
Contacting the Author
=====================
The author of HTML-Ed, Ian Prest, can be contacted in the following
ways:
email: ianprest@connect.reach.net
surface mail: Ian Prest
R.R.#1
Shannonville, Ontario
CANADA, K0K 3A0
Send all comments, bug reports, and questions to either of those
addresses. Thanks for your help!
License/Disclaimer
==================
HTML-Ed (the program) is supplied as is. Ian Prest (the author)
disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, and without
limitation to, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any
purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of the program.
HTML-Ed is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the
user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but
please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The
essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer
users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide
incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you
find this program useful and find that you are using HTML-Ed and
continue to use HTML-Ed after a 14-day trial period, you must register.
(See below for the registration details.) The registration fee will
license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time, by the
original purchaser. You are free to keep a copy on each of your
computers so long as you only use HTML-Ed on one computer at a time.
Commercial users of HTML-Ed must register and pay for their copies
within 14 days of first use or their license is withdrawn.
Anyone distributing HTML-Ed for any kind of remuneration must first
register the program.
You are encouraged to pass a copy of HTML-Ed along to your friends for
evaluation as long as you include this license file in the copy. The
file htmle93b.zip contains all the files, including this one, and is
the easiest way to pass on a copy. Do NOT pass along the HTMLED.INI
file, as it contains your personal registration information. Please
encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use
it.
Registration Information
========================
The registration fee for HTML-Ed is $20 (US). You may register using
your credit card by calling BMT Micro and placing your order. Make
sure you give us your email address so we can be sure you get your
registration code as soon as possible.
Registration of HTML-Ed v0.93b will entitle you to hassle-free use of
all 0.9x beta versions, and all 1.xx GA releases of HTML-Ed. I reserve
the right to charge a nominal upgrade fee for 2.xx versions. If an
upgrade fee is implemented, it would certainly be less than the $20
(US) you pay originally.
When you receive your registration code, start HTML-Ed, and choose
OPTIONS/REGISTRATION from the menus. You will be prompted for your
name and registration code. Enter them EXACTLY as they appear in the
email/letter you are sent. If the code is accepted, you will see a
message to that effect on the statusline, and HTML-Ed will no longer
pause on startup or shutdown.
The easiest way to enter your name and registration code is to cut
and paste them from your registration email.
Mail Orders To: BMT Micro
PO Box 15016
Wilmington, NC 28408
U.S.A.
Voice Orders: 8:00am - 7:00pm EST (-5 GMT)
(800) 414-4268 (Orders only)
(910) 791-7052 (Orders / Order Inquires)
Fax Orders: (800) 346-1672 24 hours, 7 days a week
(910) 350-2937 24 hours, 7 days a week
Online Orders via BBS: (910) 350-8061 10 lines, all 14.4K
(910) 799-0923 28.8k v.FC
via Compuserve: Thomas Bradford, 74031,307
via Internet: orders@bmtmicro.com
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diner's Club,
money order, cashiers checks, and personal checks. We also accept DM
and British currency via registered mail.
Personal checks are subject to clearance.
We accept purchase orders from educational institutions, governmental
agencies and other verifiable businesses. Terms are "Due Upon Receipt"
with a $250 minimum.
Please read or print the ORDER.FRM for detailed shipping information
(if you don't have an email address) and a printable order form.
HTML-Ed v0.93b
(C) Copyright 1996, Ian Prest
All Rights Reserved.