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| Florida DP editors Yohanon Emek and John Glenn suggest easy way
to code sans html editor and without inserting code again and again and ...
button ... FORIDA DP editors Last month FLORIDA DP briefly looked at Microsoft's Internet Assistant V1, SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro V1, and the lamented GNN's Press html editors. All had something good, but all shared one major failing: they were far behind the coding curve. How can writers keep up with html without concerning themselves with continually keying code? As it turns out, fairly easily. We use Microsoft Word (WinWord V6 and V7) to create most of the copy for FLORIDA DP. WinWord, and we suspect other "high end" word processors, allows users to create macros, and from the macros (and other "selected" information (e.g. AutoText, Styles, and Fonts) to populate user-created toolbars. Since we use many features and functions lacking in the easy-to-use editors (e.g. IA, HoTMetaL, etc. -- versus less-easy-to-use editors such as FrontPage 97), we created a new template ("homehtml.dot") and then created macros and autotext to handle the things we most often use. Once the macros and autotext were created, we created a toolbar and populated it with buttons (icons, if you like) that are "shortcuts" to the macros and autotext. WinWord also allows users to create keyboard shortcuts to use in lieu of, or i conjunction with, buttons. If you have a monster monitor (alas, I do not), the keyboard option may be better. As with all Windows toolbars, the html-specific toolbar can be "floated" to any location on the screen, and it can be squeezed and stretched as space permits. What to include on the toolbar? Almost every html file requires <html> <head> <title> (title) </title> </head> <body> </body> </html>. (A frameset page may omit the BODY tags if the NOFRAMES tags also are omitted.) The <html> </html> button creates all the basic codes. There are additional buttons to put in FORM tags, for TABLE tags, for lists, input options (TEXT, TEXTAREA, etc.); basically, all the tags we regularly use. As needed, we add buttons to the toolbar. The most recent addition was the EOF button that inserts the autotext button code (e.g. <img src = BACK.GIF .... >.) Because each word processor is unique (100%, not "almost" -- the subject matter of another FLORIDA DP article) we won't try to describe HOW to create macros, autotext, toolbars, and buttons. Suffice it to write that the information is (should be?) in the manual. Take a little while to read the book. No coder is going to be as up-to-date as the information available to you on the Net. With a little up-front effort ("pay me now or pay be later") you can be a leading (but not bleeding) edge coder. Think about it. Yohanon Emek (yemek@aol.com) John Glenn (johnfglenn@aol.com) Quick tip If you create html-coded text in an application with a spell check, eliminate the spell checker's hiccups over <code> copy run-ons by keying codes and copy on separate lines. (See "Almost every html file requires" paragraph, above, for an example.) There always will be exceptions, in our case, "<b>F<small>LORIDA</small> DP</b>" . This character string is included in the customized user dictionary so WinWord's spell checker accepts the string as a correctly spelled "word." There is no problem with hard returns since browsers only respond to <p><BR> to start a new paragraph or line. From the December 1996 issue of Florida DP all rights reserved. Other Florida DP articles also may be found at http://members.tripod.com/~Y_Emek/FDP_TOC.HTM |
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