New HTML ClassicWB guide

[Bloodwych]

The next ClassicWB release is going to be a huge improvement in many areas, so I decided to make a HTML manual to go along with it! This will replace the normal text files in each pack and perhaps remain online also.

I'm NOT a webpage expert and have very little software or knowledge to produce something professional. In fact, this is my first effort but everyone has to start somewhere. I'm thinking of using my spare time to learn some HTML and Java fairly soon so who knows, it may improve with time.

I tried to keep things as simple as possible as it's not meant to represent a full blown site like AIAB - just a online guide. Plus it's quite blatantly a quick conversion of the text files as I couldn't be bothered to re-write anything.

Any advice/help appreciated. It can be found here

[RCK]

I would recommend to make it simple, and follow linux howto style, for exemple:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...s/html_single/

[Bloodwych]

Thanks RCK, I'll certainly look into all of this when free time comes calling.

That page above is just a HTML mess puked out by MSword but it'll do for now as a simple guide. The text files will still be present in each package also.

Anyone know how to stop the site causing the browser re-checking for images online? With 56k when you hit back on the browser, instead of searching the cache first it displays placeholders while it re-checks the images over the connection, then loads them from the cache. Very annoying. Offline everything is lightening fast.

[Bloodwych]

It's ok, I've worked it out. I'll update the pages soon.

[Paul]

Your site is broken with firefox

You need to fix all page and image links, you need to make sure that only / are used

e.g. Wrong:

<a href="ClassicWB_web\Introduction.htm">Introduction</a>

It should be:

<a href="ClassicWB_web/Introduction.htm">Introduction</a>

But apart from that, not bad

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for letting me know. How come conflicts like this occur? Microsoft word is a very common program, shouldn't firefox recognise both slash directions by now?

Or is it why does word place them the wrong way around?

I can replace all of them fairly easily using a "Find and replace" text editor. Does frontpage do the same thing with the slashes Paul?

[mtb]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Thanks for letting me know. How come conflicts like this occur? Microsoft word is a very common program, shouldn't firefox recognise both slash directions by now?

Or is it why does word place them the wrong way around?

I can replace all of them fairly easily using a "Find and replace" text editor. Does frontpage do the same thing with the slashes Paul?

Microsoft word for html is something to avoid...

The w3c standards says that you MUST use / , not \ that means nothing except in windows.

If you have for example jedit ( free text editor, writteng in java and imo really good ) you can open all the files, and perform a search and replace in every opened file ( there is an option to do so in all opened buffers ).

Or you can use sed if you have some knowledge of command line.

[EmuChicken]

Microsoft Word is a goddawful program to use to write webpages - best is keeping it pure if writing in html, using notepad is always a good bet ;-)
Wordpad adds godknows amount of characters, and I think with Word too :-E

If you need a hand I'll be willing to sort out a nice html file handcoded in notepad, if you wants :-) - - - when I get back to uk that is - 6th sept - just send me a private message if interested :-)

[Bloodwych]

Kodoichi, if you read further, you'll see I comment on both sides of the coin so please don't quote part of a post - I clearly state that word could be the one in the wrong. And yes I'm that ignorant, if you'd had read the first post you'll see I'm a completely new to webpages with no software, knowledge or preparation. I'm also not too good at cross platform compatibility having never had a reason to consider character conflicts across platforms - until now. The only reason I made that comment is because slash direction incompatibility seemed such a minor thing not to address; now I know why. Thanks for the useful link though.

emuchicken, thanks for the offer. I'll see how I get on before sept 6th.

mtb thanks for the heads up. It does actually appear to be more of a problem than simply slash direction. Firefox looks into the wrong directory for some of the files so words magic HTML must be using crap for relative links.

All I want is a simple HTML guide! Guess now is the time to learn.

[EmuChicken]

omg, I just looked at your source- Word has included so much crap into the html file!

Ok, I'm gonna offer to do it now, while in japan (as its a simple html) ... I'll give you a pm in a sec :-)

[Bloodwych]

Haha, I just ran it through Kodoich's link and it nearly had a fit!

emu, thanks for the offer! Much appreciated! I realised word was puking out rubbish when I looked at the source of other sites - about ten times smaller!

I'm on a steep learning curve here guys. My ignorance is fast diminishing thanks to you lot.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Does frontpage do the same thing with the slashes Paul?

No, Frontpage XP does not do this. (still not the best thing to use, but it's better than word lol)

Here are a few links I use:
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com
http://www.jessett.com/
http://wsabstract.com/

[Bloodwych]

Nice links Paul. They are now in my new folder labelled "Web Tutorials".

[EmuChicken]

**IM SO DRUNK ON JAPANESE BEER! NIHON BEER SUKI!**

quick note- the whole web help file for classicbw has lalmost been conferted they so jappy

weee!

Be done soon once I sboberd up!

smilies r0xr0sz

[Bloodwych]

Great to see you're enjoying yourself - you now join Akira, Jim and few others in the "post when pissed" club!

Just don't dribble over the keyboard or continue work until you've sobered up. I don't want a kebab pic inserted into the guide. Or a traffic cone. Or any other silly addition that seems funny when half cut!

[EmuChicken]

*bloodwych gives EmuChicken ideas about traffic cones*

ta ;-)

[Bloodwych]

Originally Posted by Kodoichi

Microsoft created its own HTML.

They certainly did and quite annoying it is too.

[EmuChicken]

html is standardised, yes, however if you would follow browsers- ms and other companies include new commands after every release- which means if I use the new replacements (for example XML / XHTML / CSS) then older and non-updated browsers will be able to view the file

FYI MS Word included CSS into bloodwych's files, which ended up adding around 200-300 lines of code which mostly wasn't needed, - this included 2 lines of garbage just to get a space (usually people would use the BR tag, or a HR) ... this had crazy <p classname=pants rubbish rubbish rubbish fonttype= blarge fontsize=blarg>&nbsp&</p>

or something very similar >

[Bloodwych]

There is an option to include/exclude CSS (just discovered now mentioned) and features "not supported by IE4 Netscape 4" but it does nothing to reduce code length - in fact the code is longer because the only thing it adds is:

"<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>"
"<ooNotRelyOnCSS/>"
"</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>"
And font size/name information to every bit of text.

Hope this oversight by me didn't change your work load emuchicken. I guess the only difference it would have made would be font size/name retention.

Anyway, excellent work! And in such short time! Whilst in Japan!

The code is so much easier to decipher and maintain – even I can understand it now my eyes have clear concise lines to concentrate on. Superb.

I’ll get the brand spanking new Packages and Web Guide sorted soon.

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

I’ll get the brand spanking new Packages and Web Guide sorted soon.

Nice work, good to see effort still going in to this. It's exactly what I need in a workbench.