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Caveat - What You Cannot Do with HTML

HTML was designed to describe meaning rather than page layout or common word-processing concepts. It has some overlap, however, and GNNpress attempts to provide a word processor-like interface, but we are limitted to the idioms supplied in the HTML standard.

Here are some limits you should know about:

Multiple spaces

HTML says that any amount of white space will display as one space. This means that if you type two spaces they will only display as one. If you type a tab it will show up as a space. You cannot get a double space after a period. You cannot indent a paragraph with a tab. You cannot line things up in columns.

If you want to use spaces this way, try using a preformatted paragraph or use the non-breaking space character.

GNNpress can be put into a mode where it will convert multiple spaces in to a series of spaces and non-breaking spaces. Be aware that if you use this mode, the text on your pages might wrap poorly in some browsers.

Paragraph Formatting

In some word processors if you want to grab paragraph formatting when copying a selection into the clipboard you must grab the newline at the end of the paragraph. In GNNpress you must grab the newline at the beginning of the paragraph. In HTML the newline often specifies displayable information about the next paragraph -- for example bullets -- and so refers more to the paragraph following it than the one preceding it.

Bullets in lists

These are not characters which may be selected. Think of them as part of the newline which separates paragraphs. The only way you may manipulate them is to manipulate the newline as well. Thus you may not select or delete them without selecting or deleting the newline.

Styles

The style sheets in GNNpress do not behave the way normal style sheets behave; rather, they provide a description for how each HTML element is to be displayed. Only one style sheet may be used in a page and it will refer to the entire page.

Titles

Every page has a title. This is not the filename (which is called an URL). The title is what will be placed at the top of a window displaying the page. Changing the title will not change the URL, nor will changing the URL change the title.

Images

The web only supports gif, jpeg and xbm files at the moment.

GNNpress ignores the formating of the source text.

GNNpress assumes that formating in your source file is irrelevant - - the goal is the formating that shows on the screen, not what you see in the text editor.

GNNpress rearranges tags.

If GNNpress receives illegal html, it will force it to be legal. Here are some common flaws:

Multiple BODY tags

Since Netscape has introduced attributes to the BODY tag many people have inserted a second BODY tag into the middle of their source with their attributes. You are only allowed one BODY tag, and GNNpress will attempt to merge the two retaining what attributes it can.

Multiple TITLE tags

HTML does not allow for more than one title per page. Netscape allows for a title scroll with lots of titles. GNNpress will eat all but the last (in the next release GNNpress will preserve them, but I did not find out about this gem until too late).

HEAD tags (like TITLE) inside the BODY

GNNpress will move these up into the HEAD section (where they belong).

LI tags not in any list (UL, OL)

GNNpress will turn these into P tags.

Character formating around paragraphs

I'm not sure whether this is legal, but the DTD says not to do it. If GNNpress finds <B><H2>text</H2></B> it will convert it into <B></B><H2>text</H2> because it does not allow the <B> tag to stretch across the <H2>.

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