MacFormat 1995 August/macformat-027.iso/mac/Shareware City/Info/mac-chat-071-etx/Mac*Chat#71⁄17-Apr-95

Text File | 1995-04-19 | 27.0 KB | 645 lines | [TEXT/R*ch]

Mac*Chat#71/17-Apr-95
---------------------

Welcome to Mac*Chat, the free, weekly electronic newsletter biased
   toward Mac users who are production-oriented professionals.  Other
   Mac users may find many, many items of interest as well.  I'd enjoy
   hearing your feedback and suggestions.  Unfortunately, due to the
   massive numbers of messages I get every day, I can't guarantee
  a personal reply.

  Tony Lindsey, <[e-mail]>.
  http://www.cts.com/~xxltony

Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Nonprofit groups (such as Mac
   User Groups) or other non-commercial publications) are welcome
   to use any part of the Mac*Chat newsletters if full credit is
   given.  All others will need to contact me.

This newsletter is intended purely as entertainment and free
   information.  No profit has been made from any of these
   opinions.  Time passes, so accuracy may diminish.

Publication, product, and company names may be registered
   trademarks of their companies.

 This file is formatted as setext, which can be read on any text reader.

Tips from readers are gratefully accepted.  Please write them in a
   user-friendly way, and if you are mentioning an Internet site,
   please include a paragraph explaining why others should visit it.

Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey.

Topics:
Highlights Of This Issue
How I Created My Web Pages, Part Three
HTML Tips
HTML Editors Compared
Netscape Tips
Fetch Vs. Anarchie, Continued
Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter

Highlights Of This Issue
------------------------
  In this issue, I go completely to the opposite end of the scale
  from the previous Mac*Chat.  This issue is meant to appeal to all
  of those folks out there who want to create World Wide Web pages
  NOW, and can keep up with the discussion.  I continue my series
  of articles on creating a Web page, and many folks chime in with
  their favorite HTML tips and editors.  We also continue comparing
  Fetch and Anarchie.

How I Created My Web Pages, Part Three
--------------------------------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  If you've been following along with this series, you have
  Netscape and HTML Editor 1.0 (which I'll refer to HE for
  brevity's sake) loaded onto your computer and set up so that they
  refer back-and-forth to each other.  You've also used Netscape to
  open the following Location, and View its Source (HTML) codes:

http://www.cts.com/~xxltony/artist-sites.html

  I've made some changes to it lately, so you MAY want to go get it
  one more time.

  After doing that, you should probably save a copy of the file on
  your hard disk, using HTML Editor's Save As command.

  In this installment, I'm going to walk you through what _I_ do
  whenever I want to create a new page.  It's not hard at all, I
  promise.  This is the same tour I've given to dozens of folks so
  far, and they all got it immediately.

  Now that you've made your preparations, create a New Document
  using HE.  Copy the top nine lines of artist-sites.html (up to
  and including the "<hr> line) and paste them into your new
  document.  Save the new document as "my-first-web-page.html"
  (without the quotes).  Those first nine lines are just my normal
  way of beginning a standard, highly-compatible Web page.

  *Previewing*

  At the top right side of the page in HE, you'll see an icon that
  looks like a tiny planet with two arrows coming out of it.  Click
  on it.  That should cause Netscape to preview what your new page
  looks like.  You'll see that the graphic image called
  "artist-site-header.gif" shows up as a generic icon, but that's
  okay and normal - We'll talk about it later.

  *The Header*

  Use your mouse to go back to HE's window and change the two lines
  referring to "artist sites" any way you'd like, and watch the
  result in Netscape by previewing it over and over.  The <TITLE>
  line names the web site at the top of the window when viewed by
  Netscape, and the <H1> line doesn't do anything but style the
  text to look big and bold.

  *Divider Lines*

  The "<hr>" command means a divider line should be drawn.  The
  rest of the codes are just there to make sure the file is
  compatible with ANY web browser, not just Netscape on a Mac.

  *Menus of Choices*

  In your new "my-first-web-page.html" HE document, type a short
  list at the bottom:

  Cats
  Rats
  Baseball Bats
  Mac*Chat Home Page

  Highlight those lines with your mouse, and then notice the "List"
  pulldown at the upper left of your window.  Pull it down and
  choose "Menu."  This automatically creates the codes that make
  the list look nice, so preview it.

  *Paragraphs*

  Down below that, type a few lines of text (I'll call this
  paragraph 1), hit return, then type some more text.  Preview it,
  and you'll see that the two lines are all smooshed together.  Go
  back to HE and click the mouse at the end of paragraph 1.  At the
  top of the window, you'll see a button that looks like a
  backwards capital "P."  Click it, and that causes HE to insert
  the code for a paragraph marking.  This looks like "<p>."
  Preview it.

  *Constructing a link*

  Let's go back up to the list in HE, and highlight the words
  "Mac*Chat Home Page."  At the top of the window, you'll see a
  tiny icon of an anchor.  Click on it, then choose "Link to
  another file" and then "Construct."  Type in
  "http:/www.cts.com/~xxltony/" without the quotes.  (By the way -
  that's a tilde character in front of the "xxltony").  Click "OK"
  twice, and you'll see some codes inserted before and after the
  text you had highlighted.  Preview it, and you will see that the
  fourth menu item is now highlighted differently than the others.
  If you click on it, you'll be immediately brought to Mac*Chat's
  Home Page.

  *Formatting Your Text*

  Highlight one word in paragraph 1, and click on the "B" icon at
  the top of the window.  That inserts the codes to make it bold.
  Keep doing this with various words, clicking on the "I" button
  for italics, etc.  Turn on Balloon Help to find out more about
  your buttons.

  Now, let's get fancy.  On the upper left, you'll see a pull-down
  called "Style."  After highlighting a word, choose one of the
  styles such as "Emphasis."  Keep playing with the different
  styles.

  Please be aware that each style is probably going to look
  different on different computers and web browsers, so don't
  expect your efforts at expert-level typography to transfer well.

  ---------

  I've now shown you 90% of what I _ever_ use HTML Editor for.  In
  my next installment, I'll talk about graphics and uploading your
  work.  Creating HTML documents can be horridly complicated, but I
  can't see any reason for it.  My simple documents seem to work
  fine, and nobody has sent me hate mail for being too basic in my
  design.  As I've been told by others, Keep It Simple.

HTML Tips
---------
  From: [e-mail] (Kevin Werbach)

  You may be interested in checking out my Bare Bones Guide to
  HTML, a comprehensive 'cheat sheet' for Web page authors.  The
  document lists virtually every HTML tag -- including the popualar
  Netscape extensions -- in a concise format grouped by type of
  tag.  Unlike other, more detailed HTML guides, the Bare Bones
  Guide does not take you step-by-step through the process of
  writing a Web page; it is designed to provide those familiar with
  the basics with quick access to information on the proper
  formatting of each tag.

http://www.access.digex.net/~werbach/barebone.txt     (text
  version)

http://www.access.digex.net/~werbach/barebone.html    (HTML
  version)

  There is also a link to the guide from my Home Page

http://www.access.digex.net/~werbach/home.html

  ----------

  From: Bob Katz <[e-mail]>

  You haven't mentioned several of the tools I am using, so here is
  a short essay from me on the tools I've picked up for developing
  html documents:

http://www.cts.com/~xxltony/html-tips.html

  Here's a couple of important tips:

  For Netscape. Get rid of every "/" symbol in every filename,
  folder, and volume on your Mac. It'll get you into trouble,
  because it's a known bug in Netscape (wish they had posted it
  high up in the documentation, it's there, however, if you choose
  the "bugs" link in the online manual...that's where I searched
  after I nearly went crazy). If a disk volume or folder has a /
  character in it, then you will not be able to save, import, or
  export Bookmarks. But it gets worse.... Netscape simply gets
  confused because / is the reserved Unix character for pathnames.

  For local html development with Netscape:

  Put an alias of any folder that has graphics you are trying to
  access in the Netscape folder.

  Open the file you are developing directly from within Netscape,
  and use  Netscape's reload button to review changes you make in
  your Web pages. Do  this instead of pushing the "Preview" button
  from your HTML editor. (The  "Preview" button makes an
  apple-event call to Netscape, but graphics will  not be displayed
  properly (you'll get a ? instead). The HTML editor, or  Netscape,
  when it is called, uses some kind of a temporary file rather than
  the real file and thus doesn't know where the graphics are.

HTML Editors Compared
---------------------

  From: [e-mail] (Ken Fansler)

  I noticed in your HTML "lecture series" that you are using HTML
  Editor as your authoring tool. Have you tried WebWeaver?

  You can download it from our server using the following web
  address:

<gopher://orathost.cfa.ilstu.edu:70/11ftp%3apublic%3aoratRes%3ainternetClien
ts%3ahtmlHelpers%3a>

  It's got excellent balloon help, and a very logical user
  interface. As the WebMaster here at Illinois State's College of
  Fine Arts, I endorse it 87%! (There *are* some problems that
  encompass the other 13% - for example, I have not found an easy
  shortcut to adding gopher links.)

  ----------

  From: a reader who prefers to remain anonymous...

  I've used Arachnid several times to do HTML editing, but I prefer
  not to review it.  For one deliberate reason:  with the Web so
  new, I think it's important for people to learn how to use HTML
  directly.  It's very easy, after all.  And if you're going to use
  a "do-it-for-you" editor, you really ought to know *what* it's
  doing.  Just my 2 cents.

  [I never thought I'd say this, but I absolutely agree.  It took
  me maybe half an hour to give the entire tour of Basic HTML to a
  client this morning, and she got it immediately.  It's really not
  brain surgery, and I like the control.  However, I can be swayed
  if there is something RADICALLY better.  It hasn't shown up yet,
  as far as I can tell.]

  There is also, by the way, an AppleScript applet which will do MS
  Word 6 to HTML conversions.  I wrote one; then I found a
  shareware one somewhere or other.  But I don't recommend any
  Microsoft product for Macintosh users - after all, Microsoft *is*
  out to kill the Mac.  Besides, WordPerfect really is a much
  better word processor for writing HTML.  (Although I've done all
  mine in good old-fashioned Emacs right in my Unix account rather
  than uploading anything. But that's just laziness, I admit.)

  --------

  From: [e-mail] (Halvor Nome)

  I have yet to get my own WWW-Home page on the air, but in the
  process of evaluating different applications for doing this, I
  have accumulated some experience that might be of interest to
  other aspiring "publishers"

  First, to the subject of Arachnid 1.4. I can't say much in favour
  of this software.  The only unique feature (-as far as I can see)
  is the "Player" application, which makes it possible to
  distribute your www-pages to Mac-users without browsers. But -
  unfortunately, only if the files is exported or saved as an
  Arachnid file.

  This can - believe me, take "ages" to process. And only way you
  can stop it, is by crashing the program. (no Alt-period). When
  you wait for something that takes 5 seconds in other programs, it
  becomes a pain all-over. Both the time needed to import
  HTML-doc's for "refining", and exporting the finished
  HTML-document makes Arachnid unfit for serious www-producers. I
  have NEVER waited so long for so small files to be processed.
  (except 3D rendering programs with Radiocity Ray Tracing turned
  on)

  In my opinion, Arachnid has far to go along the Beta-road before
  becoming a serious contender for the "Best HTML-Editor Award".
  More likely winners are HTML-Editor_1.0 (Editor), HTML Web Weaver
  2.5 (WebWeaver) or HTML_Pro 1.7. The last one mentioned is a
  close-to-WYSIWYG editor, opening two windows, one in HTML- and
  the other in Preview-mode. By this you can choose which
  environment you find most comfortable for editing your www.page.
  Either in the "Preview" mode without those pesky tags, or/and at
  the same time write & view the plain-text entered being converted
  to HTML.

  Personally, I cast my vote for HTML Web Weaver (WebWeaver). It
  has many of the same "macro-buttons" and features as the -Editor,
  but of which some is - to my mind at least, better implemented in
  WebWeaver.

  As a Norwegian, I find that the WebWeaver handles the special
  Nordic characters better than -Editor.  In addition, it -

  * has nice dialogues, giving you the options to write textual
  information, to be displayed to the "ASCII-based" cybercruising
  community, and letting you specify (and link) text, images, sound
  & mpeg's with anchors and names directly within the same dialogue
  screen.

  * let you import pre-formatted HTML documents of any kind (I have
  had problems importing HTML documents processed from RTF-format
  into -Editor).

  * has a very good "List" functions, (even with an "preview"
  option, if you need to be reminded what an ordered or unordered
  list look like), with selection of several "Align" tags.
  (-Editor only offers optional "Top Align")

  * a good Forms Editor, making it easy to create Forms, inkluding
  naming and generating "MailTo" or "Submit" buttons at the same
  instance.

  * option for making your own, customised sets of floating
  toolbars of your mostly-used tagging tools.

  * Option for customising new tags (- f.i. to include new tags
  accepted by the latest-, and future versions of Netscape)

  * If you start by saving your html-document in the same folder as
  your other (gif/html/sound/mpeg etc.) files to be used in the
  www-page(s), and "point" to them using the "Select file" dialogue
  in WebWeaver "File" menue, you will automatically get short,
  relative URL-locations from WebWeaver, as opposite to those given
  by the -Editor, who will specify the full URL for every file
  included - even if it's in the same folder.

  * One thing is to get those annoying "File"name" is not in the
  root directory or it's sub directory" messages all the time from
  -Editor. More serious is it that you might get errors when taking
  your files to another computer to "publish". Then the long
  relative URLs produced by -Editor might no longer be actual.

  Another thing worth mentioning, is that you can save much
  html-scripting time, especially on long documents, if you start
  your WWW-editing in Word or any other word processor that can
  save to RTF file format. Just give your document the type sizes
  and -styles you want, (Size: from 8 - 18 points. Style:
  Normal/Bold/italic),  Add paragraphs and line brakes, make nice
  groups of the information that is to be displayed as lists, and
  save the document in RTF format.

  Next, drop the file on a small application called TextToHTML
  (found - like most of the ones mentioned, in the Info-mac/text/
  archives). All basic html-tagging like Titles, Header, Font Size,
  Style etc. is taken care of by the said TextToHTML application.
  After this you import the resulting file into WebWeaver (-or
  Editor, if that's your choice), your document ends up looking
  very much like your on-screen Word document, before you have even
  typed a single HTML-tag.  Now it's time to add links,
  list-options, GIF-,html-,video- or sound files, edit Forms etc.
  etc.

  There is also a Shareware called rtftohtml "out there",
  performing the same task. But I have experienced inconsistent
  results (sometimes making line breaks <br> into paragraph tags
  <p>, which gives it a slightly different look :-). So my choice
  for formatting RTF-files is TextToHtml + WebWeaver.

  ----------

  From: [e-mail] (Tim Sherrill)

  I've tried several Web-Page Editors and have been satisfied by
  none.  Until now! HTML_Pro_1.07 has turned my head.  This program
  has two advantages:  first, it is fast (6 secs to load).  I
  disliked several editors because I had to wait (I use a PB160 at
  home and a MacIIci at work).  Secondly, it allows you to view
  your source and the output at the same time!  You can type on the
  output page, select some words, make them bold, and they're bold!
  You want to add a tag, you can do it by typing the source in the
  source window or you can type it in the output window.  Having
  both views at once really has made my life easier.

  It's only $5 shareware, and this pays for all updates and all
  software written by Niklas Frykholm.

http://www.ts.umu.se/~r2d2

 Here's a quote from the Umich Archiver:

  /mac/util/text/htmlpro1.07.cpt.hqx

  Finally, a real HTML editor for Macintosh! Includes source and
  rendered views, links to support applications, macros, etc.
  *VERY* well done, fast, and small! (Okay, I do alot of HTML :)

Netscape Tips
-------------
  By: Bernie Hall <[e-mail]>

  To go to a new location, don't use the open button or dialogue
  box, just  highlight the current site name (after the http://) in
  the location line  below the toolbar type the new URL and hit
  enter.

  To increase the real estate on your screen, turn off show
  Directory  Buttons (from the Options menu). These are available
  under the directory  drop down menu.

  --------

  By Gary Anderson <[e-mail]>

  I just read your account of some of your experiences getting
  started with WWW and, specifically, Netscape and thought I would
  pass along some info. you might find useful.

  First of all, you stated:

  (1) Hotlists are hard to manage when they get big.  I haven't
  found a Web Browser that supports rearranging the items in the
  hotlist by subject.

  Netscape does. It is a little hard to get used to at first, but
  you have the capability of setting up a hierarchical bookmark
  menu if you fiddle around in the "View Bookmarks" editor. You can
  add subjects to subclassify groups of topics. Use the arrows
  (bottom left of editor) to move items up and down in your
  bookmark list after you have selected them. Pretty nifty feature,
  if you ask me.

  Here is another trick I use. I have made as my "homepage" (the
  page that Netscape shows when I first open it up) my bookmark
  list. If you look in the Netscape folder on your hard drive, you
  will find the folder, Netscape f (or some such). In it resides
  the file Bookmarks.html, which is created and updated by Netscape
  as you add bookmarks. If you type the pathname for this file in
  the space reserved for the home page (Preferences, Window and
  Link Styles), you will find yourself staring at a hypertext
  rendition of your bookmark list whenever you open Netscape.
  Probably, the easiest way to get the complete pathname is to do
  the following:

  1) drag the icon for your bookmark file onto the Netscape icon,
  to open the file in Netscape.

  2) when it is open, copy the file name from the URL address which
  is showing, assuming you set Netscape up to show the URLs. It
  should start with file:///

  3)paste the file name into the home page preferences, and voila...

  PS Sorry if this is too hard to follow. Like everything else with
  this gadgetry, it is a lot easier to do than to explain to
  someone!

  --------

  By Gary Parker <[e-mail]>

  In issue #68 you say that you've yet to find a browser that will
  allow you to sort hotlists by subject?  Maybe I misunderstand
  what you mean, but Netscape (all versions since its debut, I
  believe) allows you to create subject headers, even subheaders,
  subsubheaders..., for your hotlist using the View Bookmarks
  command.  The trick is learning to use the View Bookmarks command
  whenever you add a new bookmark so you can put the new page under
  the heading you want as you add it, otherwise you will have to
  use the rather cumbersome arrow buttons to move your new bookmark
  up or down the list to fit it under the proper heading (drag and
  drop would be a blessing here).

  Anyway, once you have created your headers, your bookmark list
  turns into a nice hierarchical list.  Of course, even that list
  can get long (and longer and longer everday, it seems).  It would
  be great if Netscape added the feature that Mosaic has (or had--I
  haven't used Mosaic in awhile) that allows you to call up
  different hotlists.

  Another tip I have been using for months now that saves a lot of
  time when cranking up Netscape:

  Since I usually start up with a new site to visit in mind, I have
  my Netscape preferences set to start up with a blank page.  This
  is an option under "styles" in the preferences menu.  This way
  when you crank up Netscape you can either click the open button
  and paste (or type) in the new URL or you can go right to your
  bookmarks and pull down to your page of choice.

Fetch Vs. Anarchie, Continued
-----------------------------
  From: [e-mail] (andrew shieh)

  Actually, the author of Anarchie (peter lewis) suggests keeping
  Fetch around for uploads. Fetch has better control over
  text/binary/macbinary sending of files. The next version of
  Anarchie should change this though, but then again the next
  version of Fetch is coming soon.

  Plus, fetch is freeware...(anarchie is a whole $10?)

  ----------

  From: Dave Kramer <[e-mail]>

  I read William P. Barr's commentary on Anarchie vs. Fetch, and I
  have to agree. Fetch isn't as handy at most FTP tasks.

  But don't throw Fetch in the Trash just yet.

  Fetch does two things that Anarchie doesn't. In fact, Anarchie
  calls on Fetch for its extension mapping. Anarchie's Apple Guide
  walks you through these settings step by step, which helped me
  understand what's going on. Essentially, the FTP software looks
  to see if the filename extension (.hqx, .sit, .bin, .zip, et al.)
  is on the list, and if so, how to handle it. If you FTP a file
  with an extension not on the list, you might tranfer it the wrong
  way (text vs. binary mode), and get unusable gibberish. I've
  mapped all of the popular extensions, and a few of the not so
  well-known (just added .lzh, a Japanese file extension for a
  specific type of compression). Since the list is checked in
  order, I have added a blank entry, which I map as a text
  download. This is great for FTPing FAQ files and other text files
  that do not have consistent filename extensions. Whenever I add a
  new extension to the list, I must first delete this last one, add
  the new one, and then recreate the last (blank) item. This is
  because anything following the blank extension is ignored
  (remember, the list is followed in order -- if it finds a match,
  it stops reading the list).

  The second reason I keep Fetch around is raw text transfers. This
  strips  MacBinary info off of a file automatically (no need to
  run a separate  utility). This is good for placing GIFs and HTML
  text files on a UNIX  server for use on the World Wide Web.

  [So, are you telling me I've not needed to strip the header from
  my gif files before uploading them, or is it only for TEXT files?]

  Yup. I've never stripped MacBinary info off a GIF "by hand"
  before.  Sending Raw Data handles this little problem.

  Also, I have noticed some sites where directories do not show up
  properly  with Anarchie. In these rare instances, I switch to
  Fetch. For that  matter, I keep a second mail reader (POPmail II)
  handy for those odd messages that Eudora chokes on. No, I do not
  wear suspenders *and* a belt. But it helps to have a backup plan
  when you're diving for data on  the Internet.

  ----------

  From: [e-mail] (David Cake)

  I would like to second the recommendation of Anarchie. It is the
  best FTP client I have ever seen, for any platform, and
  thoroughly Macintoshised. It is much smarter than Fetch, works in
  the background, does drag 'n drop, has an integrated Archie
  client (if you know a file name, but not its location, you can
  search for it), hence the name, and a lot of work has been put
  into the user interface. There is also an Apple Guide available
  for Anarchie.

  I also know the author, Peter Lewis - please make sure that you
  pay your shareware registration. Anarchie is very reasonably
  priced, due to his personal philosophies on software pricing, he
  has put a lot of effort into making sure it is easy to register,
  and he is trying to make his living by writing shareware. So
  please pay, especially if it is being used commercially.

  He has also released FTPd, which allows you to FTP to your Mac,
  and Assimilator, a hard drive contents copier application
  designed for use in laboratory type situations. Also, with Quinn,
  he has released Internet Config, a system designed to ensure that
  all that Internet information (like email adress, news and mail
  server, helper applications for various types of files, personal
  info, etc.) needs to be entered only once, if all applications
  are IC aware. At present there are only a few Internet Config
  aware applications (Newswatcher is one), but the list will grow
  rapidly in the next few months, and should make life on the Net a
  lot easier.

  Anarchie 1.5 should be out soon. Many user interface
  improvements, and Internet Config compatible.

  -----------

  From: "Espen H. Koht" <[e-mail]>

  Although I agree that Anarchie is a great program I still keep
  Fetch around, and indeed find myself using both regularly. I find
  Fetch more convenient for browsing since my screen doesn't get
  cluttered with windows for all the directories I have been to.
  Anarchie is great if I'm after something specific or need to
  connect to more than one place at once.

  Also a correction: Fetch also moves files in the background!

  Nit-pick: Although the Anarchie bookmark list is a good selection
  of Mac sites, it is by no means 'complete'. The same bookmarks
  are bundled with Fetch, by the way.

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