MacFormat 1998 May/macformat-063.iso/mac/Shareware Plus/Communications/Hyperize2/HOW-TO-USE

Text File | 1997-12-29 | 11.7 KB | 289 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

Hyperize2

WHAT'S NEW

If you've used Hyperize before, you'll notice the following new features:

    Hyperize2 runs native on a PowerPC.

    Hyperize2 can now create whole pages, frames, or fragments of HTML-encoded
    text. (The difference is in the enclosing tags, which are none in the case
    of fragments.)

    Hyperize2 can now read from and/or write to the Clipboard. In combination
    with the ability to create fragments, this makes it easy to update HTML
    files without having to re-hyperize from scratch (possibly losing all the
    extra HTML you've added manually).

    Hyperize2 can be told to include a standard header and/or footer in its
    output. These are HTML files called respectively 'Hyperize Header' and
    'Hyperize Footer' which live in the same folder as the application.

    Hyperize2 is much smarter than its predecessor about indentation, and is
    somewhat smarter about columnar layouts. It can, for instance, reproduce a
    program listing very accurately, and it deals reasonably gracefully with
    columns in general text. (Aligned text within lines, however, only looks
    good if the browser is set to use a fixed-space font. Also be aware that
    there's no way I can know how many spaces the browser will use to implement
    the <ul> tag, which is used for indentation.)

    Hyperize2 has two new formatting options. They concern whether leading
    white space on a line is intended to introduce new paragraphs or new
    column-aligned list items, and the distance between column stops.

    Hyperize2 stores its default preferences in a preferences file (instead of
    in the application itself). It also allows the user to create secondary
    settings files for particular types of task, such as hyperizing
    justified text fragments or whole program listings. These files can be
    opened from within the application or double-clicked to launch the
    application with their settings.

    Hyperize2 lets you browse for documents and applications when setting the
    File Creator for its output files. It also allows you to choose an output
    file name and location that's different from the default.


GETTING STARTED

To get started, just place the Hyperize2 folder anywhere. Make aliases if you
like. Drop text files on Hyperize2 or its alias and they will get hyperized.
The HTML files will appear in the same folder with the names of their
originals plus '.html'. After the last file is hyperized, the application
quits. You can then open your new HTML files in a browser to see what they look
like. (If your browser is Netscape Navigator, you can just double-click on the
HTML files.)

Alternatively, double-click Hyperize2. A splash screen will appear and it will
wait for a little over a second. (It will go away sooner if you click the mouse
or press a key.) Choose Hyperize File from the File menu to hyperize a file, or
Hyperize Clipboard to hyperize the contents of the Clipboard (it must contain
text). Choose Preferences from the File menu to familiarize yourself with the
preferences dialogue. Dismiss it by pressing Cancel. (When you're ready, come
back and read about setting preferences.) Choose Quit from the File menu when
you're done.

The first time Hyperize2 is run, it will create a file called 'Hyperize
Preferences' in the 'Preferences' folder of your system folder.

If you already have Hyperize 1.1, there is no need to do anything special to
disinstall it. Hyperize2 uses a different creator signature, so there is no
conflict.


SETTING PREFERENCES

To set preferences, choose Preferences... from the File menu or press
Command-=. The following dialog appears:


    Settings Files Control

    The top part of the dialog lets you create and open custom settings files.
    Press Save... to create a custom file with the settings currently shown in
    the dialog. Use Open... to change the settings to those stored in some
    previously created settings file. Use Revert to restore the settings to
    those contained in the 'Hyperize Preferences' folder. (To restore the
    original 'factory' settings, drag 'Hyperize Preferences' in 'Preferences'
    in your system folder to the trash.)

    Once you have created a settings file, you can launch Hyperize2 with those
    settings by dropping the file on Hyperize2 or by double-clicking it. You
    can then open documents interactively or just drop them on Hyperize2's
    dimmed icon. You can also include a settings files in a multiple file drop.
    New settings take effect at the time each settings file is loaded, so in
    this case it makes a difference what order you select the files in.

    Formatting and Target Control

    The three buttons on the right of the middle panel control the kind of
    enclosing tags that Hyperize2 generates. Specifically:

        Page
            <html>
            <head>
            <title>
                Your document's title
            </title>
            </head>
            <body>
                Your hyperized document
            </body>
            </html>

        Frame
            <body>
                Your hyperized document
            </body>

        Fragment
                Your hyperized document


    The checkboxes on the left of the middle panel control the amount and type
    of formatting that Hyperize performs. Specifically:

        Format the text

            If this is unchecked, Hyperize2 makes no special interpretation of
            spaces, tabs and line breaks in your document. Your document is
            copied through unchanged, except that characters that are special
            to HTML or the Macintosh are translated into HTML-acceptable
            equivalents.

            If this is checked, Hyperize2 additionally pays special attention
            to spaces and tabs (particularly at the start of a line) and to line
            breaks. It always assumes that blank lines separate paragraphs and
            that leading white space separates lines. It always collapses runs of
            white space and/or line breaks and interprets the run as a unit, i
            ways depending on further settings.

        Paragraphs contain hard returns

            If this is unchecked, Hyperize2 always respects physical line
            breaks in the document, and never wraps together lines separated
            only by an end-of-line character.

            If this is checked, Hyperize2 wraps with the previous line a line
            that is separated from it by only one end-of-line character.
            However it does not do this if the second line begins with white
            space. Runs of end-of-line characters, even with intervening hidden
            white space characters, are collapsed into a single HTML paragraph
            tag.

        Paragraph starts are indented

            If this is unchecked, Hyperize2 assumes that white space at the
            beginning of a line indicates column alignment. Hyperize2
            calculates the amount of white space indicated by the combination
            of spaces and tabs, and if that amount is greater than it was for
            the previous line, indents the line by a certain amount (how much
            depends on your browser). Hyperize2 keeps track of degrees of
            indent, and if a line has less leading white space than the current
            indent level requires, it adjust the indent level to the
            closest-matching preceding indent level. In this mode, tabs in the
            middle of a line are also expanded into a series of 'non-breaking
            spaces' sufficient to align the next word to the nearest
            appropriate tab stop.


            If this is checked, Hyperize2 assumes that white space at the
            beginning of a line indicates the start of a new paragraph. The
            first line of the paragraph is indented and remaining lines are
            flush left. Tabs in the middle of lines are expanded as usual.

        Tabs every x spaces

            This is a pop-up menu where you can set the distribution of tab
            stops (they must, however, be evenly spaced). This setting affects
            mainly the calculation of white space involving both spaces and
            tabs at the beginnings of lines, and the expansion of tabs in the
            middle of lines. Very often it does not matter. The most common
            settings are 4, 6 and 8.

        Include header and footer

            If this is checked, Hyperize2 will precede your document by the
            contents of a file called 'Hyperize Header' in Hyperize2's folder,
            if it is present, and will likewise follow your document by the
            contents of 'Hyperize Footer' in the same place, if that is
            present. The contents of these documents are not hyperized, but are
            assumed to contain valid HTML created previously by Hyperize2 or in
            some other way.

    Miscellaneous Controls

        Output to Clipboard

            If this is checked, output is placed on the Clipboard, ready to be
            pasted into an HTML document. For this purpose, Hyperize2 has to
            have enough memory to contain the text on the Clipboard. The
            default memory size is adequate for about 32Kb. If you need much
            more, you can increase the application's partition by selecting
            Hyperize2 (with a single click) and choosing Get Info... from the
            Finder's File menu. Increase the number in Preferred Size (at the
            bottom right) and click the close box.

        Prompt for HTML file name

            By default, the output, if it is not the Clipboard, is a file in
            the same folder as the original and with the original's name
            followed by '.html'. If that would be too long, or if you have
            checked this box, you will be prompted for a file name and location
            instead.

        Creator: <the name of some program>

            This indicates the 'creator' of files produced by Hyperize2. The
            'creator' is the application that the Finder will call if you
            double-click on the file. The obvious choices are your favourite
            browser, if you want to see the results immediately, or your
            favourite text editor or word processor, if you want to manually
            add more HTML tags.

            The default creator is SimpleText/TeachText. To change the creator,
            press Browse. You will be able to explore your file system, seeing
            only disks, folders, text files, and applications. Choose a text
            file belonging to the application of your choice, or the
            application itself.


ADVANCED CUSTOMIZATIONS

This section is only for people who are familiar with using a Resource Editor
such as ResEdit. The information is presented in such a way that you will not
know how to use it if you are not so familiar.

    STR# 129
        The translations for characters whose ASCII code is greater than 127,
        in order with the first string translating character 128 and the last
        string translating character 255.

    STR# 130
        The name of the default preferences file in the 'Preferences' folder of
        the system folder. Originally 'Hyperize Preferences'.

    STR# 131
        The 'name' of the Clipboard, to be used in progress messages and as the
        base for a file created from the Clipbooard as input. Originally
        'Clipboard'.

    STR# 132
        The names of the included header and footer files, which must live in
        the same folder as the application. Originally 'Hyperize Header' and
        'Hyperize Footer'.

    STR# 133
        The extension added to the name of the input file to create the name
        for the output file. Originally '.html'.

    Pref 129
        The 'factory' preferences record. The format is:

            creator        (4 bytes)        the creator code for output files
            htmltype    (2 bytes)        whether page, frame or fragment:
                                            0 = page
                                            1 = frame
                                            2 = fragment
            linelen        (2 bytes)        optimal length of output lines
            tabstops    (2 bytes)        spacing of tab stops
            formatting    (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether formatting checked
            hardreturns    (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether hard returns checked
            parindents    (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether indented paras checked
            including    (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether including header/footer
            toclip        (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether to Clipboard checked
            prompting    (1 byte)        0 or 1, whether prompting for filename
            reserved    (2 bytes)

Additionally, all text that appears in Hyperize — whether in menus, alerts or
dialogues — is stored in various resources and so can be translated to produce
a localized version. The only exception is the contents of the About... box.


© Jason Johnston 1995-7

mailto:[e-mail]
http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~jcj