Version 1.06 +--- - - - - ---+--- - - - - ---+ | ! Welcome to the first very easy-to-use HTML file generator ! | +--- - - - - ---+--- - - - - ---+ __ __ __ __ __ __ / \_/ \ \ \ / / / \_/ \ / /\ /\ \ \ \ _ / / / /\ /\ \ / / \_/ \ \ \ \ / \ / / / / \_/ \ \ / / \ \ \ \/ _ \/ / / / \ \ /_/ \_\ \__/ \__/ /_/ \_\ -->* Magic WWW (World-Wide Web) files Maker *<-- _______________________________________ | | \|/ X ___________________________________ | | | from an idea of Maurizio Fabiani | | developed by Massimo Baglione | |___________________________________| 1. INTRODUCTION One day my friend Maurizio asked me: "Hey Max, do you think that it's possible to write a program to create files in HTML format by just loading a simple ASCII text and using the mouse to define the final HTML file?" I said: "Oh my God! Miracles are not my speciality!"... but he was right! Well, the final result is near. MWM allows you to load a normal text file and you can attach images, texts, lists and many other HTML object to the selected lines and/or words just by using the mouse. The GUI is essentially composed of: - The Main Window This will show the normal text file. If a part of text is defined by an action, it will be highlighted with a different color from the rest of the text. Like some word processors, this window contains a lot of small graphic gadgets linked to different actions. - The Single Line Window - The Labels Window This will show all labels included in an HTML file to be linked. - The Help Window (or Log Window) - The "What is?" Window 2. THE MAIN WINDOW Once a simple text file is loaded, you will see it in the Main Window. Use the left mouse button to select part of the text, either by dragging, or by clicking. Then select one of the Action Gadgets to attach an action to it the selected text. The action can be lists, texts, images, hyperlinks, or many other things permitted by the HTML 3.0 specs. If you need to attach an action to a single word on a line, just double-click on the line. Your desired line will appear in the Single Line Window. Then you can drag select only the desired word(s). Different actions will create objects that are shown in different colors in the Main Window. All created objects are numbered in order of creation. By selecting the object, you can see information about it in the Log Window. Keys ==== If the text is larger than the the window, you can scroll it by pressing the arrows keys or using the scroll gadgets. The arrow keys, by themselves, will scroll one line or column. Shifted arrow keys will scroll one page up / down / left / right. Pressing the alt key with the arrow keys will go to the beginning / end, or to the top left / top right. Pressing the control key with the arrow keys will attempt to resize the window to fit the text. The help key will open or close the Log Window. The del key will open or close the "What is?" Window. Pressing return will edit the first selected line. The Action gadgets ================== Starting from the left, the Action gadgets are: TEXT Gadget This action will define a particular type of text for selected lines. If you are working in the Single Line Window, MWM will show the following choices: - It's a link to a previously defined label into the current document. - It's a link to another document. A web browser like AMosaic will highlight this part of the text. If the user click on this object, a new text defined by this action will called. After choosing the file to be linked, MWM will ask you if you need to refer to a particular label into the linked text. If so, a listview will show all of the labels. Just double-click to choose one. - It's a link to a site. MWM will show a requester to find out where it can go to read the site name. You can choose from: - Selected line If the site name is the current selected text, MWM will concatenate all the selected lines. - Keyboard The site name will be defined manually from the keyboard. - PATH:file The site name is defined in the site file. You may define a list of sites in advance for MWM to use. The list MUST look like this: www.vol.it agnus.livewire.com www.lycos.com www.yahoo.com ... If the location of the site list has not been previously defined, MWM will look for it in "PROGDIR:MWM.sites". You may define a different location for the site file using the "Preferences/Sites list" menu function. MWM will give you the following list of link types: file://localhost/ http:// ftp:// mailto: news: gopher: telnet: Once you have chosen a link type, you will be asked to add the complete name of the site. If you chose: - Selected line You're done with the current link. - Keyboard. MWM will ask you to enter the complete name of the site. - PATH:file MWM will present the choices in the site file, and ask you to choose one. - It's a simple text. Otherwise, if you are working in the Main Window with one or more selected lines, MWM will add the following choices to the previous choices: - It's a preformatted text. Selected lines will be included between
and. They will usually be displayed in a fixed width (typewriter) font. - It's a paragraph. Selected lines will be included between
and
. MWM will ask you to choose an alignment: DEFAULT, LEFT, RIGHT, JUSTIFY. - It's information about you. Selected lines will be included between and . IMAGE Gadget This action will _REPLACE_ selected text with an image. A file requester will ask you to select the image file. Next, MWM will ask you to choose what kind of alignment you want for the image. The possible choices are: - BOTTOM - MIDDLE - TOP Then, MWM will ask you what type of image you desire: - It's a link to an already defined label into the current document. - It's a link to an other document. (See the TEXT Gadget, above) - It's a link to a site. (See the TEXT Gadget, above) - It's a MAP image. - It's a simple image. LIST Gadget This action will define selected lines as a list. There are three types of lists: - Unnumbered, for example: * it's cold * it's warm * it's rain - Numbered, for example: 1- Don't drink if you must drive 2- Don't drive if you have drunk 3- Cappuccino is more greedy than beer 4- Milk is finish, give me a beer! - Definition, for example: Colors Red Green Blue Planets Mercury Mars Jupiter Earth ... After choosing the type of list you want, MWM will ask you if you want to add more infos to every element of the list. If you select no, the list will become a simple list of words. If you select yes, MWM will show you line by line the selected text, and ask you how you want to define it: - It's a link to an already defined label into the current document. - It's a link to an other document. (See TEXT and IMAGE) - It's a link to a site. (See above on the TEXT part) - It's a simple text. FORM Gadget This action is composed by two steps: In the first step you define the part of the text that will become the FORM. MWM will ask you for the type. The possible responses are: - GET - POST - Cancel After this, MWM needs to know the desired Action (a URL, for instance). This is an example of an Action: "http://x/y/sample". You will see that the color of the selected text has changed. With FORM objects you may select one or more lines for each group. In the second step you get to define all other parts of the FORM. Select as many or as few of the previously selected lines as you wish, and select the FORM Gadget again. MWM will ask you to choose between the following possibilities: - It's a simple text. This is useful to describe some other more important objects. - It's an INPUT. This choice will open a requester with the following type of INPUTs: 1. Text 7. File 2. Password 8. Hidden 3. Checkbox 9. Submit 4. Radio 10. Image 5. Range 11. Reset 6. Scribble If you choose number 4 (RADIO), for example, MWM will check if you have selected more than one line. In so, MWM will ask you if you want to include these into the same RADIO group. If yes, the RADIO group will have the same field name. In this way, a program like AMosaic can be sure that one, and only one, of them can be selected by the user. - It's a list of INPUTs This won't work if you are working in the Single Line Window. Any single INPUTs to define will be included in a list. Every element of the FORM (except that inserted in a list) will be saved into the final HTML file prefixed by the string in order to print each
line separately.
If you need to insert two or more element of the FORM into the same line,
you can double-click on it in the Single Line Window.
MORE Gadget
This action changes depending if you are working in the Main Window or in
the Single Line window.
If you are working in the Main Window:
If the selected text is uninitialized (in other words, without
objects), MWM will consider the first selected line and ask
you what you want to do with this line. The possibilities are:
- Insert label here ( )
- Insert horizontal graphic line (
).
If the selected text has been initialized, MWM will add the following
choices to the previous choices (not for HEAD):
- Citation (Typically in italic). (CITE)
- Emphasis (EM)
- Strong emphasis (STRONG)
- Code (CODE)
Looks like preformatted text,
for example: 1 + 1 = 2.
- Author (AU)
For an author of a book, etc.
- Person (PERSON)
For a generic person name.
- Sequence of chars. (SAMP)
- Keyboarded text. (KBD)
- Variable name. (VAR)
- Definition. (DFN)
- Short quote. (Q)
- Acronyms. (ACRONYM)
- Abbreviations. (ABBREV)
- Inserted text. (INS)
- Deleted text. (DEL)
- Bold text. (B)
- Italic text. (I)
- Typewriter text. (TT)
- Underscored text. (U)
- "Lined" text. (S)
- Big text. (BIG)
- Small text. (SMALL)
- To understand (;-)). (SUB)
- To understand (;-)). (SUP)
If the selected lines are part of the HEAD, a different requester will
ask you if you want to:
- Attach a BANNER
With this action you can choose an HTML file to be a fixed
banner.
Example:
If you are working in the Single Line Window, and a previously created and
currently selected text object is present, MWM will show you these choices:
- Citation (Typically in italic). (CITE)
- Emphasis (EM)
- Strong emphasis (STRONG)
- Code (CODE)
Looks like preformatted text,
for example: 1 + 1 = 2.
- Author (AU)
For an author of a book, etc.
- Person (PERSON)
For a generic person name.
- Sequence of chars. (SAMP)
- Keyboarded text. (KBD)
- Variable name. (VAR)
- Definition. (DFN)
- Short quote. (Q)
- Acronyms. (ACRONYM)
- Abbreviations. (ABBREV)
- Inserted text. (INS)
- Deleted text. (DEL)
- Bold text. (B)
- Italic text. (I)
- Typewriter text. (TT)
- Underscored text. (U)
- "Lined" text. (S)
- Big text. (BIG)
- Small text. (SMALL)
- To understand (;-)). (SUB)
- To understand (;-)). (SUP)
HEAD Gadget
This action will define selected lines as the HEAD.
The HEAD consists of the TITLE of the document, some other information,
and the selected text.
By using MORE action you can insert a banner.
SIZE Gadget
With this action you can modify the font size of the selected lines.
The following choices are possible:
- Very large font, bold.
-
Large font, bold.
-
Large font, italic..
-
Normal font, bold.
-
Normal font, italic.
-
Small font.
Note that these values are just an indication. Depending on what browser
they are using, and how the browser and their system is set up, your text
may look different on each system.
MWM sets this value to
for all lines defined as simple text.
Use the "Preferences/HTML defaults" menu function to change this default.
Once the size has been chosen, you can select an alignment:
- LEFT (default)
- CENTER
- LEFT
- JUSTIFY
VIEW Gadget
This action allows you to call a program like AMosaic to see how the page
looks at any time. The program that will be called is defined by using
the "Preferences/Browser" menu function.
3. THE "What is?" WINDOW
The "What is?" Window is always to the left of the Main Window. It's purpose
is to provide short descriptions of the object(s) on that line. Here are
some examples of object descriptions:
+-----------++----------------------------------+
| What is? || MWM Edit Window |
+-----------++----------------------------------+
| ......... || Uninitialized text |
| Text Hn X || Initialized Text |
| Head || Text of the block |
| Form ABC_1|| Text of the