|
|
InSite Designer Quick start
Introduction
InSite Designer is a visual web site & documentation creator built from scratch for BeOS. It will allow you to create HTML pages without almost any knowledge of HTML coding. However, if you know HTML it will increase your productivity and speed when creating HTML pages.
General
InSite Designer consists of three main parts - the Visual editor, the HTML editor and the HTML elements palette.
Visual editor
In the Visual editor you edit the page and see (approximately) how it will look in a browser. The editor doesn't let you insert more white spaces in one position - this is to keep the look of your page close to the actual look in a browser - HTML makes one space out of any number of spaces (for more read Internet publishing ). To insert a nonbreakable space press <SHIFT+SPACE>. There may be two or more nonbreakable spaces next to each other.
To modify the properties of an HTML link/target or an image right-click the object and select what you want to modify.
Do not write HTML code for an HTML entity - special character e. g. . Simply insert the character and InSite Designer will convert the character to its HTML code. (You can insert the HTML code directly in the HTML editor)
HTML editor
The HTML editor lets you see and edit the HTML code of your page. It features semi-intelligent tag highlighting. Tags, tag attributes, attribute values and HTML entities are colored separately. Text is black as long as it doesn't mean anything in HTML. Unlike other syntax highlighting text editors it checks syntax so that for instance it doesn't color an attribute if there isn't a tag before it e. g. <href> would be still black. If the text you wrote does mean something in HTML but is illegal, it is colored red e. g. </BR> would be red.
HTML elements palette
The HTML elements palette can be displayed by clicking Edit - Show HTML palette or pressing <ALT+P> in the HTML editor. It contains an (almost) full set of HTML 4 elements and their allowed attributes (a few very rarely used elements and attributes have been omitted to keep the list within certain limits). Choosing an element displays a list of its attributes. If an attribute has a limited number of possible values the values can picked from a pop-up menu; otherwise the value can be typed in the text field below the attributes list. If a text has been typed, pressing enter inserts the attribute with the new value to the HTML element. A preview of the new tag is provided below the lists. The preview box allows you to fine-tune the HTML code for your tag and another enter inserts the element at the current position in the HTML editor.
Cooperation with external HTML editors
You can use InSite Designer in cooperation with other HTML editors. You can set your preferred external HTML editor in Preferences - Program settings. The data exchange is handled via a temp file. To edit the current page in an external HTML editor click HTML editor - Show in external HTML editor. (You may need to reload the file in the external HTML editor if the file was already open there and the editor doesn't support automatic reloading when the file is modified by a different program.) When you are done making your changes in the HTML and want to edit the page further in InSite Designer simply save the page in the external editor and InSite Designer will automatically update the page from the temporary exchange file. Please note that saving the file in an external editor saves the page only to the temp file and brings it to Designer. If you want to save the final version you need to save it in Designer.
|