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Right up front...
These are the three coolest things about the HTML editor; don't miss 'em!

  1. You get full access to your HTML source code while retaining the ability to edit it in dialog boxes; just right-click inside of an HTML tag or press Ctrl+E on the keyboard!
  2. When working with image tags, the graphical "open file" dialog displays thumbnail images of your graphics files and can automatically convert just about any image format to a web-ready file (GIF, JPEG or PNG).
  3. The customizable HTML validation lets you automatically check your documents for errors and select the platform for which you want to develop: standard HTML, Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or all three.

Rocket Science includes the HyperText X/Press HTML editor. HyperText X/Press is a tool for creating, editing and viewing web pages, and is aimed at working web authors who want to unleash the full power of HTML. While WYSIWYG editors are fine for novices and casual users, most professional HTML authors don't use them because they are too restrictive; most don't allow you to access your source code and, if they do, they will re-write it anyway when you save your document. If you are building truly creative web pages, you need to write your own HTML code, but there's no reason that it has to be painful. That's why we created HyperText X/Press!

A new way to work!
Like a WYSIWYG editor, HyperText X/Press streamlines your HTML development by providing dialogs for entering and editing HTML tags, but it also displays your document as text and allows you to directly edit your code any way you want. This means that you can use either a dialog box or the keyboard to enter your code, then either right-click on it to edit it in a dialog or change it from the keyboard. You've never worked with HTML like this before, and you're going to love it! HyperText X/Press makes it quick and easy to edit and format text, and the dialog boxes let you breeze through the construction and editing of HTML elements such as images, links, Java applets, image maps, tables, frames, and forms.

Basic editing operations
Editing HTML code consists of three types of operations: entering and editing text, entering and editing HTML constructs such as images, tables and forms, and formatting the text and HTML constructs with HTML tags so that they appear as bold, centered, etc. In HyperText X/Press, you enter and edit text using the keyboard. To enter an HTML construct such as an image ("<IMG>") tag, you can either type it in using the keyboard or display the Image Tag dialog and construct it in a visual fashion. To display the Image Tag dialog, you would either click on the Insert Image tag in the tool pallete, select the Insert/Image... menu item from the main menu, click the right mouse button and select Insert image tag... from the speed menu, or Press Shift+F6 on the keyboard. When you press the OK button in the Image Tag dialog, the completed tag is inserted into your document at the current cursor position. To edit an HTML construct such as an image tag, you can either type in your changes using the keyboard or display the Image Tag dialog and change it in a visual fashion. To display the Image Tag dialog, you would position the cursor within the tag and either click on the Edit HTML tag button in the toolbar, select the Edit/Edit tag... menu item from the main menu, click the right mouse button and select Edit HTML tag under cursor... from the speed menu, or Press Ctrl+E on the keyboard. When you press the OK button in the Image Tag dialog, the current tag is replaced with the changed version in your document.

Editing multiple files at the same time
HyperText X/Press is built around the concept of an edit buffer. There is a single editor window which contains a behind-the-scenes set of buffers, and the current buffer is displayed in the window. Each time you open a new document in the editor, a new buffer is added to the list and becomes the current buffer. You can cycle backwards or forwards through the list by using the keyboard, menu or toolbar, or you can select a buffer directly from a pop-up list.

Using templates
HyperText X/Press uses two types of template files, page templates and insertion blocks, to help speed your document construction process. When you select and insert a page template, it replaces all of the text in the editor window. When you select and insert an insertion block, it is inserted into the text in the editor window at the current cursor location. You can save any file as a page template or insertion block by selecting the File/Save as/Page template... or File/Save as/Insertion block... menu item from the main menu.

HTML Tag Validation
HyperText X/Press supports standard HTML tags as well as Netscape and Microsoft extensions, and has the ability to check your HTML source code for valid tags and the presence of Netscape- and Microsoft-specific tags. When you use a dialog to insert or edit a tag, the dialog may contain Netscape, Microsoft and Java pushbuttons in addition to the basic HTML specification fields. Just press the appropriate button to access the additional functionality which is available through Netscape, Microsoft and JavaScript extensions. To check your document for valid tags, press the Validate Tags button in the tool bar, or select Tools/Validate tags from the main menu. Any unrecognized tags will be displayed in a listbox window, and you can double-click on an error in the listbox to edit the corresponding line in your document. To change the types of tags you will allow in your documents, select the Options/HTML validation preferences... menu item from the main menu to display the HTML tag validation preferences dialog. Using this dialog, you can select the types of tags that you consider valid, and you can add your own tags to the list of valid tags so that HyperText X/Press will recognize them.

X/Pander Tags
In addition to the standard HTML, Netscape and Microsoft tags, HyperText X/Press defines several of its own tags, called X/Panders, which start with a "#" character. X/Panders are macro tags which are "expanded" when you upload your pages to a web server (requires X/Site) or view them in a web browser from within HyperText X/Press. For example, you can automatically add the current time or date to a page, insert a copyright notice or add new information from a database. X/Panders are replaced as follows:

This tag:Is replaced by:Example:
<#DATE>The current date in US numeric format5/20/99
<#DATE2>The current date in European numeric format20/5/99
<#DATE3>The current date in US text formatThursday, May 20, 1999
<#DATE4>The current date in European text formatThursday, 20 May, 1999
<#TIME>The current time in 12-hour format 4:05PM
<#TIME2>The current time in 24-hour format16:05
<#INCLUDE SRC="file.htm">The contents of the file "file.htm"

Tools
HyperText X/Press contains a variety of tools for formatting text and editing HTML tags. A tool palette which is attached to the left-hand side of the main window provides direct access to most tools. You can activate any of the items on the tool palette by clicking on it with the mouse, by selecting its corresponding menu item from either the Insert or the Format pull-down menu, or in many cases by typing a shortcut key. Here's a brief description of what each tool does.

Tool
Box
Menu Keyboard Description
Insert/Template/Document body... Inserts a BODY tag
Insert/Template/Document template Replaces the current contents of the editor window from a new document template. You can use the File/Save current buffer as/Document template... menu item to define your own templates.
Insert/Template/Insertion block Shift+F1 Inserts a block of text from an insertion block template. You can use the File/Save current buffer as/Insertion block... menu item to define your own insertion blocks.
Insert/Reference/Local reference (file)... Shift+F2 Inserts an anchor which refers to a local file name:
HREF="myfile.htm"
Insert/Reference/Network reference (URL)... Shift+F3 Inserts an anchor which refers to a URL:
HREF="http://www.blahblah.com"
Insert/Reference/Internal reference... Shift+F4 Inserts an anchor which refers to an internal search target:
HREF="#MyTarget"
Insert/Reference/Search target... Shift+F5 Inserts a search target to which you can refer with an internal reference:
NAME="MyTarget"
Insert/Image... Shift+F6 Inserts an inline image file picked from the Open File... dialog
Insert/Embeded document Inserts an embedded file picked from the Open File... dialog
Insert/Ordered list Shift+F11 Inserts an ordered list template
Insert/Unordered list Shift+F12 Inserts an unordered list template
Insert/Definition list Inserts a definition list template
Insert/Table... Shift+F7 Inserts a table template
Insert/Special character... Shift+F8 Inserts a special character picked from a dialog
Insert/HTML tag... Shift+F9 Inserts an HTML tag picked from a dialog
Insert/Applet... Inserts an APPLET tag
Insert/Date stamp Shift+F10 Inserts the current date, as in "April 1, 1996"
Insert/Horizontal rule Shift+Enter Inserts an HR tag
Insert/Paragraph break Alt+Enter Inserts a paragraph tag
Insert/Line break Ctrl+Enter Inserts a line tag
Format/Header style/Header style 1 Alt+F1 Surrounds the selected text with H1 - /H1 tags
Format/Header style/Header style 2 Alt+F2 Surrounds the selected text with H3 - /H3 tags
Format/Header style/Header style 3 Alt+F3 Surrounds the selected text with H3 - /H3 tags
Format/Header style/Header style 4 Alt+F4 Surrounds the selected text with H4 - /H4 tags
Format/Header style/Header style 5 Alt+F5 Surrounds the selected text with H5 - /H5 tags
Format/Header style/Header style 6 Alt+F6 Surrounds the selected text with H6 - /H6 tags
Format/Text style/Strong Alt+F7 Surrounds the selected text with STRONG - /STRONG tags
Format/Text style/Emphasized Alt+F8 Surrounds the selected text with I - /I tags
Format/Text style/Underline Alt+F9 Surrounds the selected text with U - /U tags
Format/Text style/Font Alt+F10 Surrounds the selected text with FONT - /FONT tags
Format/Text style/Character... Alt+F11 Formats the selected text using options you select from the Character options dialog
Format/Alignment/Center Alt+F12 Surrounds the selected text with CENTER - /CENTER tags
Format/Alignment/Preformatted Surrounds the selected text with PRE - /PRE tags
Format/Remove HTML tags Removes all HTML tags from the selected text
Insert/Form/Single-line text box Inserts a single-line text entry box form control
Insert/Form/Multi-line text box at the current cursor location Inserts a scrolling multi-line text entry form control
Insert/Form/Check box Inserts a check-box form control
Insert/Form/Radio button Inserts a radio button form control
Insert/Form/Drop-down menu Inserts a drop-down menu form control
Insert/Form/Push button Inserts a push button form control
Insert/Form/Hidden field Inserts a hidden field form control

Menu items
Here's a brief summary of what each menu item on the HyperText X/Press main menu is used for:
  • File
    Open file...
    Displays the Open file dialog and allows you to open an existing file.

    New buffer
    Creates a new edit buffer and makes it the current buffer.

    Save current buffer
    Writes the current buffer to a disk file.

    Save current buffer as...

    • Different file name...
      Displays the Save file dialog and allows you to save the current buffer to the disk under a different file name.
    • Document template
      Saves the contents of the current buffer as the text that will be inserted when you select the Insert/Document template menu item.
    • Insertion block
      Saves the contents of the current buffer as the text that will be inserted when you select the Insert/Insertion block menu item.

    Save all buffers
    Writes all buffers which have been modified to disk.

    Close

    • Current buffer
      Removes the current buffer from the buffer list.
    • All buffers
      Removes all buffers from the buffer list, creates a new buffer and makes it the active buffer. There is always at least one buffer in the list.

    Select buffer

    • Next buffer
      Makes the next buffer in the list the active buffer.
    • Previous buffer
      Makes the previous buffer in the list the active buffer.
    • Buffer list...
      Displays the Select an edit buffer dialog which shows the status of each buffer in the list. To go to a buffer, select it and press the OK button or double-click on it with the mouse.

    View current buffer in browser
    Displays the contents of the current buffer in your web browser application

    Add current buffer to project
    Adds the current buffer to the currently open X/Site project so that it can be accessed from the X/Site Project manager window.

    Print
    Sends the contents of the current buffer to the printer.

    Print setup...
    Displays the Print setup dialog and allows you to select a printer and set options for the printer such as paper size and orientation.

    Exit
    Terminates the HyperText X/Press application.

  • Edit
    Undo
    Restores whatever text was modified as the result of your most recent activity.

    Cut
    Copies the currently selected text to the clipboard and deletes it.

    Copy
    Copies the currently selected text to the clipboard.

    Paste
    Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the current cursor position.

    Clear
    Deletes the currently selected text.

    Select all
    Selects the entire contents of the current buffer.

    Edit tag
    If the cursor is currently located within an editable HTML tag, the tag is loaded into a dialog box so that you can edit it.

    Select tag
    If the cursor is currently located within an HTML tag, the tag is selected.

  • Search
    Find...
    Displays the Find text dialog which allows you to specify the text for which you want to search.

    Find next
    Finds the next occurrence of the text you specified in the Find text dialog.

    Find and replace...
    Displays the Replace text dialog which allows you to specify the text for which you want to search and the text with which you want to replace it.

  • Insert
    You can use the items on this menu to insert HTML tags into your document. See the Tools section above.

  • Formatpulldown
    You can use the items on this menu to apply HTML text formatting to the currently selected text. See the Tools section above.

  • Tools
    Validate tags
    Checks the HTML code in the current edit buffer for valid HTML tags and displays errors in the Message Window.

    Check spelling
    Checks the spelling of all text in the current edit buffer which falls outside of HTML tags.

  • Options
    Select font...
    Displays the Select font dialog and allows you to select the font you want HyperText X/Press to use to display text.

    Select web browser...
    Displays the Select web browser dialog and allows you to select the web browser you want to use to preview your HTML documents.

    HTML validation preferences...
    Displays the HTML validation preferences dialog and allows you to specify the tags that HyperText X/Press should consider valid when it validates your HTML source code.

  • Windows
    Set web browser size
    Allows you to set the size of the web browser's window to one of several standard screen sizes for document previewing purposes.

    Note: If the Project Manager is running, you will also see a list of application windows here such as Image Editor, Image Map Editor, FTP Window, etc. These items are configured within the Application Preferences dialog, which is accessed from the Project Manager window.

  • Help
    Contents
    Displays the table of contents page of the HyperText X/Press help system.

    Index
    Displays an index of all available HyperText X/Press help topics.

    About...
    Displays HyperText X/Press product and version information

Copyright Include File
A Modern Space Age Communication from Atomic Softworks. © Copyright 1999 Atomic Softworks. All rights reserved worldwide. Please send feedback and inquiries to info@atomicsoftworks.com.