New Tools and Features in ANT_HTML Version 2.2
New Tools and Features in ANT_HTML Version 2.2
ANT_HTML Toolbar
Create Ant Tool
Store and change your own HTML tag preferences via the CREATE ANT TOOL. Each time you select
this tool, the 14 tools on the ANT_USER toolbar are updated to store and hold each of
the 14 tag preferences you've entered in the CREATE ANT TOOL dialog box.
If you don't wish to use the ANT_USER toolbar to insert your HTML tag preferences, you may enter any of the 14 tags you've chosen from the CREATE ANT TOOL tool, itself.
This tool also invites you to change the toolbar button faces of the 14 Ant-User Toolbar tools quickly and whenever you wish.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT ALTER THE POSITIONS OR CHANGE THE NAMES OF THE TOOLS ON THE ANT_USER TOOLBAR. The position and the name of the tool must not be changed if the Create Ant Tool and the 14 customizable tools on the ANT_USER toolbar are to operate properly.
(In the ANT_HTML toolbar and the ANT_SUP toolbar, the tools can be transferred from one toolbar to the other, deleted entirely or changed in any way.)
There are two primary ways to make use of this tool...
Don't use it at all. This tool automatically enters the beginning <TABLE> and ending </TABLE> tags required when you click the CONVERT AND SAVE TOOL. (Please note that the tool will not convert every Word formatting feature or every tag configuration. You may wish to experiment and add to the tags and make your own adjustments to tables either before or after the final conversion process.)
The Word .DOC to HTML TABLE TOOL checks to see whether you have entered any Word Table Headings in the first row of each table. If so it places <TH> and </TH> tags around the text in each table cell containing a Table Heading. The tool checks the alignment of each row. If each cell in the row is identically aligned, the tool inserts the tag, <TR ALIGN="left"> or <TR ALIGN="center"> or <TR ALIGN="right"> at the beginning of the row, then inserts the table data tags, <TD> and </TD> around the text in each cell in the row and enters the end of row tag, </TR>, at the end of the row.
<TR ALIGN=left><TD>text in first cell</TD> <TD>text in 2nd cell</TD> <TD>text in 3rd cell</TD></TR>
If the cells in the row are aligned differently, the tool enters tags that look like this:
<TR><TD ALIGN="left">text in first cell</TD> <TD ALIGN="center">text in 2nd cell</TD> <TD ALIGN="right">text in 3rd cell</TD></TR>
You might also like to try the BEGINNING TABLE TAG AND
CAPTION tool described just below.
Provides basic conversion of non-nested HTML table tags and is optional when you click the HTML to WYSIWYG Tool.
Pre Tool
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Beginning Table Tag and Caption Tool
This tool offers options including table border, width, height, cellpadding and cellspacing.
You may enter your own tag preferences instead, if you wish. Top and Bottom Caption options
are included. (Note: As mentioned above, standard <TABLE> tags are automatically inserted
around each table in your document during the final conversion process. If you have created
an entry directly above a table with the BEGINNING TABLE TAG AND CAPTION TOOL, your
customized entry will take precedence and the standard beginning <TABLE> tag will be
omitted.) Either the custom table tag or the optional custom caption tag should be
in the paragraph directly above your table, if you want the CONVERT AND SAVE macro to
omit placing standard table tags around your table.
<TABLE BORDER=2 CELLPADDING=2>
<CAPTION ALIGN=TOP This is my caption</CAPTION>
| Raflag Agjdfg | Bdfasfd Dfgsdgf Wefg | Muchness |
|---|---|---|
| kdjglsdjfg sdfg | dfg sdfgsdjhdfgsfgsdfgdfgsdfg | 7 |
| nmfghnsdfg | asldj | 956,893 |
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Backgrounds and Colors Tool
This tool offers a wide selection of colors and also offers the option to enter your own.
There are options for background colors
or background graphics, as well as text, link, and visited link colors.
(This tool does not produce WYSIWYG results in the Word .DOC file.)
Color Tip: Keep in mind that some monitors only display a very limited number or colors. If your monitor displays 16 million colors, it's probably a good idea to view your page in a monitor which displays 256 colors (or less) before you install your Web page on a server for all the world to see. The graphics cards in an individual's computer can also dramatically affect the color tones he actually sees.
Insert HTML tags during the final conversion
Use the standard Word CENTER, BOLD and ITALIC TOOLS in any combination.. HTML codes (<B> </BR> and <I> </I>) will be inserted during conversion with the CONVERT AND SAVE TOOL. if the tags are not already there. Tip: When using bold and italic formatting in combination with headings and other styles, use the toolbar tools to apply the headings and styles first.
Three new tools, one for CENTER, one for BOLD and one for ITALIC which each immediately
insert the tags around any selection, have been added to the new Ant_Sup Toolbar. The tools
are depicted immediately below.
Insert HTML tags immediately around any selection
Centers whatever text you select and inserts the <CENTER> tags.
Bolds whatever text you select and inserts the <B> tags.
Italicizes whatever text you select and inserts the <I> tags.
(The normal underline feature is not displayed in HTML browsers so it's not supported in the template.)
This tool offers Size, Width, Alignment and Shading options. You can enter
whatever values you like. The values described below are WYSIWYG in the .DOC file:
Font Sizes Tool
Enters the appropriate tags and modifies the font sizes character by character.
This tool inserts your choice of "Numbered" or "Unnumbered" list tags around whatever text
you select and places the <LI> tag at the beginning of each paragraph in your
selection.
Standard Numbered and Unnumbered List Tools
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Auto HTML Start Tool
Presents a short series of dialog boxes which take you step by step through the creation of
a basic HTML document by inserting the necessary beginning and ending codes, as well as the
title, heading and optional "return to top" anchor tags. Invites you to insert a file and
if you choose to do so, the selected .DOC or other file will be automatically inserted
between the beginning and ending codes. The inserted file is then checked to make sure
it has been installed properly.
Opens a dialog box listing all your drives and directories. Select any document, .DOC,
.HTM or any other file extension. The tool will insert the file, check to see if it has
been inserted properly and if you have selected an HTML file, will replace the standard
HTML paragraph marks with Word's paragraph marks. It will then place the cursor back at
the original cursor location so that you can begin editing at that point. You may insert
multiple files into one Ant document if you like.
If the ANT toolbar is not displayed, click anywhere on the toolbar with the right mouse button and select the ANT_HTML, ANT_SUP or ANT_USER toolbar (any or all) from the Toolbars Menu, then click OK... or:
Any of the three toolbars can easily be displayed by
clicking the ANT TOOLS MENU. At the bottom of the menu, click
View ANT_HTML, ANT_SUP or ANT_USER Toolbar.
Three characters are special characters and are used to specify HTML tags
<
>
&
An easy way to select the text in an entire document is to triple click the left margin of the document with the left mouse button.
Although there are a variety of ways (and personal styles used) to create an HTML document, and although the template is designed to accommodate most of them, you might discover an exception. If for any reason, during the Convert and Save process, the macro continues to run in an endless loop condition, you may stop it by pressing the ESC key.
CTRL+Spacebar easily changes hidden characters into normal text. The tool called MAKE UNHIDDEN will do it, too.
CTRL+Q is handy for restoring the default paragraph formatting.
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ THIS... Just so you don't puzzle over it, HTML language (and therefore, browsers) ignore extraneous spaces, tabs and paragraph marks (unless they're inside your HTML codes). Among other things, this means that tabs and other special formatting features possible in Word but not supported by the HTML language, must be created in some work-around manner. You can create the appearance of tabs with "<UL> " tags and create tables with "<PRE> " tags. Please remember not all browsers support tables or many of the same features Netscape supports. It's best to check your work in different HTML browsers at different screen resolutions (at least in 640 x 480, 800 x 600 AND 1024 x 768). The appearance of an HTML document can vary dramatically on the browser and the screen resolutions. As noted in the section on Graphics above, the capacity of various monitors and the kind of graphics card installed in a computer can make an enormous difference in how an individual will view the colors and graphics you display in your HTML documents.
The macros are locked, as in other programs, for several reasons. One of them (but only one) is that it encourages some users to provide valuable feedback about the program.
Please note that the Ant sometimes adds extra paragraphs at the end of a document because of the way Microsoft Word reacts when it encounters the last paragraph mark in documents. If, after saving or converting your document, you find that additional paragraph marks have been inserted at the end of your document, you may delete them if you wish, but they will have no affect on the appearance of your HTML document.
The answer might be that you imported a text file which contained ANSI characters not supported by Microsoft Windows or Word. If you are importing an ASCII file which contains characters (like ANSI character #127 which generally looks like , for example), you can easily remove them before pasting into Word with an editor like Q Edit. (To remove them in Q Edit, open the file, press CTRL-K, then press X, then ESC to quit. Save the file. The offending characters will have been removed.). Paste the remaining text into a Word document.
Hidden codes (in Tools Options View) should be turned on during the Save process. The template tools are designed to turn hidden codes on, if they were off, and to restore your preferred settings afterward. If this procedure goes bananas for any reason (and special pains were taken so it should not go bananas), your document won't convert properly. Turn Hidden Text ON and try again.
More Information is available through the following hyperlinks:
Special thanks to Eileen Wharmby of Pincliffe International (the WOPR folks) for helping
to make the programs international and cross-platform.
Many thanks also to Brian Moura and Woody Leonhard for introducing me to Eileen.
( What is the liklihood that it is not mere coincidence that, conjointly, each of your first initials spell "WEB" ?!?)
Much gratefulness to Phil Davis, who helped test the MAC maneuvers.
Phil's help made the cross-platform idea fly.
(Although it completely ruined the "coincidental" WEB acronym when he refused to
change his first name to W. Wally, William, Wilbur or even Wonderguy.)
Many thanks, too, to Mike and Kathy Youngblood of Montgomery County Internet Access for
providing not only encouragement and a home Web site for the Ant but for providing the
means for the very first flying Ant. :-)
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You may distribute the ANT_DEMO.ZIP file in it's entirety for use in non-commercial ventures provided that it's source is acknowledged and provided that the template or the other files included in the zip file are not changed in any way. Under no circumstances may copies be sold or incorporated in other materials which are sold without prior permission from the author, Jill Swift.
None of the Ant templates, nor any ANT zip file, other than the ANT_DEMO.ZIP file may be distributed by any method, except by the author, unless written permission is obtained from the author.
This software is distributed as is and no warranty of any kind is made. Please feel free to send any email to me at jswift@freenet.fsu.edu. No promises are made regarding responses, but I will try to respond to questions as promptly as possible.
Jill Swift
P. O. Box 213
Montgomery, Texas 77356
jswift@freenet.fsu.edu
http://mcia.com/ant
October 5, 1995
