Help Index
URL2HTM Help File

URL2HTM is a program which converts the Internet Shortcut files created by Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0 into links in an HTML file.  This allows you to delete those shortcuts that you don't use regularly and potentially save a lot of disk space.  You can also cut and paste the links onto your homepage for others to use.

URL2HTM first presents you with a dialog box to select the directory where the Internet Shortcut files are located and to select the name of the output file to be created.  The default location is the favorites directory normally created by Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows 95.  You can change the name of the directory by typing the new directories name or by clicking on the browse button.

After you start the conversion, the dialog box disapears.  Shortly after that the main window of the program appears. It will tell you the number of Shortcuts found and the name of the output file.

To use the output file from Internet Explorer, pull down file and select open.  Enter the name of the output file into the dialog box that pops up and hit enter.  The html file that URL2HTM created will now be displayed.  Add it into the favorites list and you can use it whenever you want.

URL2HTM does not delete the Internet Shortcuts it reads. You will probably want to delete some of them and keep others.

What's an Internet Shortcut?

Where can I learn more about HTML?

Browse Buttons

License Info


License Info

URL2HTM is freeware.  You may make as many copies as you like and you may give copies to anyone, but you may not sell this program to others except that a nominal copying charge may be made for the program.  This program may be included in collections distributed on CD-ROM or diskette.  URL2HTM may not be distributed as part of any commercial product without a prior license agreement.

URL2HTM is copyright 1997 by William A. Thompson.  You may not make any alterations to the program.

There is no warranty on this program.  The program is distributed as-is.  The author shall not be held liable for any claims of damage, loss of data, computer down time, loss or revenue or any other claim of direct or indirect damage caused by this software.

Contact the author at billth8@juno.com.


Internet Shortcut
What is an Internet Shortcut?

An Internet Shortcut is a small file created by Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0 when you add a web page into your "favorites". When you want to return to the web page, you need only select the favorites menu and click on the "favorite" web page to go to.  These files are very small, usually 100 bytes or so.  Unfortunately, on most PCs using the 16 bit FAT files system these small files take up a minimum of size cluster of space on the hard dist.  On a 500 Meg hard drive, the cluster size is 8 Kbytes but on a 1200 Meg hard drive (that's 1.2 Gbyte) the cluster size is 32 Kbytes.  So 100 Internet Shortcuts on a 1200 Meg hard drive take up 3.2 Mbytes!  The HTML file created by URL2HTM will take up one cluster for 32 Kbytes.

Internet Shortcuts have a suffix of ".URL", hence the name "URL2HTM".


HTML
What is HTML?

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.  All the pages on the World Wide Web are based on HTML.  To learn more about HTML, try these:

A Beginner's Guide to HTML   	http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html

This the a fine primer for producing documents in HTML.  It's so easy to understand, even I can use it.

HTML Made Really Easy

http://www.jmarshall.com/easy/html/

This is another nice primer that has you create a few small pages as a way of learning HTML.


Browse
Browse Buttons

The Browse Buttons each bring up a dialog box that lets you browse thru the directories and files on your computer to find the location of the Internet Shortcut files and to find where you want to put the output file.

The upper browse button lets you pick a directory.  Double click on a folder in the right hand window and the dialog box will change to the directory you clicked on.  Then click "OK" to complete selecting the directory.

The lower browse button lets you pick a file to write over or to pick the directory you want to put the output into.

This program will also work with the Internet Explorer "Favorites" on Windows NT 4, but you'll have to browse to the directory that holds the Shortcuts.