W e b W r i t e r / 2 (TM) Version 1.2 PR1 A HyperText Markup Language editor for OS/2. Don't write Home without it! Written by John Blumel. (C) Copyright 1995, 1997 John Blumel. All rights reserved. ================================================================================ INTRODUCTION WebWriter/2 is an HTML editor designed and written for OS/2. WebWriter/2 now supports the creation of HTML version 3.2 documents. It also includes the capability for the user to define tags which are not currently supported, allowing users to include vendor extensions or tags from more future HTML specifications. A working knowledge of HTML is assumed and no syntax checking of documents is performed. The latest version of WebWriter/2 and updates will be made available from: http://wymple.gs.net/~jblumel/ww2/ WebWriter/2 is now Freeware. Its use and distribution are subject to the terms specified in the license.txt file. The license information in the on-line help has not yet been updated to reflect this. Thank you for trying WebWriter/2. I hope you find it both useful and easy to use. If you have suggestions for enhancements or useability improvements, or if you discover defects in WebWriter/2, please contact me through one of the methods listed in the Getting Technical Support section below. WebWriter/2 is implemented in REXX using VX-REXX and v2.1D of vrobj.dll. ________________________________________________________________________________ NOTE The file README.HTM is an HTML version of this document which can be loaded into a WWW client. ________________________________________________________________________________ INSTALLATION Prerequisites: 1. You must have installed OS/2 REXX support. REXX support is installed automatically with OS/2 versions starting with v3.0 (i.e., Warp). If you have using a 2.x version of OS/2 you may need to install REXX support using the Selective Install utility if you have not already done so. 2. You must have the file vrobj.dll. If the .zip file containing this file did not include vrobj.dll, you can retrieve vrobj21d.zip from: http://wymple.gs.net/~jblumel/ww2/download/vrobj21d.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Installing WebWriter/2: 1. Install OS/2 REXX support, using the OS/2 Selective Install utility if necessary. 2. Unzip WebWrite.zip into a temporary directory. 3. Make sure that a. vrobj.dll exists in a directory in your LIBPATH. or b. You have the file vrobj.dll in the directory that you unzipped WebWrite.zip into. 4. If you are reinstalling WebWriter/2, delete the WebWriter/2 Folder and Program objects before continuing. It is also suggested that you backup your current installation before installing over it. 5. Run Install.exe. 6. You may wish to view the readme file that is loaded in the WebWriter/2 - Installation window before you continue. 7. Select Install/Install from the WebWriter/2 - Installation menu to start the installation process. 8. Fill in the Install WebWriter/2 options and click Continue. You may wish to install VROBJ.DLL to the C:\OS2\DLL directory rather than another directory which will need to be added to your LIBPATH statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. 9. WebWriter/2 will be installed using the entries you have made and a WebWriter/2 folder and program objects will be created on your desktop. 10. Shutdown and restart your system. ________________________________________________________________________________ USING WebWriter/2 WebWriter/2 allows you to create HTML documents from scratch or to markup existing text documents. You may also preview documents using IBM's WebExplorer, Netscape Navigator or another WWW client. WebWriter/2 uses a MSDI (Multiple Single Document Interface) method of editing multiple documents. You can open as many WebWriter/2 windows as you want as long as you can keep track of what you are doing. To help manage the open documents you may wish to display the WebWriter/2 - Window list. You can do this by selecting it from the Windows menu or from the OS/2 window list. Clicking mouse button 2 on the WebWriter/2 - Window list will bring up a context menu of options. To insert HTML tags, select the desired tag from the Tags menu. Tags which have additonal or optional elements will present the user with a dialog prompting for the necessary information. For some tags this prompting is optional. Optional prompting is indicated by a [...] following the menu item and can be invoked by holding down the control key while selecting the item. Additional tags may be defined and inserted by selecting Tags/More tags... . Special characters can be selected from the Characters menu or from the Character entities dialog which is displayed by selecting Characters/More characters... . When inserting HTML tags, selected text will be wrapped by the tag if it is two sided. One sided tags will be inserted before selected text. Character entities will be inserted before selected text. More detailed information on specific features of WebWriter/2 can be found in the on-line help. If you are not familiar with HTML you may wish to obtain one of the many books available on this topic. "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in a Week, Third Edition" by Laura Lemay is a good book for beginners. A more in depth treatment is also available as "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in 14 Days, the Professional Reference Edition" also by Laura Lemay. There are also many WWW sites which provide up to date HTML documentation and examples. Although these are too numerous to list here, the HyperText Markup Language (HTML): Working and Background Materials page maintained by the The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html is an excellent starting point. For specific information on HTML elements and attributes I recommended the Web Design Group's site at: http://www.htmlhelp.com ________________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S NEW See the whatsnew.htm file for information on changes included in this version. TECHNICAL SUPPORT Known Problems 1. Well, it's a preview release. There aren't any problems that I'm aware of, but, as with all pre-release software, caution is recommended. I recommend doing frequent saves while working to avoid any loss of work that would be caused by a crash. While I'm not aware of any problems that will result in a crash, that's not to say that there aren't any. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting Technical Support For technical support, suggestions or to report bugs in WebWriter/2, I can be reached at: jblumel@acm.org Or: John Blumel 1949 Green Oak Drive Terrytown, LA 70056 ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ (C) Copyright 1995, 1997 John Blumel. All rights reserved.