HTML Kit User Manual

Prime Impression provides resume consulting, career counseling, outplacement, and job search assistance to individuals at all levels in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide.

Home > Technical Writing > Portfolio > HTML-Kit User Manual > HTML-Kit User Manual in pdf

HTML-KIT USER MANUAL

Additional HTML-Kit Support

Use the left frame to go to other sections of the Manual.
Don't see a left frame? Go to Frames. Or you can Leave Frames.

Introduction

This manual gives a brief introduction to HTML-Kit, a full featured HTML editor. The manual is geared to people who already have some basic understanding of HTML authoring and a familiarity with basic Windows commands.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a language designed to allow a reader to easily navigate between documents. Because of this capability, HTML is the chosen language for documents shared over the Internet and World Wide Web. The building blocks of HTML are tags which are inserted around text. A Web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) interprets each tag and applies structure and formatting to the the text surrounded by the tag. The formatted (or "marked up") text is then displayed in the browser window.

HTML-Kit offers numerous tools that make the process of insertion and editing of HTML tags easier. In contrast to many WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") editors, HTML-Kit gives complete control over the HTML development and editing process.

HTML-Kit can be downloaded free from the following site:

http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

The Main Screen

Figure 1 shows the main screen of HTML-Kit as it appears after a new document is created. Note that document type, title, header, and body tags have been automatically inserted.

Displaying or Hiding Screen Elements

Go to View in the Main Menu and choose which component to view or remove.

To display/hide the Message Window, the Action Bar, or the Workspace, click on the appropriate button in the Action Box (as shown enlarged in Figure 1).

Figure 1: Main Screen and Enlargement of Action Bar

Getting Around the Main Screen

The Workspace

Allows quick access to files, including opening and uploading. To show/hide the Workspace, click on the appropriate button in the Action Box (Figure 1).

Actions Bar

The Actions Bar provides an easy way to access many commonly used tags. Along the top of the bar are tabs that allow access to the various bar components ( Figure 2). To view a bar component, click on the corresponding tab.

Figure 2: Actions Bar Tabs

Favorites Tab

You can customize this bar to add functions from the other Action Bars that you use most often:

Choose a button from another Action Bar that you want to add to your Favorites Bar.
Right click on the button.
Select Add to Favorites from the drop down menu.

Tools Tab

Includes a number of useful tools to modify or clean up your HTML (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Tools Bar

Document Tab

Contains a number of tags and options related to formatting documents including: whole document tags, document type tags, <head>, <title>, <meta>, <link>, <base>, <body>, headings tags, <div>, <span>, <center>, <frameset>, <frame>, <noframe>, Inline Frame tag, ASP code block, Server Side Includes functions, CGI functions, CGI/SSI/ASP Variables, PHP Code Block, and Comments tags.

Style Tab

Contains options for editing Cascading Style Sheets.

Text Tab

Contains a number of tags and options for editing text including: Paragraph (<p>), Bold (<b>), Italic, Big, Small, <font> tags, Horizontal Rule, Line Break, Unordered and Ordered lists, List Items, Directory List, Menu, Definition List, Preformatted Text, teletype, Underline, Strikethrough, Blockquote, Address, Emphasis, Strong, Define, Code, Sample, Keyboard, Variable, Citation, Abbreviation, Acronym, Subscript, and Inserted/Deleted.

Tables Tab
Allows easy insertion of tables and table structures (See Adding Tables).

Objects Tab
Contains tags related to objects including Anchors, Bookmarks, Images, Maps, Map Area, Objects, Applets, Scripts, No Script, JavaScripts, VBScripts, TCLScripts, Events, Links, and Images.

Forms Tab
Contains tags and options for using Forms including: Form/Form Action, Input, Button, Select, Option, Option Group, Text Area, Isindex, Label, Form Control Group, and Legend.

OnLine Tab
Provides links to online information and HTML validators and access to the Web.

Getting Started in HTML-Kit

Creating a New Document

Click on the new document button () on the Standard tool bar.

A new document is started with <DOCTYPE>, <html>, <head>, and <body> tags inserted.

Opening an existing document

Click the open document button () on the Standard toolbar.

Built-in Templates

HTML-Kit has a number of built-in Templates that allow you to base your document on HTML or other features.

To base a new document on a built-in template:

Go to File, new. The template box will appear.

Choose an appropriate template from the menu.

Using HTML-Kit

Basic Editing Functions

Tag Insertion

To insert a new tag: Click on the tag button from the Action Bar you would like to insert. The tag is inserted and the insertion point is placed between the beginning and ending tag.
To insert tags around text:
1. Highlight the text (Figure 4):

Figure 4: Editing window with highlighted text

Click on the appropriate tag (in this case you can choose the Bold () button from the Text Action Bar).
The tag is inserted around the selected text (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Editing window after tag insertion

Indent and Un-indent

Select any part of the line(s) you would like to indent or un-indent.

Indent: From the Main Edit Menu choose Increase Indent or press Ctrl + ].
Un-Indent: From the Main Edit Menu choose Decrease Indent or press Ctrl + [.

Word Wrap

This feature "wraps" lines so that they can be seen in the editing window without scrolling vertically.

To turn on Word Wrap:

Click on the Preferences button () in the Standard tool bar.
In the Preferences dialog box, click on the Editor tab. The Editor dialog box appears (See Figure 6).

Figure 6: Preferences Window with Editor Options

To turn on WordWrap, click on the check box next to the Wrap at column checkbox.
The fill-in box to the right gives the width of the wrap column. Enter 0 for auto-wrap or select a width of your choice.

Tip: For convenience, use a width that allows viewing of the Workspace window without blocking text. Experiment with different settings to get the best results for your monitor.

The Mark wrapped lines checkbox marks the lines in the gutter, showing where the wrap has occured.

Drop Down Tags Reminder

This function presents a drop down list of tag options as you type. To use the Drop Down Tags Reminder, you can do one of the following:

Type in an opening bracket of a tag (<).
After a brief pause, a drop down list of tags will appear:

You can then either:
a) Expand a particular tag by clicking on the "+" sign next to it and select from the list of attributes
or
b) Type in the name of your tag. As you type each letter, the list changes and highlights the appropriate tag. You can then select the attribute you would like to insert from the list.

Or
Type in an opening bracket (<) and then the first word of the tag followed by a space: eg. (<font ). You can then select an attribute from the drop down list.

To turn off the drop down tags reminder, click on the preferences button (

) in the toolbar and click on the Help tab. Uncheck the Display after idle time (in milliseconds) box.

Previewing Your Page

To preview your HTML document:

Use the built-in browser

Click on the Preview tab below the editing window.

Use your default browser

Right Click anywhere in the Editing Window and select Preview in Default Browser from the drop-down Menu.

Inserting an Image

Using the Workspace

The Workspace provides a convenient way to insert images without leaving the desktop.

Before You Begin

Display the Workspace if it is not already on your desktop by clicking on the Workspace display button in the Task Bar Action Box (See "Figure 1: Main Screen and Enlargement of Action Bar").

Step 1: Place the insertion point in the HTML document where you would like to insert the image.

Step 2: Add the folder containing the image to your Workspace.

If the folder containing the desired image is currently on the Workspace, skip to Step 3.

Right Click on the Workspace and select Add/Remove FTP/Folder from the drop down menu.
Select Add Local Folder.
In the Add Folder dialog box, type in the folder path or choose the open folder icon to browse your folders and select the folder containing your image.
Type in the name you would like displayed for the folder in the Workspace and click OK.

Step 3: Insert the Image.

In the Workspace, click on the "+" sign to expand the folder containing your image.
Right Click on the desired image file.
From the pop-up list choose Insert as Image.

Using the Insert Image Tags Wizard

In the Objects Action Bar click on the Insert Image button ().

Go to the Tags menu, select Image, and then Insert Image from the slide-out menu.

The dialog box shown in Figure 7 appears.

Figure 7: Tags Wizard Image with example figure previewed

Select the file containing the image from the Look in drop down box. If the file is not available, click on the Add button and select the appropriate file.
Select the image from the Image List.

The image is previewed with the appropriate tag and path in the Preview Pane.
Default height and width are assigned in the Image Attributes box.

Change or add image attributes by selecting from the list in the Image Attributes box.
Click OK to insert the image.

Adding Tables

To insert tables and table structures, click on the Tables tab of the Action Bar.

Table 1 provides a list of buttons, functions, and inserted tag.

Table 1: The Tables Action Bar

Button

(enlarged)

Function

Inserted Tags

Whole Table Insertion

<table summary="">

<tr><td></td></tr>

</table>

Table Row

<tr></tr>

Table Cell

<td></td>

Table Row and Cell

<tr><td></td></tr>

Table Header Cell

<th></th>

Table Caption

<caption></caption>

Table Header

<thead></thead>

Table Footer

<tfoot></tfoot>

Table Body

<tbody></tbody>

Table Column Group

<colgroup></colgroup>

Table Column

<col></col>

Adding Colors

The Pick Color dialog Box offers an easy way to preview, select, and insert the appropriate color into your document.

Before You Begin

Place the cursor in the current HTML document where you would like to insert the hexadecimal value of the color.

For example: to create a table data cell with a particular background color, insert the following tag, placing the cursor between the quotation marks:

Accessing the Pick Color dialog Box

Click on the Tools tab of the Action Bar and click on the Color button ().

The following dialog box appears (Figure 8):

Figure 8: The Pick Color Dialog Box with Custom Colors tab selected

Choosing Colors

From this dialog box, you can select colors in a number of different ways. The color that you choose will be previewed as background and as text in the preview panels in the top right corner.

The 25 most recently used colors are shown along the top of the dialog box. To reuse a color simply click on the square of your choice.

You can choose colors using the following methods:

Custom Colors Tab
- Use the three sliders to choose the color.
  - Each slider corresponds to the Red, Blue, Green (RGB) color scale.
  - As you move the slider, the corresponding colors change in the preview color panels.
  - The Convert to drop-down list converts the numbers of the chosen color to different values based on other color models including HSB, CMY, CMYK, and HSL.
- System Color: Allows color selection from a palette and storage of 16 custom colors.
- Copy Screen Color: Allows copying of any color on the screen.
  1. Open the document or page from which you would like to copy a color.
  2. Reduce the size of HTML-Kit by clicking on the restore button () in the upper right hand corner and then use the mouse to drag or resize the HTML-Kit window so that the color you want to copy is visible.
  3. Click the Copy Screen Color button.
  4. The cursor becomes a 4-headed arrow, and a preview box appears in the right bottom corner of the screen.
  5. As you move the cursor, the preview box changes to the color upon which the cursor rests.
  6. Once the color in the preview box is the one you want, click OK.
  7. The new color is now shown in the preview panels in the dialog box.
  8. Click OK to insert the hexadecimal code into your document.
Web Safe Colors Tab

The Web Safe Colors tab provides a selection of web safe colors.

Tip: Once you have chosen a color, you can select the web safe color closest to it by clicking on the box below the preview panel (See Figure 1).

Inserting Colors

Once you have chosen a color using one the previous methods, click on OK to insert the hexadecimal value of that color at the appropriate place in the document.

Uploading Files

One convenient feature of HTML-Kit is that it allows you to upload your files directly from the Edit menu without having to separately access your FTP Server program.

To upload files, follow the following steps:

Step 1: Add your FTP server to the Workspace Menu

Click on the Workspace Menu.
Select Add FTP Server/Folder from the drop-down list.
Select Add FTP Server from the two available choices. The following box appears:

Figure 9: The Add FTP Server dialog box
Type in your Server address, Login user name, Password and Display name (your server's name on the Workspace).
Click OK

Step 2: Uploading Files

If the Workspace is not open already, click on the view Workspace button on the Task Bar Action Box (see "Figure 1: Main Screen and Enlargement of Action Bar").

The Workspace shows a list of files with "+" signs and should now include the name you have chosen for your ftp server (see Step 1).

To Upload a file follow these steps:

Open the HTML document that you would like to upload.
In the Workspace window, click on the "+" sign beside the name of your FTP server.
The message window should now indicate that HTML-Kit is establishing a connection to the server.
Drag and drop the upload icon () on the bottom of the editor menu onto the Workspace.

Additional Resources

HTML-Kit offers many other features that are beyond the scope of this manual.

Further information can be found at the HTML-Kit home page at

http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

Support is available through the newsgroup chami.public.htmlkit.misc

Many plugins are also available at http://www.chami.com/html-kit/plugins/