HTML TagWriter 3.8

By Alexander Thomas

E-mail: see the "Contact" section
Website: https://www.dr-lex.be/
TagWriter-site: http://go.to/tagwriter

Version 3.8

New features

Added "DOCTYPE" to the document properties menu. In most cases you'll want to use HTML5. Although TagWriter was developed in the era of HTML4, HTML5 is similar enough (thank goodness I never ‘updated’ TagWriter to support XHTML!) You should validate your documents with the W3C validator to check if the doctype is valid.
Added "Content-type" to document properties menu. It is highly recommended to set the content-type if you are using any non-ASCII characters. In most cases, you'll want to use the 'Auto' option, which will set the correct type based on the chosen file format and the 'Euro compliant' setting.
Basic UTF-8 support! Of course, support is limited to the characters available in the Macintosh character set. If you open a file that uses other characters, they'll show up as garbage. You should always use the Content-type META tag to indicate the character set. For files without this tag, TagWriter will resort to heuristics to determine the encoding, and this may fail.
Added support for CSS IDs. Like classes, IDs are available from the 'id' property menu for the tags that support it. However, TagWriter will not prevent you from using the same ID twice, which is not allowed (IDs must be unique).
It is now possible (and recommended) to generate dynamic lists from H1, H2, ... elements without having to wrap them inside A tags. To do this, make sure that each Hn-tag that should be in the list has a unique 'id' attribute. Next, add a "level=n" attribute to the !--DYNLIST tag, with n corresponding to the header level that should be listed.
The link checkers are updated to cope with id attributes and they are available from the # anchor menus.
The multi-file search now has an "inverse" option that returns all files not containing the search string.
In the file preferences, you can choose to always ignore the Classic fileType in "Open file" dialogs. This is useful in OS X because the use of the fileType has been deprecated, and many files don't have a fileType anymore.
You can now use both an image and a color for the "background" attribute in the Style editor.
Added "normal" font-weight in the CSS editor.
"Use selection for search" (command-E) has been added to the Find menu.
The "auto link" now works with an http:// link or e-mail address in the clipboard too.
Added the –, — and • character codes. Unless you're using utf-8, always use these codes instead of the characters they represent, because they are not standard HTML.
Allowed to use no specified filetype and creator for HTML and text files in the preferences, because in OS X it doesn't make much sense to set them, and the XCMD that sets the creator doesn't work well in Classic.
List of recently used files can be cleared in "Favourites" preferences.

Changes & Bug fixes

-The format of TagWriter's special tags, like DYNLIST, MULTICOL, SECTION, ... has changed, in order to make them more standards-compliant. They will be converted to the new format automatically when opening files that use them. It's highly recommended to open and re-save all your files that use dynamic lists, sections, multicolumns and embedded files. You should open and re-save embedded files first, and then the files they're embedded in, to prevent the auto-updating from getting messed up.
-The link checkers now ignore "query strings", like everything starting with the "?" character in "search.cgi?q=blah". (such links were reported invalid in previous versions.)
-The exhaustive link checker now also checks local #anchor links.
-Moved the 'Exclude files ending in' setting of the Search&Replace to the File Preferences. They now also count for the exhaustive link checker.
-Inspired by lots of error messages in existing sites, the link checkers now also check the "href" attribute of LINK tags.
-When saving a linked style sheet in the CSS editor, HTML tags are not added anymore (this is non-standard and causes problems in most browsers). You should load and re-save any .css files you have created with previous versions of HTML TagWriter.
-The "Author name" and "Example" logical styles have been removed, because they are not standard tags, hence not supported in all browsers.
-The standard "top" item in the #anchor link menu has been removed, because in most newer browsers the implicit existence of a named object "top" is no longer assumed. You need to create this object yourself. The link checkers will now also report a link to #top as invalid if there is no named object "top".
-Removed the 12 obsolete European currencies from the Register application. Hmm, the entire Register application is obsolete now. Whatever...
-Added a small hack to the save method that will circumvent a bug in SheepShaver, when saving a new file on the 'Unix' shared folder. This is only for the main save function, other saves will still fail under those circumstances. So you should either create empty files first or only work on a disk image.

Version 3.7

New features

Three handy new buttons at the bottom of the screen allow you to easily jump to named objects, local links and embedded files or their parent files respectively.
Added the FIELDSET (+ LEGEND), LABEL, BUTTON and OPTGROUP elements to the "Form", "Input" and "Select" pop-up menus in the Objects & Tags palette. Also added support for the "id" attribute for form elements, and the corresponding "for" attribute for labels. (HTML 4.0)
Added the IFRAME element to the "Object" pop-up menu in the O&T palette.
You can now create framesets by choosing one of the 4 templates in the New… pop-up menu.
In the Style Editor, attributes which are not in the editor itself are now maintained, and/or can be added by typing them in a separate field.
The "framed" META tag has been replaced by a new "framebase" META tag with the same function. When opening existing files containing the old tag, it will be replaced automatically so you won't notice anything.
Added support for the "alt" attribute in AREA tags. (The W3C HTML 4.0 recommendations require a short description to be provided for all relevant IMG and AREA tags, to help people with accessibility problems.)
Added various attributes (like style, class, …) to the pop-up menus of lots of tags (really too much to sum up here).
“Smarter” appending of file extensions (.html, .emb, .pl or .txt) when saving a new file, based on its contents.
Added the Opera creator code to the File Preferences.
Added a "Change drive" button to the Favourites preferences, which allows to update your favourite file locations when they have been moved to another disk, without having to re-add them.

Changes & Bug fixes

-The "»" character was missing in the conversion set and has been added.
-Ending tags are now always added for P, OPTION, LI, DT and DD. Although this is not required by HTML standards, it avoids problems with CSS rendering.
-A file is now considered a HTML document if and only if it contains both a <HTML> tag in the first 2 KBytes of the file, and a </HTML> tag. This definition is used to set the file type, add META tags when saving and so on.
-Fixed a bug which caused the link pop-up menu not to react when there were lots of http:// links in the text editor.
-Fixed a bug which caused the href contextual pop-up menu not to react when a favourite http:// link contained a "-" character.
-It is now possible to save completely empty files.

Version 3.6

New features

More flexible file format support: when opening a file, its source format (Macintosh, Windows, UNIX) is displayed in the editor, and you can change this format on-the-fly when saving the file. When using embedded files, the embedded parts will be saved in the same format of their parent files (so you can't end up with mixed-format files like in the previous versions!)
Support for the a:link, a:visited, a:hover and a:active "Pseudo-classes" and grouped elements (multiple tags with the same style definition) in the Style Sheet editor.
Tables can be converted to tab or comma delimited text.
You can go to a specific line with the new "Go to line…" menu command.
The BASE tag can be set via the Document Properties pop-up menu in the Tools & Settings palette.
The static and dynamic Tables-Of-Contents are no longer available from the "Anchor" pop-up menu, but have moved to the "New list" pop-up menu (which I think is more logical).
The grow box is now permanently visible.
Added "none" for text-decoration in Style Sheet editor, so you can explicitly remove predefined text-decorations.
Multiple linked style sheet files are now supported (i.e. they are detected, but you can only add one with the "document properties" menu, supplemental files must be added by inserting LINK tags manually).

Changes & Bug fixes

-The size of the file has moved to the bottom left and is shown in bytes instead of KBytes.
-Selective "Nuke tags" now works properly with lowercase ending tags too.
-Negative values are supported in the Style Sheet editor (although you normally won't need them).
-Slightly improved splitting of large files.

Version 3.5

New features

When opening a file that is too large to be edited in one piece (> 30000 bytes), you can choose to have it split it up into smaller chunks which are embedded in the first chunk, so you can edit the file without altering the original structure.
You now can enter arguments for javaScript functions when choosing them from the link menu or pop-up menus.
You can easily link or jump to named objects in embedded files or back to the "parent" file (if the file is embedded in one file only) as if you were editing one large file. You can even jump from within an embedded file to a named object in another embedded file! JavaScript functions in embedded files are also available in the main file and vice versa. Also, when searching for text, you are notified if the search string is in some of the embedded files or not.
Embedded files are also available from the "Anchor" pop-up menu for faster navigation.
In the "File" section of the preferences, you can turn on or off the choosing of properties like background and text colors or keywords when creating a new file.
You can choose to add a "DOCTYPE" tag to new files.
When typing Option-Return, the new line starts with the same number of trailing spaces as the previous (for editing scripts).

Changes & Bug fixes

-"Highlight Text" has been replaced by "Highlight Tags" (HTML Tools menu). As you may guess, the latter does just the inverse of the first and I think this is more useful in most cases.
-Some files use two carriage returns and a linefeed character to start a new line (don't ask me why), which resulted in redundant blank lines when opening them in TagWriter. These redundant lines are now correctly removed.
-Fixed a small bug in the multiple search & replace: if you tried to use nothing (empty) as replacement string with the "Windows" or "UNIX" file format selected, the actual replacement text was "Error: missing or empty parameter".

Version 3.4

New features

The new Style Editor allows you to make global, local or linked stylesheets with the greatest of ease.
There is also a new tool which allows you to search for text in all files of a folder (+ subfolders if desired). You can even replace text too, case sensitive or insensitive! This tool is not limited to HTML files, only to files which fit in TagWriter's available memory. This utility can be reached by the "Multiple Search & Replace…" command from the "HTML Tools" menu.
Larger palettes with larger buttons, in other words: more comfort for your eyes!
Credit card payment is finally available! Paying the ShareWare fee is now easier than ever with the "Register" application. Remember: once registered, registered for ever!
Added definition lists (DL, DT, DD tags).
Changed the file format settings: you now only have to choose the platform (Macintosh, Windows, UNIX) which files should be converted to when saving, and all necessary conversions will be performed automatically.

Changes & Bug fixes

-The "center" tag button has been removed since a <DIV align="center"> tag has the same functionality.
-When the option "Start with blank file" is checked, all tools (image mapper, text importer, ...) are cleared too when quitting TagWriter.
-Fixed a bug which skipped global style sheet definitions when a linked style sheet was used.
-Changed the "Last 5 files" & "Favourites" menus (file names are truncated when longer than 40 bytes) so that they cannot spread all over your window anymore.
-Fixed a little bug when trying to sort text with nothing selected.
-Removed an erroneous error message when checking links in an embedded file.
… and some other small improvements.

Version 3.3

New features

HTML TagWriter now is a standalone application, just like all other programs you're used to! You don't need to bother with HyperCard anymore. It even has its own file creator code (H†Wr) so you can make “TagWriter documents”, which can be opened in the Finder by double-clicking. You can also drag HTML or text files onto the TW application to open them. Try it, you'll love it!
The lay-out of the clickmap maker has been improved and JPEG, GIF and PICT files can now be opened (requires QuickTime).
The source of the file you're editing, imageMaps and imported text can be printed.
You can sort any piece of HTML (ascending or descending) according to the text it represents.
JavaScript functions in the document are available in the pop-up menus for onMouseOver, onClick and so on (this option can be disabled).
You can now launch your files in your browser by pressing Command-Enter.
When clicking "Launch" while editing an embedded file, the file in which it is embedded will be launched. If it's embedded in multiple files, you can choose between these.
Any http:// link which is present in the text importer window, is available from the http:// link submenu (this feature can be turned off because it may cause long delays on slow computers).
The conversion of character sets can be "Euro compliant", which means the Euro currency sign will be converted correctly from Mac to Windows and vice versa.
Pictures and QuickTime movies can be opened and previewed in TagWriter by choosing "View Picture…" or "View Movie" from the "File" menu.

Changes & Bug fixes

-Paragraphs (<P> tags) are maintained when converting HTML to text.
-The options “Open palettes upon startup” and “Remember window size” have been removed. Palettes are now always opened and the window size is always memorized.
-Improved “missing embedded file” handler
-“auto target” now works when auto-linking a http:// link (= clicking the 'link' button with a http:// URL selected).
-Fixed a bug in the dynamic multi-column tables and removed the obsolete "equidistant" from the pop-up menu.
-added the "non-breaking space" character (Mac ASCII 202) to the conversion set (it should now be complete) and fixed the incorrect conversion of the "^" character.
-When opening a file, “Save changes?” is now asked after having selected the file to open, like in most other applications.

Extra changes in version 3.3.1:

-Added some more HTML tips
-Better style sheet support: you now can include multiple definitions between the same STYLE tag (in the previous versions, only a very limited syntax was supported).
-Fixed a bug in the document properties pop-up menu (removing certain attributes didn't work)
-Improved the "last 5 files" pop-up menu (sometimes incorrect document names were used).

Version 3.2

New features

Easy table generation: from the "Table" button's pop-up menu, you can choose from a preset list of table dimensions, or specify them yourself, and all necessary tags will be inserted!
Multi-column table generation: long lists of names, links or other small pieces of text can now be arranged in a multi-column table automatically. You can create a “static” table, or insert a “dynamic” command which will update, and sort if desired, the table each time you edit it.
Selective removal of tags: the "Nuke" button in the Objects & Tags palette now features a pop-up menu which allows you to choose to only delete a certain class of tags, like text formatting, table tags, links, …
The "target" attribute can be set for dynamic TOCs. The chosen target will be used for all links within the list.
When rendering dynamic TOCs, the name of the object itself will be used in the list if there's no text between the <A name=...> and </A> tags.
A new dingbat (•) is available for horizontal TOCs. (note: since this is not a standard character, it will show up as "ï" in the editor if you don't have the "Convert ASCII sets" option checked in the preferences.)
WWW-form conversion now converts to the same lay-out as most cgi scripts.
When embedding a QuickTime movie (with extension ".mov"), its dimensions will be inserted automatically and you can choose whether to autoStart the movie or not. (This only works in HyperCard 2.4 or newer.)

Changes & Bug fixes

-Fixed a bug in the "Input" menu of the "Objects & Tags" palette ("checkbox" was inserted as "check").
-The exhaustive link checker now checks the location of all local files (in the previous versions, files ending in ".gif, .jpg, .mov, .wav, .hqx, .sit, .bin, .cgi" were ignored).
-Improved "Fit to screen" handler on small screens.
-Included "FontExists" XFCN with the stack to avoid error messages when it's not present in any other stack.

Version 3.1

New features

"Dynamic lists": the tables-of-contents which could be generated by clicking the "Anchor" button while holding down Command, can now be "dynamic" too, which means that only a command is inserted, which is evaluated when saving the file. The contents of these lists can be restricted to specific sections of your document (which can be created with "Document section" from the "Link" pop-up menu).
The “automatic refresh” META-tag can be set with the Document Properties pop-up menu.
With the Document Properties menu, you can add a "src" parameter to the “framed” META-tag, so that the available frames can be chosen directly from the "target" attribute in the contextual pop-up menu for "A" and "BASE" tags.
You can choose between the "_top", "_parent" or "_blank" targets for the auto target feature.
Style sheets can be linked easily with the Document Properties menu.
You can choose a separate file creator for text files, this means all files which do not contain a "<HTML>" tag.
The conversion of special characters (à,é,§,…) to character codes (à, é, ...) can be turned off. (The conversion of '&' to '&' can be toggled separately.)
URLs and mailto: addresses in the favourites-lists can now be edited too.
A tutorial which explains the features of HTML TagWriter is now available in the Documentation folder.

Changes & Bug fixes

-The "Document properties" menu (Tools & Settings palette) has been entirely re-written. You now can only use the pop-up menu to alter the properties, clicking the button has no effect.
-The "Disable linked CSS search" option in the preferences now counts for the "target" attribute too, therefore it is renamed to "Don't look in external files". Looking in external files causes considerable delays when the "Apple Menu Extension" control panel is active, so if you don't want to turn that one off, it may be better to turn this option on.
-More tags supported by the contextual pop-up menus
-Enhanced "delete" key handler
-More robust link searching
-Rearranged the "HTML Tools" menu + added "Preferences..." command.

Version 3.0

(Version 3.0.1 fixes a bug which caused an error message when opening the stack in certain versions of HyperCard. Version 3.0.2 fixes a wrong character in the ASCII conversion set (~ was replaced by ò.))

New features

PopUp tag editing! Simply press the Control key and hold down the mouse on a tag to edit. Like in Mac OS 8, you'll get a popUp-menu with all the possible attributes for that tag, and lots of preset values to choose from. Change text sizes, colors, image borders and sources, links and much more on-the-fly. Once you'll get familiar with this, you'll never want to type or edit a HTML file in TeachText again.
The buttons won't respond if you try to do something 'illegal', i.e. when you try to insert a tag or line break within another tag.
Support for the DIV tag in the text palette and FORM, INPUT (includes TEXTAREA) and SELECT tags in the Objects palette.
Exhaustive link check: starts with a file (e.g. the "index" file of your site) and "crawls" through all links it can find until there are no more files to check. The bad links are summarized and can be replaced all at once.
Font faces can be chosen from a user-defined list.
Support for local and global style sheets: a list of user-defined styles can be used to quickly insert a local style, or a global style definition in the file's header or an external file can be used. (The searching in external files can be disabled if it goes too slow on your Mac.)
Dividers can be added in your list of favourite files.
Files can be saved in UNIX format (linefeeds instead of carriage returns).
MAJOR speed increase when converting text to HTML (up to 40 times faster depending on type of Mac and version of HC). All characters in the ISO 8859-1 charset (like §, £, ¿, ª, ...) are now supported (except the ones that are not in the Mac charset). Converting text from HTML is also faster (up to 3 times), supports the entire ISO 8859-1 set too and is now case sensitive.
The window can now be set to any size between standard 9" and 1280X1280.

Changes & Bug fixes

-The link checker now recognizes "#top" as a valid link, and this link is always available in the link menus.
-Speeded up the "Open file..." pop-up menu (especially if you have lots of favourite files!)
-Holding down command when choosing the "Anchor" popUp-menu no longer enables you to make links to named objects (it's much easier to do this with the "Link" button), but you can still make lists of the named objects this way.
-"Include" a file is now called "Embed" a file, for this is a more appropriate term. Embedded files now use local URLs if possible, which allow greater flexibility.
-Fixed the missing "mailto:" bug with auto-linked mailto: links.
-Fixed a bug which caused an "object not found" error message when a named object is in one of the embedded files after the first one (only the first file was checked).
-Fixed a (very annoying) bug which sometimes made it necessary to click twice in the editor field before you could start typing.
... and lots of other small things...

Version 2.3

New features

Dynamic inclusions: when a file is included in other files and you edit the included file, the other files are updated automatically!
Highlight text: makes all non-tag text bold.
Clone file: when making a new file, you can copy the header and attributes of an existing file (hold down mouse on "New" button).
You can now use any font for the editor fields!
An e-mail address or a http:// link in a piece of text can be linked immediately: just select it and click the "Link" button!
Scale imageMaps (proportional or non-proportional)

Changes & Bug fixes

-If you try to open a file in the text importer that is too large, you can choose whether to convert the file without opening it, or to open the first 30000 bytes.
-Certain operations are slightly faster.
-The desktop no longer "flashes" when clicking in a palette.

Version 2.2

New features

MUCH faster opening and saving of files with linefeeds...
"Undo" now works for every operation in the editor: insert tags, replace, remove tags, ...
Automatic insertion of 'target="_parent"' for http-links in pages which are 'framed'. This avoids the extremely annoying "unwanted-link-within-a-frame".
The possibility to turn off 'animation' of the palettes: useful on slow machines.
The delay of pop-up menus can be set to any value between 0 and 60 60ths of a second. This is also useful to speed it up on slow Macs, or simply to adjust the delay to your own taste.
Support for the "open URL" command (only in HyperCard 2.4): "Jump to link" (Cmd-L) will launch http:// links in your preferred browser (requires Internet Config).
Make a list of your favourite 'mailto:' links.

Changes & Bug fixes

-New lay-out for the preferences
-You no longer need to hold down the Shift key to type the keyboard shortcuts Command-B, I and U.
-Changed the command-key combinations for the File & Tools palettes (sorry for eventual confusion!)
-Faster transitions between the editor, map maker and text importer.
-When inserting a 'mailto:' link, the subject is always asked. (this can be turned off).
-The progress bar is no longer featured. To confirm that a file has been saved, the title will flash once.

Version 2.1

New features

Make a list of your favourite http:// links
Insert non-breaking spaces ( ) by pressing option-space
Names of images and linked files can be converted to lowercase characters, handy to avoid confusion with UNIX servers
The "Document properties" pop-up menu has submenus which makes choosing featues easier (you now can select a local background image with the "Open file" dialog too)
Fast "browsing": press Shift and hold down the mouse on the "Anchor" button to jump to any local link that is in the document!
New character codes supported (including ° - ß - ±) when converting to HTML; when converting from HTML, the full ISO 8859-1 character set is now supported
Character sets can now be converted automatically from ISO 8859-1 to Mac and backwards while opening & saving documents respectively, and this goes so fast you'll hardly notice it!
Move objects in the ImageMap maker horizontally or vertically and insert JavaScript comments
Use pageUp, pageDown, top & bottom keys (on extended keyboards) to quickly move through the editor field
Keyboard shortcut to set the font size: press Command-1 to -7
"Auto mark": select a piece of text and hold down the mouse on the "Text import" button to mark this text before going to the text importer. Clickmaps can also be edited this way.

Changes & Bug fixes

-Better "find" engine: you can now search from a certain position and continue searching by pressing the familiar Cmd-G
-Faster removal of linefeed characters when opening!
-When inserting a picture, you no longer need to press Command to include a comment, it is always asked.
-Fixed a small bug in the imageMap maker which made the data field dissapear
-Fixed a bug which made saving the preferences impossible.

Version 2.0

New features

New interface with floating palettes! The palettes can be "fixed" in a button bar (small, or full like in the previous version), which is handier on small screens. Some of the pop-up menus in the palettes are now hierarchical.
Buttons for 'Logical' text styles, headers, ordered lists and embedded objects.
Local links, images and embedded files can now be inserted with the standard "Open..." dialog, so that you don't need to type their URLs! In addition, image dimensions of GIF and JPEG files are inserted automatically.
Support for JavaScript comments with links: hold down the Command key while choosing your link type from the pop-up menu!
"Browsing" within the editor: you now can jump to other files within the editor by clicking somewhere in a link and pressing Command-L or Command - Return! This means: no longer searching in the "Open file" dialog! Mind that this only works with local links, so don't try to browse the internet this way.
Perform a local check for broken links and missing images and visualize the links in a document by underlining them.
You now can include external files within your documents at any location, so you can easily include the same javaScript in a lot of documents, use one header file for several different files, or split up large documents!
You can build a list of your favourite HTML files, which can be easily accessed by holding down the mouse on the "Open..." button!
Color names in the text color and color code menus are now accompanied by examples of each color; these examples are based on Netscape's implementation of the color names.
Better help file!

Changes & bug fixes

-The ImageMap maker is now compatible with the newest versions of HyperCard too (where 'clipboard' is interpreted as the contents of the clipboard and not as the word "clipboard").
-'Command-N' no longer makes a new card, but a new HTML file instead.
-When a browser cannot be found, the stack will ask whether to remove it or not. (This should have worked in the previous version too, but it didn't because of a duplicate command)
-More features in the links and image pop-up menus.
-For online help, you now must hold down the mouse on a button while pressing the Option key.
-It is now impossible to make two editor cards, because of technical reasons. If you try to do this you'll get an error message. It doesn't make too much sense anyway to have two editor cards.
-Saving files with linefeeds now goes slightly faster, but since it only concerns a few percents you won't notice it. People who know how to write XFCNs can help me solve this slowliness problem: please read this!