[WEB4LIB] RE: HTML Referring?

[Nancy Sosna Bohm]

I love having both the WYSIWYG and code views open in DW in really big pages
so (among other things) I can highlight the place I want to edit in the
WYSIWYG and then quickly locate the exact spot in the code.
I am so spoiled.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond Wood" <raywood at magma.ca>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 7:35 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: HTML Referring?


> On Mon, Oct 21, 2002 at 01:51:06PM -0700, James Hill imagined:
> > Thanks for the generous responses.  I neglected to mention
> > that I tried to run an SSI referring to a file, but it didn't
> > work, though I never contacted an admin (It was one of the
> > things I ran across while researching the topic).
> >
> > As for Dreamweaver, I've done all the coding by hand in
> > notepad (call me a purist).  I guess maybe it's time to step
> > up to the GUIs, but I was hoping for a different solution
> > because that's how I like doing it.
>
> The phrase "step up to" conveys the impression that WYSIWYG
> editors are inherently superior, which IMHO is certainly not the
> case.  In fact, at the risk of offending (yet again) a portion
> of my colleagues, I have always personally been of the opinion
> that anyone who feels the need to rely on proprietary WYSIWYG
> 'web site management' tools probably never really knew their
> stuff that well in the first place.  (ooooo, now *that's*
> flamebait ;)
>
> Now that we're all warmed up (!), let's step back and take a
> second look at your situation.  You are seeking a solution that
> allows you to change the toolbar on multiple pages, by simply
> editing text in one location.  Some options are:
>   1. Script-driven solutions (e.g. PHP).
>   2. Server Side Includes (SSI).
>   3. Frames.
>   4. Search and Replace techniques.
>   5. Manual editing.
> (I have deliberately left the Frontpage/Dreamweaver proposal off
> the above list for various reasons best left to the imagination
> of the reader :)
>
> You say that your web site has no scripting capabilities (which
> would rule out options #1 and #2) but I have to ask:  why?  Have
> you talked to the administrator?  Might it be possible to
> activate SSI on the server (a simple procedure really) or even
> better get PHP installed?  Even if you are stuck with ASP for
> the moment, it will accomplish what you want until you are able
> to get access to a real LAMP server ;)  So I suggest you find
> the system administrator and have a chat with them.  Nothing
> ventured, nothing gained :)
>
> If for some bizarre reason you are dealing with a neanderthal
> system administrator who is not interested in joining the 21st
> century, then it would seem your options are reduced to #3, #4,
> and #5.  We will assume that #5 is unacceptably labour
> intensive, so that leaves #3 and #4 remaining.
>
> Ironically #3/Frames would actually accomplish what you want
> without all the bells and whistles.  Still, frames really do
> suck for a variety of reasons, and should be avoided if at all
> possible.
>
> This leaves option #4.  This is a bit of a wild card, since the
> effectiveness of this method largely depends on the specific web
> site/pages you are dealing with.  Still, I am constantly amazed
> at what can be accomplished with a good search and replace tool,
> particularly one that supports 'regular expressions', a maniacal
> but powerful set of instructions for matching chunks of text (or
> text 'strings').
>
> AFAIK the Homesite editor has a really good/powerful search and
> replace tool built into it.  Also an excellent utility
> specializing in search and replace for the windows platform is
> 'BKreplacem' -- it is freeware, and I highly recommend it.
>
> Hope this helps in some way.  I'd be interested to hear how
> things go in the end  :)
>
> My $0.02,
> Raymond
> --
> "You deserve to be able to cooperate openly and freely with other
> people who use software.  You deserve free software."
>  -Richard M. Stallman, Free Software Foundation, http://www.fsf.org
>