WebChange v1.07

If, like me, you prefer to create your own unique HTML pages (rather than use software that virtually does it all for you) but you find some of the repetitive bits rather a chore - then WebChange2 is a very useful tool. In fact, I would not be without it now.

A product of Soft Rock, WebChange2 v1.06 has been around since last year, but for some time I've been using the beta v1.07, with refinements which make it an even greater joy to use. Now this version has been released, I would like to comment on it here.

I will try to outline the benefits of using WebChange2 for those who have not yet tried it. For those who already have v1.06, this will highlight the changes in the upgrade.

WebChange2 is not a HTML Design package, but is an aid to your own page design, enabling short cuts and final checking. For example, in WebChange2 the 'Replace / With' is not limited to one file at a time, but can cover all files in a directory if you wish. Think of the time required to do a 'search & replace' on a dozen HTML pages one at a time using a normal text editor - and you can immediately see how WebChange2 greatly reduces the time and tedium of such a task.

Let me describe WebChange2 for you, on the basis of having a website held in a directory on your hardrive and comprising a number of HTML pages and sub-directories. This, of course, is not necessary to make use of WebChange2 - it can be used for any individual HTML file, as you will see.

When you run WebChange2, its icon appears on the icon bar and clicking this opens the main window. Here you can drag any directory or HTML file that you want to alter, check or update.

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To detail the screenshot above, the name of the file you entered will now be shown at the top of the window.

Below that, 'Replace' and 'With' are writable icons for doing 'Search & Replace' - but in a much greater way than that found in an average text editor.

Both the find and replace fields can include line feeds and carriage return characters, by using special sequences to represent them. This means, for instance, if in your HTML you had mistakenly entered the following two lines in several places -

you could replace them with a single line -

This is only a small example of how flexible this 'Replace / With' can be.

 

Next in the main window are six buttons which, if ticked, will operate when 'Process' is clicked.

 

These will apply the selections which are already set in the 'Choices>General' window. More of this later, but it is very useful, as it means you have the option NOT to apply them, without having to change the already saved choices.

 

This will update the date and size entries where applicable in HTML pages. This was the reason I first got !WebChange2, as I found it a chore having to alter the displayed date and/or size on a website page(s) each time I made any changes - especially if they were made to pages other than the one showing the date!

This operation in itself is quite flexible in that it can be applied to one file, sub-directory or the contents of a whole directory, so I will only explain how it is set up initially.

In the HTML page on which you wish the update to be displayed, you enter a line containing - <!-- FileUpdate:"filespec" -->   <!--/FileUpdate -->

The 'filespec' can be the name of any file from which you wish to read the latest date stamp - or it can be for a whole directory. In the case of the latter, when the directory has been dropped in the Main Window of !WebChange2 and 'Process' clicked, the date of the most recently changed file will be entered in the space between the first and last parts of the 'Update' entry shown above.

The size of a file is obtained in the same way, except that 'FileSize' is used instead of 'FileUpdate'.

 

This generates a file containing a list of links to all the HTML pages in your site directory. Very useful when you wish to validate the pages, especially in an online validation system such as 'W3C'. The 'Choices>Validation' window already has the 'W2C' URL entered as default. See details later.

 

This generates a file with an index of key words and phrases in your site directory, according to the selections which were made in the 'Choices>Indexing' window. See details later.

 

Besides 'Process', there is the option to apply 'Make Default' or 'Reset' to the ticked buttons.

 

Finally in the main window, there are the following options to apply to your file, if you wish them to be different from those in 'Choices'.

This gives three options - 'Add 3 letters', 'Add 4 letters' and 'Strip'.

 

This gives three options - 'UPPER', 'lower' and 'Proper'.

 

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Having given an outline of the main things !WebChange2 does for you, we can take a look in more detail at the three 'Choices' windows.

When you click 'Menu' over the icon bar icon or the main window, and go to the 'Choices' sub-menu, the first selection is 'General' and it will bring up the following window.

 

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This is the window to which you would drag your 'Site Directory'.
It will then be shown at the top of the Main window when you next load it.

 

This gives you four options to choose from. They are -'LF', 'CR', 'LF/CR' and 'CR/LF'.

 

This gives you the option of having either 3-letter or 4-letter extensions to your files.

 

This is not yet available and should actually be greyed out, so users will not mistakenly think there's a bug.
It will be activated in a future release.

 

This may be ticked on or off.

 

These four take effect only when selected in the Main window.

A bit of nit-picking here - but I feel the layout of this window may have been better with the latter two choices placed immediately after 'Local Directory'.

 

Next we have -

This allows you to choose 'UPPER' or 'lower' case tags.

It is easy, when working on your HTML at odd times or if using a piece from someone else, to end up with tags in both upper and lower case - which, of course, is not a good idea. This option allows you to change all the tags to the same case, with just the click of a button.

 

This may be ticked on or off.

If on, this ensures that only the tag itself is altered and any parameters are unaffected.

 

Finally -

This gives you three options - 'Picture', 'Image' or a 'Leafname', the latter being the filename of the image.

I know that I all too often forget to put in the ALT text after calling an image - until I come to validate it!
This option makes sure that doesn't happen - and if the leafname is used, a 'Replace / With' could be done on the directory to replace the leafnames with more meaningful text.

 

When this option is on, square brackets will be put round any text it enters in an [IMG] tag.

 

When you have made your selections in the 'General' window, 'Set' is clicked or 'Reset' to return them to the default settings.

 

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The next window to select from the Choices sub-menu is 'Indexing'.

Here you can create an 'index' file, containing links to key words and phrases in your website. Care has to be taken not to confuse this with a default homepage, which is often called 'index.html', and to name this differently.

It also creates a 'file list' file, containing a link to each and every file in your web site.

 

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This is where you drag a HTML page that you want to use for the forementioned index and list. This is only if you want it to be in keeping with the rest of your site pages, and all that you have to put in it is which is where the 'index' and 'list' will be generated. However, if you do not enter a template file here, !WebChange2 will create one.

 

What is entered here will prefix each line of the 'index' and 'list' entries - for instance with an indent,
but this is optional.

 

It is from these that the key words and phrases are taken and if none are ticked, no 'index' file will be generated.

 

Here you should enter the HTML file names, by which you want the 'index' and 'file list' files created in your site directory.

These are selected, when required, on the !WebChange2 Main Window.

 

When you have made your selections, 'Set' is clicked or 'Reset' to return them to the default settings.

 

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The third window to select from the Choices sub-menu is 'Validation'.

This is designed to make it easier to use an online validation system, such as validator.w3.org

 

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Here you enter the name you want used for the file that will be created in your site directory, when you do your online validation.

 

Here you enter the URL of the Site you want to validate.

 

This already contains the URL for W3.org and can be left unchanged, unless you wish to use a different online validator - and likewise with 'Link Suffix'.

 

When you have made your selections, 'Set' is clicked or 'Reset' to return them to the default settings.

The 'Choices' are then saved from the icon bar menu.

 

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Now !WebChange2 is ready to go to work.

Although you have made all these choices to suit your website, you may have individual pages on which you do not wish to use the same settings - or indeed another whole site directory. !WebChange2 caters for this and is the main reason it is so flexible. As seen at the start of this article, the Main Window allows you to drag a single file or a whole directory to it - then allows some choices to be selected or left deselected and others given an option.

 

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When you 'menu' over the main window, one of the options is 'Stats'.
Selecting this opens the following window.

 

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This gives the statistics of the directory currently on the main window, making it easy to check out, without having to go over the files separately.

The main window 'menu' also gives the option to 'Set Filetypes'.
When this is clicked, !WebChange2 searches the directory currently in the window and attempts to 'filetype' all the files in it.

 

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Finally, but as the saying goes, certainly by no means least, we have another very useful tool - the 'Sprite Splicer'.

Menu over the icon bar icon and select 'Sprite Splicer', which will bring up the following window.

 

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This is used to split a sprite into as many as 64 pieces - or as little as two!

You first drag a sprite (or a GIF or JPEG if !ChangeFS1 has been seen) into the window, where it is then displayed. By clicking on any of the seven arrows on the left and seven arrows below, you will see a line drawn across/down the image. Thus you divide it up into the segments you require.

On the top right is a button which may be ticked, if you wish the segments to be saved as JPEGs - otherwise they will be saved as Sprites. If you choose JPEGs, you may also select the quality you want them to be.

To save the Sprite/JPEG images, you drag the folder icon at the bottom of the window to a directory. The folder contains the images, numbered accordingly.

 

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I seem to have used the word 'useful' a lot in this article, but it is the word that best describes this application from Soft Rock. It is much simpler to use than it is to describe and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes to create their own HTML - but would welcome a few short-cuts on the tedious rather than creative bits! On a scale of ten, I give !WebChange2 nine - dropping one only because of a few more things still waiting to be added.

I am not commenting on the Instructions, which are well detailed and illustrated, but have only been partially altered for the latest changes. This has resulted in them becoming a little confusing in parts - but I know the author is going to totally re-write them.

Once that has been done and some of the new options are in place, I will write a follow-up to this preview.