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HomeSite Tips
Using a web development tool a lot, one gets to be pretty intimate with its faults ... and its cool tricks. Here are some neat-o shortcuts we've picked up from Allaire HomeSite while building this and the Korova.com site.
- On my notebook, I "synch" up web sites in those low-performance
Briefcase files. Because response time in updating Briefcases
falls off above 1.44 Mb, I don't include any images or large file
types in the Briefcase (like PDFs, etc.). This means that on the
road, I either have to refer to the web site (FTP) or other
pages' references for specific image locations and such.
I include the HomeSite .APJ file in my Briefcase folders. This is
HomeSite's record of all the files in a Project. You can add and
delete files on the fly, and "synchronize" a Project based on
file specifications (which are customizable, of course). Cool. So
the .APJ from my desktop system records locations of all the
image files. These files are NOT on the notebook, but HomeSite on
the notebook couldn't care less. It knows about them, so when I'm
editing pages, I can use drag 'n' drop to insert IMG tags on the
fly.
The extreme application of this is taking the .APJ file to work.
None of the web site files is there, but HomeSite knows the path
to each, so you could edit a new page based just on the
information derived from the Project file. Carry the Project
file, and a few other things, on a floppy. It's all you need.
- Make custom buttons for your favorite tags. Heck make your own.
You an use one of their sample BMPs to create your own button
image. Here's the tip. Open up Word. Create a new toobar button
in Word, and using right-click menu options, copy and paste an
existing Word button image. With that on your screen, duplicate
the image in Paint, and create a new button image BMP that
HomeSite can use. Ta-da.
- Some VERY cool tag tools are one keystroke away.
F1 - Help on the current tag.
F2 - Tag-tip. Overlays some suggestions. Cool!
CTRL + F4 - Edit the tag (dialog box with options).
F4 - "Inspect tag" pane. Shows all possible
attributes inthe tag, and their values.
Great for DOM/DHTML items!
CTRL + M - Find matching tag.
Handy tip, which is part of HomeSite's normal SOP. When you
configure HomeSite's builtin browser, IE seems the way to go.
It's faster, and the Netscape experimental feature hasn't worked
for me (v4.61, 128-bit encryption). Browsing saves your current
document as "hs~x" where x is the name of the document. This
allows HomeSite to view it in the "built-in" browser.
When you're in the browse tab (F12), there's a "little blue
lollipop" on the toolbar. This "Open in external browser" button
(or F11) will browse the page in your default Web browser, OUTSIDE
of HomeSite. This is handy if you have IE and Netscape on your
system -- you can preview your work in IE within HomeSite, then
preview it in Netscape at the press of a button. Works the
same if you use Opera as your system browser.
- This is one I learned from "Wonder Wendy." When you view Help
files, they normally appear in the "Browse" tab of the main
editing frame. (Hitting F12 switches you back from the Browse tab
to the Edit tab, and you can see the file you're working on
again.) There's a little button on the Help toolbar called
"Browse Help in separate panel." This opens a little window below
the contents for viewing the Help topic while editing. Nice so
that you can view the Help topic while editing. But -- it's
so small.
Let's revisit the last tip. See the little blue lollipop again?
Clicking that will open up the Help topic in the operating
system's default browser. So you can keep it open while you move
around HomeSite. If you have your default browser configured to
"browse in new window" (different products and versions may
differ), you can have all Help topics open in separate windows,
available for later reference. It will add windows to your
overall Windows Desktop, but ... handy if you're exploring using
an unfamiliar tag.
- Adding special characters is easy. In most Windows apps, you
simply hold the ALT key down, and hit the associated extended
ASCII character code on the numeric keypad. Say, for instance
ALT + 0162 for the ¢ sign.
What? I thought everyone knew that. Okay, run CHARMAP (Character
Map) to cheat. Find the right character, and the right-hand pane
of the status bar tells you the keystroke.
Perform this shortcut in the HomeSite editor, and the program
intercepts your call, and inserts the standard HTML equivalent.
Try ALT + 0162, and the editor inserts ... ¢.
If you prefer the hunt 'n' click method, try CTRL + SHIFT + x to
display HomeSite's Special Characters pane.
- The enormous value of using Projects is that switching from one
Project to another takes only seconds. When you're comparing, or
editing, files across several sites, the ability to switch from
one to another is a real boon. Don't just make Projects for
entire web sites. Make a separate Project for frequently updated
sections of your web sites, and areas that are more or less
isolated. This keeps the Project uncluttered, it loads even
quicker, and helps you zero in on the work to be done.
As often as I use the Projects pane (it also doubles as the
Help pane, and the Snippets pane, and the Tag Attributes pane),
I also like to get it out of the way right quick. F9 is the
toggle.
- Options, options -- where to start?
There's an innocuous setting that might seem annoying -- until
you've really used it. Under the Options | Settings menu, Startup
tab, you'll find "Restore last opened documents at start-up."
Sounds like an annoyance, but if you're doing ongoing work,
breaking for lunch, dinner, sleep, Death Matches, whatever, this
can be a shortcut for jumping right back to work. Try it when
you're updating a site, and have the "What's New!" page open
every day for additions.
Note also "Restored last opened project at start-up." If you're
working on the same section of your site regularly (see above),
adding files daily, this can be a very handy feature, without the
clutter of opening up previously opened files.
Of course, .APJ Project files are opened in HomeSite, unless some
other program has comandeered the file definition. Save a
shortcut to each Project file on your Start Menu, and you can
jump right into a specific Project when you start up Windows.
- Use the Insert Image command (CTRL + SHIFT + I?), and browse
for your image. Not only does it calculate the size
automagically, but right- clicking in the preview page gives
you additional properties for the image file. Very handy!
- Want to copy a tag somewhere else? There may be some neat way to
"paint" formatting or tags throughout a page, but I haven't found it.
I just find the tag that I want (say, some special FONT formatting),
and use CTRL + F4 to edit the tag in a dialog. Hit OK on the dialog
without any changes.
Then, I find the place I want to use the tag ... mark the text ... and
hit CTRL + Q. Voila! This is the "Redo tag" command from the Edit
menu. Guess what? It executes the same tag settings.
David
Last update: 18 November 1999
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