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Tips from Training

This month we have some tips from the pros.
Carol Sin Wulfman of IP training fame and Robert Adams, the newly appointed IP Training leader share some of the their tricks to create HTML documents.

Enjoy.

carlos


Inserting Tags with Macros

by Bob Adams ac200@ccn·cs·dal·ca

If you have a lot of on-line html editing to do, don't forget those old fashioned keyboard macros.

I update a lot of material most days, mainly sports scores, and must enter a lot of repetitive tags.

I have created a number of macros in the macro editor of my comm program (Term4.4 for Amiga).

For scores, here is one I use a lot, a macro I put in F8 ...

<dd>^A^N

With the cursor at the beginning of a score in a long list, I just press F8 and the tag <dd> is inserted. The ^A causes the cursor to jump back to the left margin, and the ^N causes it to jump to the next line. Pressing F8 repeatedly will do the same for several scores.

If I have a long list of scores. I just hold down the F8 key to make it rapidly insert the tag at the front of each line.

Here is the definition title tag, that I use to feature the date, or the name of a tournament the scores are listed under.

<dt><b>^E</b>^A^N

I have this one in F7.

Right after the <dt> tag, it inserts a <b> tag to bold the title, then the ^E sends the cursor to the end of the line, where the </b> is inserted to turn off the bold, then the cursor leaps back to the beginning and down one line, ready for the next macro.

If I have a long list with a few titles, I place a finger on each of the F7 and F8 keys and quickly ramble down the page, inserting the correct tags..

Wow!, does it ever save time.
Here's what a segment looks like...

Mar 3
Toronto 71 Laurentian 68
Memorial 99 UPEI 94
UNB 99 UCCB 90
Concordia 78 Bishop's 60
Mar. 2
UBC 84 Alberta 66
McMaster 75 Western 71
Brandon 101 Winnipeg 85
Regina 90 Manitoba 86
Dalhousie 94 St Mary's 81
Acadia 80 St F Xavier 65
Memorial 92 UPEI 74
New Brunswick 101 Cape Breton 74

...and here is the code that was inserted with 14 keystrokes:

                                             
<dt><b>Mar 3              </b>  
<dd>Toronto 71 Laurentian 68                
<dd>Memorial 99 UPEI 94                     
<dd>UNB 99 UCCB 90                          
<dd>Concordia 78 Bishop's 60                
                                                  
<dt><b>Mar. 2               </b>
<dd>UBC  84  Alberta 66                     
<dd>McMaster        75      Western     71  
<dd>Brandon        101      Winnipeg    85  
<dd>Regina          90      Manitoba    86  
<dd>Dalhousie 94 St Mary's 81               
<dd>Acadia 80 St F Xavier 65                
<dd>Memorial 92 UPEI 74                     
<dd>New Brunswick 101 Cape Breton 74        


IP training 3 Tips

   by Carol Wulfman aa068@ccn·cs·dal·ca

Table of Contents

Mail Alias Each IP also has an IP mail alias. I believe all members of your editing team are on it. IP Directory Structure Each IP is give a home directory, such as: RCS Don't change filenames after the file has been installed. Install it again under a new file name and remove old one. Messes up RCS if you do. File Management All directories should be capitalized and files lowercase. If the directory is not capitalized, it will not show up in the install menu.

Obsolete files and links: replace the file with a a note saying the document has moved and specify the new link. If the document has disappeared, say so. Here is an example. After a period of time, you may then remove the obsolete link or file.

Clean up your IP directory once in a while. Delete obsolete files, after putting them through the above process.

Do up HTML files first, then linking after, in your home dir. Relative filenames are an asset here.

Create subdirectories, and install appropriate files in them (use training as an example)

It is useful to be able to access your IP pages via your bookmark file to edit them. It can be done using file://localhost/ccn/info/Services/Training as an example. Insert as an entry in your bookmark file

<a href="file://localhost/ccn/info/Services/Training">Training Dir.</a>

substituting your IP directory path for Services/Training. Caution! Do not use the file://localhost syntax in your IP pages. Use the http:// syntax. Viewers not logged into CCN will not be able to follow your links.

Why use file://localhost syntax in your bookmark file? It allows local access, rather than going through the http server. Your identity is not verified if you go through the server, but if you are accessing it through the local system, then you have been identified through login. HTML Style All documents that are linked from your IP pages and reside in your directory must be proper HTML files, ie. conform to the following template.

<html>
<head>
<title> </title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

It would be helpful to have a standard footer at the bottom of your main pages with links back to the previous page, next section (if applicable), top of document (if document is fairly long), the IP home page, and the CCN home page.

At the very minimum, there should be a link back to the previous section.


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Last Month: February 1996 Next Month: April 1996