Textpad and Netscape Tips

1. TextPad Clip Libraries

TextPad includes a 'clip library' feature that allows you to create a collection of text strings (such as tags or even larger objects like the temp-head) and have them available at all times for inserting in your text. To each 'clip' is attached a label; you can view the available libraries by hitting Control-F3 (or, via the menu: VIEW -> CLIP LIBRARY). What displays in the library is the label, not the actual inserted text. You insert a clip by double clicking on its label in the displayed list: this inserts the clip at the point where you left your cursor (it acts just like pasting from the clipboard; think of this as a larger, semi-permanent clipboard).

You may find this feature useful, especially if you're getting bored with typing tags like <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1">.

The clip library itself is a text file with a simple format that itself can be edited in TextPad (or in any other editor). We've created a preliminary one called EEBOtags.tcl.

If you want to use this feature, you have two choices:

(1) If you want to use the common (shared) version and automatically see the newest version, you need to set the default directory for clip libraries within TextPad
to F:\markup\code\tpmacros. The next time you start up the computer, TextPad will look in this directory and find the shared version of EEBOtags.tcl

(2) If you want to customize your own version and not share it, change TextPad's default directory to some directory on your own machine (e.g. C:\code\clips), and create a clip library in that directory. If you do this, please name it something other than EEBOtags.tcl, so that your revised version never accidentally overwrites the shared file. If your file proves better than the shared one, of course, we may ask for a copy of it to be put on the shared drive.

In either case, the way to change the TextPad default directory for clip libraries is via the menu: CONFIGURE -> PREFERENCES -> FOLDERS, select 'clip libraries' and type in a new directory path. Takes about 10 seconds.
 

If you look at the sample clip library, you'll see that there are typically three versions of each tag, e.g.:

<HEAD> (open)
<HEAD> (close)
<HEAD> (surround)

The first inserts <HEAD>; the second inserts </HEAD>; the third inserts <HEAD> and </HEAD>. If you've selected a block of text, the third inserts <HEAD> at the beginning of it and </HEAD> at the end of it.

There is also a huge clip library called 'eebo characters.' It contains all the most-used character entities (as well as many less used ones), but still represents less than half of the characters available in the entity sets invoked in the dtd. It's in order by entity name.

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2. Textpad upgrade available


The current version of TextPad (4.7.2) has a nifty feature that highlights the current line faintly in yellow. If you like it, and haven't upgraded for a while, you may want to do so. 4.7.2 is available at www.textpad.com; there are also copies of the installation files on the shared drives (Oxford: P:/code/software/txpeng472.exe;
Michigan: F:/markup/code/software/txpeng472.exe). Simply install the new version directly on top of the old one (i.e., in the same directory).

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3. Textpad syntax file

There is now a textpad 'syntax' file (sgml.syn) that lists all (?) of the elements and attributes in the EEBO files and eebodat files. (There's a copy on F:/markup/code/tpmacros and P:/code/textpad) If you're not happy with your current 'syntax highlighting' (color coding of tags) in TextPad, this may help. The basic procedure is (under Configure/Preferences) to (1) under Folders, in the line labeled 'syntax,' supply the directory in which is the sgml.syn file, e.g. P:/code/textpad, and hit "apply"; (2) remove .sgm from the file types included in the HTML document class (by default, TextPad treats SGMl as a species of HTML; there's a list of file types under the HTML document class: simply highlight .SGM and delete it); (3) create a new document class for SGML, supply *.sgm as a file type for that class, then (under Syntax), check 'enable syntax highlighting' and pull down the menu to find sgml.syn, and (under Colors) set the colors for Keywords 1 (elements) and Keywords 2,3,4 (attributes).

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4. Downloading PDFs


Regardless of what browser you normally use, you may find it convenient to install an old copy of Netscape (Navigator 4.08) and use it specifically to download PDFs. The chief reason is that NS4 makes it easy to break the 'association' between .pdf and Acrobat, and to set the browser to download the pdf, rather than opening it in Acrobat first. If you dedicate this browser to doing downloads only, you can set its homepage to be the 'quick pdf downloader' (i.e., at Michigan, F:\markup\code\batch\getpdf.html), and rename the shortcut to the browser itself to be "getPDF" and add it to the EEBO apps section of the start menu. There is a copy of the installation file for NS Nav 4.08 on the shared drive (F:\markup\code\software\n32d408.exe; P:\code\software\n32d408.exe). Takes about 4 minutes
to set up.

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