PageBuilder Advanced Editing MethodsINTRODUCTIONWhen I originally created and began testing the PageBuilder Noscript and Script advanced editing methods beginning in November 2000, I experimented with a number of other methods using several other HTML tags that would block out PageBuilder's built-in body tags and allow the addition of custom body tags using non-PageBuilder background colors and images. I published my Noscript method in December 2000 and my Script method in January 2001, and had them listed with the Expert-HTML newsletter. I just neglected all the other methods I tried because these two methods seemed to be viable, simple to understand and use. Also, I couldn't get many of my friends to help me test and comment on my PB AE Noscript and Script methods, much less any other new methods! It took almost six months for others to recognize and begin using my Noscript method; and, only since early December 2001, has my Script method received attention as a preferred PB AE method. My friend Ken, aka kdine@webtv.net, has written a tuorial about the PB AE Script methods for beginners. The following pages demonstrate a few other HTML tags that can be used in PageBuilder advanced editing methods. I published my findings here to encourage others to continue to experiment with PB advanced editing methods. All the popular methods can be tweaked to make them more useful, and other viable methods can be discovered. It just takes a little time to test all the many creative methods we can think of! However; recently, the experts in this NG have tweeked the popular advanced editing methods and made them more acceptable to the critical analysis of the online webpage validators. This work motivated me to get my notes togother and publish this webpage for others to possibly get ideas from? I offer these AE methods for further experimentation to find work-arounds for any methods that causes closed basic editor screens and display problems for computers. I suggest that the primary considerations should always be simplicity and ease of use as well as full compatability with all the MSN-TV browser upgrades in use, and all the major computer browsers! Perhaps someone has some ideas about other possible PB AE methods? Surely, there's so many other ways to work-around PageBuilder's limitations that we haven't found? And, I want to remind others that there's other ways to extend PageBuilder's editing flexibility in the other option areas such as: images, links, etc. Continuing experimentation will extend PageBuilder's advanced editing capabilities! BASIC PREMISEThe basic premise here is the same as H17's original comment method Advanced Editor, announced in February 2000 – use any HTML tags that will enclose PageBuilder's built-in body tag and block it's recognition and markup by the PageBuilder software, thereby allowing the addition of custom body tags with other non-PageBuilder bgcolor and background image styles. A primary consideration here is using tags that are legal within the head tag of a document in accordance with the HTML DTD, for compatability with other major browsers and minimum comments and errors in the online webpage validators. A secondary consideration is all the other HTML tags that can be used to effectively enclose and block-out the built-in body tags; but, may cause validation errors. Although validation errors and critcal comments should be a major concern, they are inconsequential if webpages display OK on all the major browsers! However; when testing this method with various HTML tags, I learned that the major criteria was HTML tags that would be ignored by browsers for the following two reasons: (1) The content contained between the AE tags is illogical and will not display in our browsers. An example is the <object> tag surrounding the built-in body tag and table tags. Our browsers recognize the object tag; but, the PB body tag code makes no sense as an object so the contents of the tag are ignored. (2) The AE tag is an "alternate" tag that never is recognized by browsers. An example is the <noembed> tag "condition" which never occurs, because our browsers do embeds, and this function can never be disabled; therefore, the "noembed" tag is always ignored. This is the same basic premise I used for my PB AE Noscript method. These premises are a slight variation to H17's original PB AE basic premise, but accomplish the same objective: to effectively block out the PB built-in tags so new custom tags can be added. ABOUT WEBPAGE VALIDATORSYou should use an online validator if you have problems with your webpage not displaying as desired on all the browsers. It just may be possible that the validator reports your specific problem code errors. But, with all the major validators used to check our PageBuilder webpages, you will have to check thru many meaningless comments to find the true errors in your webpage code. Just keep having your friends check your pages on their computers – that's the only way to truely validate a webpage. I don't want to offend anyone's right to a personal opinion and choice here, but many of the PageBuilder experts are much too concerned about all the seemingly incorrect and conflicting validation errors and comments about our Pagebuilder advanced editor webpages we get from the online webpage validators! Forget about the validators and have your webpages viewed on all the major computer browsers. If computers see your pages OK, the code is correct, regardless of what the validators report! Remember, the webpage validators are programs written by humans, while computer browsers are the real test of a webpage's code – computers mark-up and display the webpage, while the validators look at the code and try to analyze how it would be marked-up? No validator programming can completely contain the millions of combinations of webpage code! How can we completely trust the online validators when the various validators report different and conflicting comments and errors on any particular webpage? So; unless you have serious problems you can't resolve, I say forget about the validators because they are not programmed to validate a PB AE webpage! The validators are not programed to recognize that our PB AE tag codes are for blocking-out the built-in body tag, and consequently report added tags not closed, improper tag nesting syntax, deprecated tags PB still uses like <spacer>, and the WebTV proprietary tags like <limittext>, etc. In fact, any use of HTML tags deprecated under HTML 4.0 and 4.01, will draw critical comments from the validators, even though the old HTML 3.2 tags will be recognized for several more years before they are eventually phased out of the major browser support. I do however, recommend one special purpose validator - a "parse tree" validator. A validator with a "parse tree" option will show all the HTML tags in your document in the hierarchical, indented style in the order they are coded in the document. The parse tree view or printout will show incorrect, missing, or improperly nested HTML tags in your document. Use the parse tree option at the http://validator.w3.org/ to check your document's HTML tags! MORE SUGGESTIONS REQUESTEDThis doument consists of multiple pages, each with a separate advanced editing HTML tag. Some of the tags produce documents with closed basic editor screens, which probably will prevent them from becoming very popular as a useful method. So, how about it, folks? You guys got any ideas about other possible PB advanced editing ideas that just need a little work by the creative experts in the PageBuilder NG's to be viable methods? Post your ideas and experiments in the PageBuilder NG's and get some feedback from others who will take a little time to work with other possible advanced editing methods. This tutorial consists of eight (8) pages covering seven (7) new PB AE methods. These webpages are published as individual webpages with the same name and background. The webpages are linked together creating this multipage document, to avoid the limitations of PageBuilder's page break option! I also have provided a Thunderstone© Source Code Viewer for each webpage. All you have to do to fully understand each method, is view it on computers, and submit the webpage to any of the popular online webpage validation services. |
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