Text Editors for Creating/Modifying HTML Pages
Although there are good HTML editing programs available, many people who understand HTML prefer to use text editor programs to modify/create their web pages. With the exception of a few faculty and staff personal pages, all pages on the Vernon College site are created and modified with text editing programs. For those using Windows 3.1, the EDIT program is an excellent choice. For Windows 95, there are many excellent text editors available as freeware and shareware. A particularly good one is the Programmer's File Editor (PFE) which is available at no cost. The following instructions should help you find, download, and install PFE.
- Be sure you have software installed that is capable of unzipping files with .ZIP extensions. WINZIP is a good choice. You can download an evaluation copy. Remember that you should evaluate the software and either pay for it or delete it from your system.
- Download the Programmer's File Editor. This program is free. Depending on your connection, expect the download to take 20-30 minutes. As of 1/13/98 the file name is pfe0702i.zip.
- Run winzip. Here are some basic instructions:
- Choose file, open archive, and click on pfe0702i.
If pfe0702i is not in the folder shown (probably downloads) you will have to find where you downloaded it.- Choose actions, extract, new folder then type c:\pfe and click OK.
- Click on extract.
- Create a shortcut on your desktop if you wish.
- Right click on the desktop.
- Select new, shortcut.
- Set command line to c:\pfe\pfe32.exe .
- In Netscape you can easily make PFE your default editor which is used any time you view document source by following these instructions:
- Select options-general-apps.
- Put the path for PFE in the view source box, i.e. c:\pfe\pfe32.
- In Windows 95 you can also work easily in the text editor without making it the default editor.
- Open your browser and point to the page you are working on, i.e. c:\temp\mypage.htm. Note that you do not need to be connected to the internet for this to work.
- Open your editor in a second window.
- Make changes to your page and save it.
- Switch to the browser window and refresh/reload.
- Study the page appearance and note additional changes.
- Switch back to the editor window and repeat the process.
- Set the options in PFE to specify the working directory to be the one where you keep all of your html files while you are working on them:
- Select options-preferences-working directory.
- Type the path to the directory, i.e. c:\temp.
- Apply the change.
- Remember to save your files in unix format if you will be placing them on a unix web server.
last updated January 13, 1998