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Posted by Leonard Blaisdell on 12/04/05 08:47
In article <hbpkf.3166$nA2.1999@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net>,
Chris Beall <Chris_Beall@prodigy.net> wrote:
> On Windows, I use Notepad to create HTML from scratch.
>
> Today my daughter asked me what to use on a Mac. Apparently she has
> tried several tools, but has not been able to get any to work. As I
> understand her problem, she can create text files, but they continue to
> be recognized as only text files, even if given an .html extension. I
> vaguely recall that Mac uses a 'signature' or something other than the
> file extension to define the type of a file, but...
BBEdit is the Cadillac of text processors on the Mac, and HTML files can
be opened by any browser you have installed by simply selecting it in a
menu in BBEdit.
Now for the tough part. As I understand it, the file extension doesn't
open a default app for your daughter other than the program that created
it. Extensions don't mean squat to Macs less than OSX unless the file
association is changed internally, or the file is opened and 'saved as'
in a current app. The file is associated with the application that
created it. You drag and drop the file onto the application you want it
to run in, generally.
But with a web browser, make sure the file has an .html extension or the
browser won't read it properly. Type it in text.editor.whatever, make
sure it has a .html filename ending, and drag it to any.webbrowser you
have. From there, even relative links work for any directory (or folder
in old Mac terms).
To summarize, tell her to drag her file with .html extension onto any
browser icon she has on her system.
In reverse, if she has saved her file as say an IE file with 'save as',
she won't be able to open it in a text editor unless she drags it onto
the text editor icon.
All simple if you are Mac oriented. Not so intuitive otherwise.
OSX has other options to create file associations. For instance, when
opening a HTML file, do you _always_ want it to be opened by a web
browser? That'd make it hard to edit. But you can do it trivially in OSX
if you want to. You can open a jpg in a music player if you're nuts but
know how to.
leo
--
<http://web0.greatbasin.net/~leo/>
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