Posted by Adrienne Boswell on 10/02/06 09:31

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "David F." <DavidFuer@aol.com>
writing in news:1159726644.424545.268150@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

>
> Dan wrote:
>> Jim Scott wrote:
>> > My ISP these days is quite happy with FP extensions and provides me
>> > with heaps of webspace so I can see no good reason why I should not
>> > use FP with all its bells and whistles.
>> > Can you?
>>
>> I wrote a page (a bit dated now, as it was originally written years
>> ago and has had only sporadic updates since) about the problems
>> associated with WYSIWYG editors:
>>
>> http://webtips.dan.info/wysiwyg.html
>>
>> --
>> Dan
> ______________________
>
> That is a very interesting article about WYSIWYG editors, and I hope
> to study it more closely. I am a newbie to HTML and web page
> creation, but I do happen to have FP 2003. Like the original poster,
> I was wondering why anyone would want to learn HTML when programs like
> FP and Dreamweaver exist. However, Dan's article does help to clarify
> why learning HTML might be very helpful. Thanks.
>
> I remember a while back creating a web page in MS Word XP just for
> practice. It was not a complicated web page at all, but when I looked
> at the source code actually created by MS Word, I could not believe
> how complex and how extensive it was. HTML coding would have been
> very straight forward and not nearly as complex. I was wondering at
> the time whether that complexity was a good or necessary thing.

No, it's not necessary at all. The only thing that is needed is good
markup and content. Presentation should be left to an external
stylesheet, as should client side scripting.

>
> One of the advantages of FP 2003 for HTML lovers is that the program
> can simply function as a very good HTML editor, without adding FP's
> smoke and mirrors, if the writer wants that. You can also use FP's
> special tools for web site creation, and still tinker with the HTML
> source code behind the scene (although I am not anywhere near
> proficient to do much tinkering with the more complex code yet).
>

You see, if you separate content from presentation, there is no complex
code, just straight forward markup. Keeping the markup simple usually
means the CSS can be pretty simple as well. All that makes client side
scripting easier to do, and the lot easier to change/debug later on.

For example, having to change the text to the right of an input box to a
different background color on all forms on a large site:

<form method="post" action="">
<fieldset><legend>Fill out the form</legend>
<label for="name" id="name1">Name: </label> <input type="text"
name="name" id="name"><br>
<label for="email" id="email1">Email: </label> <input type="text"
name="email" id="email"><br>
<input type="submit" value="submit" class="submit">
</form>
Style sheet: ----
label {text-align:right; float:right; width:7em; background-color:
#c0c0c0; color:#fff}
form br {clear:both}
input.input {text-align:center; background-color:#fff; color:#000}
----

vs no stylesheet:
<form method="post" action="">
<table summary="form">
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Fill out the form</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"><font color="#ffffff">Name:</font>
</td><td class="input"><input type="text" name="name"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"><font color="#ffffff">Email:</font>
</td><td class="input"><input type="text" name="email"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font color="#000000">
<input type="submit" value="submit"></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
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