AWE Information

Features of AWE
Advanced Web Editor looks rather simple as far as appearance goes. The web page being edited is shown inside the box marked HTML File. The two boxes to the left of the HTML file are only part of the ToolPad. It is this section where the power of AWE is harnessed.

The screen you see here is from Version .155. I have since downloaded the .157 update.

Among prominent features here are:
 * Customizable Project File (PROJECT.PRJ)
 * Customizable Keys
 * Customizable Popup Menus (activated with the right mouse button)
 * Parts Pad to store and reuse HTML, Cold Fusion, or JavaScript code clippets.
 * Preview with your favourite web browser. (Netscape is the default.)
 * Image previewer
 * Color selector
 * Tag File Editor
 * Plug-ins written in REXX.

Of course, this list is only part of what is available in AWE.

How to Prepare AWE for Use
The current version is packed into one archive and is unpacked with Info-ZIP or equivalent. If you are using PK-Zip, you will need to use the -d option as this archive has a directory structure. I unpacked my copy of the archive using Info-ZIP.

If you are already using a previous version of AWE (before .155), I strongly suggest removing the previous version before installing the current version of AWE. The directory structure was added in this archive.

After unpacking Beta .155, you will also need to download the latest update and unpack that in the same directory where you unpacked version .155.

Once you have the archives downloaded and unpacked (unpack AWE0155.ZIP first), you will need to do two things.

First, you will need to create a WPS object for AWE. Simply drag a Program object from the templates folder onto the Desktop. The following dialog box should appear on the screen:

Set up dialog box.

Only the Filename field needs to be filled in. In this example, I have unpacked the archive to my drive D (a Zip Drive) in the root directory. The directory where AWE resides varies depending upon where you installed the archive. One thing that is required is the AWE.EXE part of the Filename field.

You can tell whether OS/2 recognizes the file to look at the upper left hand corner of the dialog box. If the small AWE icon appears, you are set.

Once you get the icon, click on General and type in Advanced Web Editor into the Title field, then close the dialog box. You are now ready for the next step.

Editing PROJECT.PRJ
The next thing you need to do is to edit the PROJECT.PRJ file. You can use the OS/2 System Editor as I did here to edit this file. PROJECT.PRJ is located in the same directory where AWE.EXE resides. AWE looks for this file upon startup and configures itself based upon the contents of this file.

The PROJECT.PRJ file
This file contains everything AWE needs to configure itself for your PC. AWE will load any project file (files with the .PRJ extension), but PROJECT.PRJ is the default file that is loaded at startup. This is the file these instructions are based on.

Lines that begin with // are comments and are ignored by AWE.

The first item in this list is the name of the file that holds the list of files associated with your current web project. The default name is filename.lst. If your list is in a file different from filename.lst, simply edit the FILELIST item to point to the file where the list of files resides.

The next configuration items in project.prj are tag files that are excluded from the list of tag files to be used in this session of AWE. If you wish to exclude other tag files, simply add for each tag file the following:

DEFExclude (name of tag file with the DEF extension)

and AWE will not show that tag file in the HTML Spec and Tags box. In this example, we could see why we would not want these tags to be included.

The PLGPath line is currently commented out. This contains the pathname where AWE Plugin modules are located. No plugins have been implemented yet.

The next configuration item is the filespec line. This tells AWE where to look for HTML files. If you are running AWE on a hard disk formatted for the FAT system, you will need to set filespec=*.htm in PROJECT.PRJ. If your hard disk is formatted for HPFS, you will need to set either filespec=*.html or filespec=*.htm depending upon your preference, and whether you transfer HTML files by floppy or not. HPFS is capable of both HTM and HTML extensions.

If you store your HTML files on removable storage, you will need to consider that drive to be formatted for FAT as HPFS does not currently support removable drives.


 * PARPath: contains the directory where clippings of HTML, Cold Fusion, or JavaScript code are stored and reused.


 * KeyPath: contains the directory where keyboard macro files are stored. These files also contain menu items used by the popup menus (activated by right clicking on the HTML File box.)


 * DEFPath: contains the path where tag files are stored.

In these three paths, the paths must be terminated by a \ in order for AWE to work properly.

AutoSaveName is the name of the file where the currently edited HTML is temporarily saved in case you lose power, exit AWE prematurely, or other event that causes you to lose control of your PC. The default value is autosave in the directory where AWE.EXE resides.

WORKDIR is the directory where your current project resides. Like the previous directories, this one must also be terminated by a \ for AWE to work properly. In my example, (not shown in the figure), WORKDIR points to the directory where my local (not on GeoCities) copy of OS/2 in Focus resides.

The Group and Tag items in this have to do with the project manager feature of AWE. When you activate the project manager view, the groups shown in the Group tags appear in the project manager box. The Tag items are part of the HTML preprocessor whose tags are found in HPP11.DEF, which is accessible from the HTML Spec and Tags box.

When you are finished editing project.prj be sure to save the file before launching AWE for the changes to take effect.

About the Tag Files
Tag files are data files containing markup definitions (hence the DEF extension) used in web pages. They can be edited using any INI file editor. AWE provides an editor accessible by selecting Management from the Tags menu.

Below is the screen you will see when you activate the built-in tag file editor.

Tag Manager
With this editor, you can
 * Modify an existing tag within a tag file.
 * Create a new tag file.
 * Copy existing tags from any tag file to a tag file being edited.
 * Delete tags from a tag file

Most of what you will do with tag files happens in the box labelled Edit or Add Tags.

Modify an Existing Tag File
To edit a tag file, select a tag file by opening the list contained in the Definition field. (Click on the upside down triangle to open the list.)

Once you have selected a tag file, you are ready to edit the tag file.

If you wish to add a tag to the list, simply type in the name of the tag in the Tag Name field, the description of the tag in the Tag Description field, enter the tag itself in the Opening Tag and Closing Tag fields, then click on Add Tag. To add options to the tags, enter the options in the Option Name and Option Values fields, then click on Add Options.

To edit an existing tag, select the tag you wish to edit from the Tag Name list, edit the desired fields, then click on Add Tag. To modify options within that tag, select the option you wish to edit, modify those fields, then click on Add Options.

If you wish to remove options from a given tag, select the desired tag from the Tag Name list, then select the option to be deleted from the Option Name list. Then click on Delete Option.

If you wish to remove a tag from the tag file, simply select the tag to be removed from the Tag Name list and click on Delete Tag.

...and, of course if you wish to remove a tag file, open the drive object representing the drive AWE resides, open the folder where AWE resides (usually called AWE unless you installed it in a directory by another name). Then open the DEFS folder, find the tag file, and drag it to the Shredder.

The Tag Files That Come With AWE

 * SYMBOLS.DEF: Contains commonly used symbols ready to be applied to your web pages.


 * SP-SYMBO.DEF: Contains symbols used in web pages written in the Spanish language.


 * FR-SYMBO.DEF and CF-SYMBO.DEF: Contains symbols used in web pages written in the French Language. The difference here is that CF-SYMBO.DEF contains Canadian French symbols and FR-SYMBO.DEF contains French symbols used outside of Canada.


 * DK-SYMBO.DEF: Contains Danish symbols. Set was produced by Derly Lütken.


 * PPWIZARD.DEF, PHP20.DEF, HTP11.DEF and HTMLPP.DEF: HTTP preprocessor tag sets. The HTP11 and HTMLPP sets were produced by J Christopher Kennedy.


 * ORB.DEF: Tags used in documents written in the ORB document processing language.


 * NEW.DEF: Contains the basic tags needed to produce HTML documents.


 * LISTS.DEF and BWLISTS.DEF: Contains tags needed to produce lists. Currently, only definition and ordered lists are produced with these tags.


 * JSCRIPT.DEF: This tag file contains everything needed to add JavaScript to your web pages, including blocks, anchor tags, forms. This is my contribution to the Tag File set.


 * FORMS.DEF: Currently a partial tag file for producing forms on your web page.


 * CFML.DEF and CFML31.DEF: This tag file contains everything you need to add Cold Fusion to your web pages.


 * HTML32.DEF: Glenn Logan produced this tag file containing most of what you need to produce HTML 3.2 documents.


 * HTML40.DEF and HTML40A.DEF: This tag file is used for production of HTML 4.0 documents.


 * HEADINGS.DEF: is a tag set that is very much self-explanatory. (This tag contains only header tags.)


 * TABLES.DEF: is a tag set used for inserting tables into your web pages.

I heard there is a tag file for production of REXX programs (and AWE plugins).

If I have time, I could produce a tag file for production of TeX and LaTeX documents. :-)

Color Dialog Box
Selecting Colours from the Tags menu will bring up the Colour Picker. The size you see is the size that appears on your screen when it is brought up. You can resize this for more precise control of your colors. The title bar here shows the color you have selected. When you select Clip Colour, the contents shown in the title bar are copied to the clipboard.

The color can then be applied to the color attributes in selected tags.

For example, to select a background color for your web page, select Colours from the Tags menu, click on the desired color from the color wheel, then click on the shade of that color below the wheel. Your desired color code will show up in the title bar. Then click on Clip Colour and close the Color Picker window.

Then move the cursor to the BODY tag. If a BGCOLOR= attribute exists in the tag, highlight the value of the BGCOLOR atribute and select Paste from the Edit menu. Your selected color will be applied to the BGCOLOR attribute.