Re: Linking to and embedding text files?

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:43:21 -0700, Orda wrote:

1) Does this group have a FAQ,

http://www.allmyfaqs.com/

or is there a central compendium of
useful HTML tags, beyond the basics?

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ is the "official" one.

2) I want to link to a text document using HTML and, if possible,
force that document to open with Notepad when the link is clicked.
How would I do that?

You can't. How would you even know thewy had Notepad installed? I don't.

3) Is there a way to force word-wrap when viewing .txt files in a web
browser?

For the user, or for the page designer?

The user may be able to force word wrap, depending on the capabilities of
their browser. The page designer can't.

Besides, this is alt.HTML.tags, not alt.PLAIN-TEXT.tags.

4) Is there a way to embed a text document within an HTML page,
similar to how <img> embeds a picture? Scroll bars would be nice but
not necessary.

<iframe> is probably the most widely supported method for doing this, but
it is being phased out in support of <object>. In general, use <iframe> if
you care a lot about backwards compatibility, but use <object> if you
prefer forwards compatibility.

Other options for displaying the embedded text, in
general making it more flexible than just linking directly to the .txt
file, would also be a plus.

If you have server-side includes enabled on your server, then you can do
something like:

<div style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
<!-- #include 'file.txt' -->
</div>

My goal is to create an interface in which text-based nuggets of
information can be accessed <i>and modified</i> by people with no HTML
knowledge. People would be able to navigate among the text files with
a nice-looking HTML document, and each nugget of info would have a
link to "view info" and a link to "edit info", which would open
Notepad automatically. Is this feasible, or are there any better
suggestions?

You're gonna need lots of CGI (or PHP, ASP, JSP -- even SSI would be
feasible, although rather like trying to rake the lawn with a hair brush)

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS | mailto:tobyink (AT) goddamn (DOT) co.uk | pgp:0x6A2A7D39
aim:inka80 | icq:6622880 | yahoo:tobyink | jabber:tai (AT) jabber (DOT) linux.it
http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/ | "You've got spam!"
playing://(nothing)