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1. Can I open files in other formats besides text in CHP?

2. What is the best way to design a site locally and upload it to a remote machine?

3. What are the "Remote" CHP features and how do I use them?

1. Question: Can I open files in other formats besides text in CHP?

Answer: No and Yes. CHP will open text files. If you want to use an MS Word, WordPerfect, ClarisWorks, etc. file with CHP, you must first convert it to text. Some programs have options to save "as HTML" (Check documentation), this will let you save some formatting, graphics placement, and time.

CHP supports several multimedia formats in addition to text files:

GIF, JPEG, PICT, BMP, QuickTime, and Java files.

If you have QuickTime installed on your system, CHP may be able to use QuickTime's built-in conversion capabilities to open other multimedia formats, including Audio CDs, System 7 sounds, AIFF, MPEG, AVI, PNG, and any other supported formats. See your QuickTime documentation for details.

Using the Clipboard to convert documents

With some programs, ClarisWorks for instance (4.0 for sure, previous versions unknown), you can cut-and-paste or drag-and-drop elements and groups of elements into a CHP document, and CHP will convert the elements to html, with varying degrees of fidelity. From a CW text document or element, CHP will capture the text and format it in a similar manner as the original. Any graphic within the text will be replaced by a "?".

Using the Clipboard to convert documents into GIFs

If a CW drawing or painting document or object is transfered, CHP will create a GIF image of the pages of your document. Depending on the mode you were viewing your document with, CHP will either create a seperate GIF file for each page, or a single GIF graphic for the entire document. A one page graphic will vary in size from 30K to 60K, depending on the complexity of the page, the amount of white space, etc. For reference, it will take a 14400 modem 16 to 38 minutes to dowload such a page. If you are not too worried about bandwidth and speed, this might be a viable option for those pages you want to look exactly the same as in ClarisWorks. Remember, however, that unless you turn the image(s) into an image map, you will not be able to have links in your document, and that people using non-graphical browser (or who tell their browser not to load images) will not be able to see your page. Also, people with small browser windows may not see some of your page.

Possible crash problem with non-standard filenames

Also, be careful, there are some reports that opening a text file not ending in .html or .htm or .shtml will cause CHP 1.0 to crash. TOP

2. Question: What is the best way to design a site locally and upload it to a remote machine?

Answer: First, try to establish a mirror structure on your local machine as will be on you remote site. Put all files within this structure before you link to them, and save all files within this structure. This allows CHP to maintain the proper relative links between the files. Do not link files across harddrives on your local machine; this creates even greater problems because of the different ways operating systems handle file structure.

Once you have your site set-up locally, you are ready to upload it to your remote computer. Make sure to have an account set up, and get instructions from your provider on how to allow people to access your site. If you are not directly connected to the Internet, in which case you may be using a terminal program to connect, then you will need to transfer the files yourself, setting up the mirror structure on the remote computer and putting each file in the right place. Send the .html files as text, and the .gif, .jpg, etc. , as binary.

However, if you are directly connected to the Internet, you can use a neat CHP feature called Remote Save or the CHP 2.0 Site feature. They are described in detail in What are the "Remote" CHP features and how do I use them? and on the Site File Questions page. TOP

3. Question: What are the "Remote" CHP features and how do I use them?

Answer: These features are only available in the Macintosh version, due to problems with the TCP/IP software in Windows. The newest version of CHP (2.0) introduced another great "Remote" feature: Site Files. Their use is a little more complicated then the other "Remote" features, but they are very powerful. An entire page is devoted to them here.

To access the Remote features in CHP 1.x, you need to hold down the Option key while opening the File menu. In CHP 2.x, the Remote features are no longer hidden. You will find them in the remote sub-menu in the File menu.

Remote Save...

Here are directions written by Thomas Reed <reed@im.wustl.edu>:

It's actually pretty darn easy. If you hold down the Option key while clicking in the File menu, a Remote submenu will appear. In this menu, choose Remote Save. Then, in the window that appears, you need to fill in the following info:

Server Name: The address of your machine

User Name: Your username on that machine

Password: Your password on that machine

Remote Directory: Where you want it, possibly in a public_html folder in your account's home directory

Remote File: The name of the file, as it should be on the server

Good luck!

-Thomas

The other "Remote" features are "Remote Open..." and "Replace with Remote...".

Remote Open...

"Remote Open..." allows you to download Web documents directly from the Internet for dissection and evil experimenting.It is also helpful if you have developed files on your server which you want to edit, or if you want to dowload a dynamically created web document. One caution: I have observed that this feature does not download certain parts of a html document, like Server Side Includes.

Replace with Remote...

Though I have not tested Replace with Remote... , I believe it takes the on-line version of a file and replaces the file on your local disk with it.

Special Note to AOL members

Refer to AOL's online documentation. The special procedure for uploading to AOL is vaguely outlined in their "Myplace" help page.

The below information will be updated soon.

To summarize a recent debate on the listserv, AOL members can both upload to and download from the AOL web server. However, there are several caveats. To upload anything to the AOL web server, you must ftp anonymously to www.aol.com. With CHP, this means typing www.aol.com for Server Name, anonymous for the User Name, and yourusername@aol.com for the Password. Your Incoming folder should be the Remote Directory. Once you get the files on the server in your Incoming folder, you must then log in to AOL, go to My Place, and transfer the files to the www directory. Some say this method is just as complicated as the normal AOL file upload process, so it is up to you to decide what works best for you. TOP

Created by: Marcin Jeske (jeskem@ee.pdx.edu)