W3C Amaya Using

Using Amaya

This document is a short introduction to the user interface of Amaya. It is not a complete user manual. Its purpose is only to help users to discover the main features of the software.

Many commands in Amaya are the same as those provided by word processors and editors. They are not presented here. Only Amaya specific aspects are described.


Table of contents:


Starting Amaya

To start Amaya type:

    amaya [document]

Parameter [document] is optional. It is the file name or the URL of the first document Amaya should display when starting. If no parameter is given, a default document is presented.


Browsing with Amaya

Amaya behaves like many other Web browsers, except for activating links and displaying anchors.

Activating a link

Links are usually displayed in blue (or underlined on monochrome displays and on paper). As Amaya is an editor, a single click just moves the insertion point. Thus, to activate a link, you must double click on it.

The document retrieved by this operation normally replaces the current document in the same window. However, if the current document has been modified and has not been saved yet, another window is created for the new document, to avoid the loss of the last changes.

Target anchors

Some pieces of text are displayed in green, even if no particular style is specified. These elements are target anchors, i.e. anchors with an attribute name that identifies the element as a possible target for a link. The color green is intended to make the creation of links easier. As you can quickly recognize the possible target of a link, you can create links faster.

Opening documents

You can open local or remote documents in several different ways:

Open commands from File menu
Two commands, Open Document and Open in New Window, allow you to open a new document in the same window or in a new window respectively. Both commands bring up a dialog box where you can enter either a local file name or an URL. The dialog box also contains a file browser that helps to locate local files.

When the document is correctly specified, click on the OK button.

"Location" area
This area displays the file name or the URL of the current document. You can edit it to specify a different (local or remote) document. Press the Enter key to actually load the document.
Following links
Double-click on a link to get the corresponding document.

Moving backward and forward

Two buttons: and allow you to go back to the previous page or forward to the next one.


Editing Web pages with Amaya

Amaya not only allows you to browse documents on the Web, but you can also edit them and save them either locally or on remote Web servers.

Views

Amaya can present different views of a document simultaneously. Each view is displayed in a different window. This allows you to clearly see what is happening when you edit complex documents. Three views are available:

WYSIWYG view
Here you see a similar view of the document to that provided in other popular graphical browsers. It is a dynamic WYSIWYG view, in the sense that, at all times, it displays the changes you are making to the document. This is in contrast to editors which only provide a series of static snapshots of the document.
Structure view
This view shows the actual structure of the document being edited. Each element is represented by its tag name, followed by its attributes, on the same line. The elements it contains are represented underneath along a blue vertical line that shows the extent of the element.

Parts displayed in black can be edited directly, by clicking and typing. Parts displayed in blue can be changed only by editing commands.

Alternate view
This view allows you to see how the document looks like when displayed by a text-only browser. It is useful for checking the accessibility of your documents.

You can open and close any view at any time.

Opening a view

To open a view, choose the corresponding Show command in the Views menu (only available in the WYSIWYG view). In this menu, a checkbox indicates for each entry if the corresponding view is open or not. If the view is already open, re-selecting the corresponding entry closes the view.

Closing a view

You can close a view with the Views menu from the WYSIWYG view by selecting the corresponding item when the view is open (otherwise, you actually open the view).

You can also close a view by choosing the Close view command from the File menu of that view.

Using views

Views are synchronized: whenever you select some character or element in one view, the other views of the same document are automatically scrolled to show the same part of the document.

You can edit the document in any view. For optimum responsiveness when typing, the entered characters are displayed only in the view where you have clicked. As soon as you activate a command or click somewhere, these characters are also displayed in the other views.

Selecting

Many commands in Amaya act on the current selection. The current selection can be changed in different ways.

Selecting with the mouse
As usual, you can click with the left mouse button for moving the insertion point.

To select some text, drag a region - move the mouse with the left button pressed down and release it when the desired part is selected.

You can also extend the selection by clicking with the middle button.

You can select a whole element, such as a list item by clicking on its bullet or its number.

Selecting with the arrow keys
The four arrow keys move the insertion point in the four directions.
Selecting with the Esc key
This powerful shortcut may be used when some text is selected when the insertion point is placed somewhere in the document. Pressing the Esc key selects the parent element in the document structure. Hitting the Esc key several times allows you to traverse the structure towards the root.

Whatever the way you change the current selection, the type of the first selected element is displayed at the bottom of the window. It is followed by the types of the enclosing elements in the structure. This may be helpful when the document structure is complex.

Selecting in the Structure view

The structure view is especially convenient for quickly selecting large elements. Just click on the blue label that represents the element, or on the name of any of its attributes, or even on its blue vertical line. A large element like a complex table or a long list can be selected with a single click.

Clicking on a black character in the Structure view selects only that character.

A bold text in the structure view represents the value of an attribute that can be edited directly from the keyboard. A selection in such an attribute value cannot be extended outside the attribute.

Selecting images

If you click on the left hand side of an image, the insertion point is moved to the left edge of that image. This allows you to type text before the image.

If you click on the the right hand side of an image, the insertion point is moved to the right side of that image. This allows you to type text after the image.

If you want to select the whole image, click anywhere within the image and move a bit with the button pressed down. Do not leave the image before releasing the button. The whole image is then selected. You can use the copy, cut and paste commands to move or duplicate the image element along with all it's attributes.

Creating and changing links and anchors

Creating a target anchor

A target anchor is a piece of text that is referred to by a link (a source anchor). Before creating a link to such a piece of text, you must first turn it into a target anchor.

Just select a character string with the mouse and choose Create target from the Links menu. The selected text is now displayed in green, which identifies it as a target anchor.

Creating a link

To create an anchor that is a link to another document:

  1. Select the extent of the anchor to be created
  2. Choose Create link from the Links menu
  3. If the target document is displayed by Amaya, just click anywhere on it. The link is created.

    If the target document is not displayed

To create a link to a particular anchor in the same document or in another, replace step 3 above by:

  1. click on the target anchor, which should be displayed in green. The link is created.

Removing a link or a target anchor

The Links menu contains a command that reverses the two commands above: Delete anchor. Put the selection or the insertion point anywhere within the anchor to be removed (you do not need to select the whole anchor) and activate the Delete anchor command. The anchor is removed, but its content remains.

Changing a link

If you want to keep an anchor but to change the target of the corresponding link, select any part of that anchor or just put the insertion point within the anchor, and choose Change link from the Links menu. Then designate the new target of the anchor as above (step 3 in the creation of a link).

To change the target of a link, you can also edit the href attribute, either directly in the Structure view or using the Attributes menu.

Creating new elements

Buttons and Types menu

The simplest way to create new elements in a document is to move the insertion point to the desired position and to use the Types menu or the buttons corresponding to the most common elements of that menu. The item selected in the menu or the button clicked creates the corresponding element at the current position.

In some cases, the desired element cannot be created exactly at the position chosen, because of the constraints imposed by the HTML DTD. Amaya then tries to create the element at the closest position where it is allowed. For instance, if the insertion point is at the end of the last line of a paragraph when you click on the H2 button, Amaya does not create the new heading at that particular position (which would be invalid), but after the paragraph (which is probably what you intended).

In some other cases, Amaya changes the existing structure for creating the desired element. If the insertion point is somewhere within a list item (LI) when you click on the H2 button, the list item and its enclosing list are automatically split, in order to create the requested heading at the chosen position and to comply with the HTML DTD.

When creating new elements, it is important to select an insertion point, not some text nor a single character: if the current selection is not empty, Amaya tries to transform the selected part into the element type chosen.

Generated elements

Some HTML elements are constituted by several other elements of different types. For instance, a definition list (DL), contains several items, and each item contains usually a term (DT) and its definition (DD). A table contains usually a caption (CAPTION) and several rows (TR).

When Amaya creates such elements, it also creates their components. A definition list is created with a first term and the corresponding definition; a table is created with a caption and a row containing a single cell. The insertion point is placed automatically in the first of these component. You can enter the content of that component immediately or later. You can move to the next (empty) component with the mouse or the arrow keys.

The Return (or Enter) key

When you are writing a new document or a new part in a document, you often create elements sequentially. To do that, just press the Enter (or Return) key. The current element is terminated and a new one is created just after. This applies obviously to paragraphs, but also to other types of elements, such as headings for instance.

Most often, the new element created is simply a paragraph, whatever the type of the previous element. If you need another element type, you can immediatly change the type of that element, by selecting the desired type in the Types menu or by clicking on the corresponding button, but you can also keep typing and change the type later.

Multiple Returns at the end of an element

When the insertion point is in an empty element, pressing the Return key replaces that element by another empty element at the next higher level in the document structure. This feature allows you to create complex nested structures very efficiently.

As an example, consider the following structure:

  1. The first item in the highest level list.

    A paragraph in the first item.

  2. The second item.
    1. First item in the nested list.
    2. Second item in the nested list.
  3. Last item in the list.

To create that structure, create first a numbered list with a first item by clicking on the button and type in the first line. At the end of that first line, press the Return key: it creates a new paragraph in the item. At the end of this paragraph, press the Return key: it creates yet another paragraph, but pressing the same key again replaces that paragraph by an empty item 2. At the end of the first line of item 2, click on the button, to create the nested list with its first item. Item b. is created by a double Return at the end of item a. When the insertion point is at the end of item b, create item 3 by four successive Returns. To create the paragraph that follows these lists, press Return three times when the insertion point is at the end of item 3.

Multiple Returns at the beginning of an element

The Return key works in the same way when the insertion point is at the beginning of an element, but it creates new elements before the current element.

For instance, you can add an initial paragraph in a list item by moving the insertion point before the first character of that item and pressing Return. If you press Return twice, you get a new item before the current item. This is useful for inserting a new item before the first one.

This use of the Return key does not apply only to lists and paragraphs, but to all elements. It is for instance very convenient for creating tables.

Exiting styled anchors or character strings

When a paragraph or another block of text is styled - terminated by an anchor or a character string in bold, italic or other such style - moving the insertion point to the end and typing appends characters to the anchor or the styled string. If you want to exit this styled element and enter plain text, just press Return and continue typing.

The same method can be used to enter plain text at the beginning of a block starting with an anchor or styled characters.

Changing element type

To change the type of an existing element, select it and choose the new type in the Types menu or by clicking on a button. You can thus change a numbered list into an itemized list, for example, or a paragraph into a heading or a list.

To select an entire element, place the insertion point anywhere within it and press the Esc key

More complex structure transformations are also possible.

Changing the document structure

Simple structure transformations can be achieved using the Types menu (see above). More complex transformations can be obtained by other means.

The Transform command

The Transform command from the Types menu performs complex structure transformations. This command is based on a structure transformation language that specifies how a given structural pattern can be transformed into different structures.

The Transform command pops up a menu that lists all the transformations that can be applied to the current selection. Just choose the transformation you want.

The available transformations are defined in the file Amaya/amaya/HTML.trans. Please refer to the document Use of the file HTML.trans for a description of the language in which they are described.

Additional transformations may be specified in the HTML.trans file. Some are provided as examples. For instance, it is possible to transform nested lists into a table.

The Back Space and Delete keys

Successive elements can be merged, even if they are not at the same level in the document structure. Merging is achieved with the Back Space and Delete keys. When the insertion point is at the end of an element, use the Delete key, when it is at the beginning, use the Back Space key. In both cases, these keys do not delete any characters, but merge elements which are separated by a structure boundary.

When the insertion point in within an element, these two keys delete the next or previous character, as usual.

Editing tables

There is no separate table editor in Amaya. A table is simply a structure described by the HTML DTD and it is edited as such. The same commands apply to tables as to other HTML structures.

Tables can be created very efficiently with the Return key.

Note that the table model implemented in Amaya, while being fully compatible with that defined in HTML 3.2, is extended to implement the W3C Working Draft The HTML3 Table Model, which has been accepted by the IETF as a proposed standard, RFC1942. This includes features such as multiple bodies (tbody), header (thead) and footer (tfoot).

Client-side image maps

Using client-side image maps

Amaya allows you to use client-side image maps.

Creating client-side image maps

To create a new image map, you must create the image element first, either by choosing Image from the Types menu or by clicking on the button. This brings up a dialog box that lets you enter the file name of the desired image.

Tor create an area in a image, select the image or an existing area of that image. Then choose Rectangle, Circle, Polygon from the AreaMap submenu of the Types menu, depending on the shape of the new area you want to create.

When the area has been defined, you must enter the target of the link associated with that area. Just click on the target (or enter its URL if it is not displayed), in the same way as you create links.

Moving or resizing areas

Combining the Control key with the Left button of the mouse you can move the area.

Combining the Control key with the Middle button of the mouse you can resize the area.

Style

The Style menu allows you to change the appearance of your documents by two different means:

The first entries of the Style menu are dedicated to CSS, the last two entries to HTML elements.

Cascading Style Sheets

Refer to the document Cascading Style Sheet support in Amaya.

HTML elements

Entry Information type from the Style menu presents a submenu offering a choice of abstract styles. Select first a character string and then choose an item in this menu. The selected character string receives the corresponding style. Three of these styles are available through buttons: emphasis (button i), strong (button B) and code (button TT).

Entry Character elements from the Style menu offers another menu for changing the style of text. Most entries of this menu could be replaced by CSS and should not be used. They are here only for the sake of completeness of the HTML 3.2 implementation.

Removing style

To remove style from a character string, select the string first and re-apply the command that was been used for associating the style you want to remove. All commands in the submenus Information type and Character element toggle themselves if re-applied.

Editing attributes

There are two ways to edit attributes:

The Attribute menu

The Attribute menu lists all attributes that can be associated with the selected element. It can be used to create an attribute, to change its value or to delete it.

To edit an attribute, first select the appropriate element. You must select the entire element, not simply a character within the element; use the Esc key for this. When the element is selected, choose the attribute to be edited from the Attributes menu. Then Amaya acts according to the chosen attribute:

Editing attributes in the Structure view

All attributes are displayed in the Structure view. Attributes whose value can be chosen freely are displayed in black and you can edit their value like any other character string. When the attribute value is displayed in blue, you can only change it with the Attribute menu. This ensures that only one of the correct values is chosen.

Searching and replacing text

You can search and replace text with the Search dialog box. Call this box by choosing Find from the Edit menu or click on the corresponding button (the magnifying glass).

Saving and publishing documents

Refer to the document Publishing in Amaya.

Printing documents

To print a document, choose Print from the File menu or click on the corresponding button. Before executing that command, you may need to set some parameters with the Print setup command from the File menu.


V. Quint
Webmaster
$Date: 1996/07/1612:30:45$