Build Web Page


	Build Web Page

Building Web Pages

In WordRad, to transform your document along with whatever fonts, images and textures it contains into a dazzling web page is as simple as hitting the Build button in the Web Page dialog. First however, after selecting Build Web Page from the Save menu, you are prompted to enter the name of an .xml data file:

This XML file will contain all relevant data for the web page - for example, the text itself, in addition to the names of all fonts, image files, and texture files generated during the build process. It will also contain the names of any embedded web pages or other applications your own web page uses (see Web Page Images). The actual html file will have the same name as the .xml file, only with an .html extension. (The html file will pass the xml file as input to the Flash application that runs your web page - Rad_3xf.swf.)

Template Mode
This is an advanced mode to be used when building a web page template that contains wild cards, and is intended to be run on a web server that will resolve the wild card items at run time. You can read more about Template mode here, but it is not necessary to merely build a view a WordRad web page, and you can defer learning about it until you are actually ready to deploy an entire WordRad web site.

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Once you have specified a name for the .xml file (either new or preexisting) the main Web Page dialog is shown:

Components of the Build Web Page Dialog

Title
Enter a title you want to give to the web page.

Output File list box
Below the Title box is the Output File list box. The names of all files generated during the build process will be displayed here. See Web Page Output Files. The main reason to know about these files is if you ever want to copy your web site to another location, then these files would have to be copied as well (See also The Wordrad XML File Format).

Auxilliary Paths
This option is only active in template mode. Auxilliary Paths allow you to specify a base url to be appended to font, texture, or image resource files in the XML file. When you build the web page, such resource files are actually always output to the Main directory you specified for this web page. But when the page is deployed to an actual web server, then depending on the configuration, you may need to amend the url paths for these resources (even though their physical location may not have changed). Use Auxilliary paths here to do so. (This is only applicable to Template mode. You don't have to worry about this to merely build and view a web page in your web browser. ) For more details, see here.

Image Format radio buttons ('Img Fmt')
You can select either JPG or PNG. If the images on your page or photo-realistic, you will save a huge amount of space by saving them in JPG format, which has only a slight decrease in quality from PNG. However, if images are not photo-realistic, but instead have large sections of unbroken pure color, JPG does not perform well with these, so use PNG instead.

Colored text on a web page can also utilize .png format if it is selected. If the colored textual effects on the web page do not appear the same as in the original document, then select PNG instead of JPG. (The actual foreground and background textures for the web page are always in .jpg format for space savings, as it is assumed they will be lifelike textures.)

Images
This button will bring up another dialog for manipulating the Images of your document before the web page is built. Pressing the small 'a' button to the left of it however will toggle the 'Images' button into the Anchors button, which when activated brings up a dialog enabling you to enter or edit anchor tags (i.e. hyperlinks) for your web page.

Build
Builds the web page. You can hit Cancel at any time, but the build process should only take 2-3 seconds unless font files have to be compiled.

Status Message Display
This multi-level box in the center of the dialog displays relevant information during the build process. For example if WordRad has to take additional time to compile fonts, you would see the following:

The JRE Checkbox
This option instructs WordRad to use JRE as its priority font compiler instead of the default (Batik). Only use this option if there is a problem with the fonts on your web page that was not detected or reported by WordRad during the build process. If lines are unevenly spaced for example, or a font fails to appear at all, check 'JRE' and 'Rebuild Fonts' and then Build the web page again. The Batik font compiler is generally superior to JRE however, and that is why it is used as the default. You can also rebuild all the fonts with JRE unchecked. (See also Font Considerations.)

The Trust Checkbox
Instructs WordRad to add the necessary directories for the web page to the FlashPlayer Trust File. Many web browsers do not require this. However, Firefox and Internet Explorer do require it, if the web page is not being accessed from a web server, but from your own local machine (which is the case when the View button is used). If the web page does not appear after hitting 'View', and Trust is not checked, check it and rebuild the web page. Note that there is also a small utility included with WordRad called trust.exe which allows you to view the content of the trust file, and manually add or delete directories from it.

Flex 4 Checkbox
Builds an Adobe Flex 4 web page using WordRad's rad_4xf.swf. (The default would be Flex 3 with rad_3xf.swf). If building for Flex 4, then embedded Flex 3 Apps in it (see Embedding Applications) may not work, and vice versa. The default, Flex 3, consumes less memory in the browser and generally run faster than Flex 4, though a Flex 4 web page may download slightly quicker (as Flex 4 .swf files are smaller).

View
This button will display the new web page in your default web browser.

Building Web Pages

Components of the Build Web Page Dialog

Related Topics