ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 My website designer is telling me I will need an HTML editor to edit certain areas of my website. I am a complete newbie, and while I am a fast learner, I took one look at my FTP access and ran. Is there such a thing as a simple way to edit this stuff without actually learning HTML? I found coffeecup.com and they appear to have some very cool tools available at very reasonable prices. Does anyone have experience with this software? Is this what I'm looking for? Must I learn HTML no matter what? Any ideas, comments, etc. are appreciated. FYI, my website is www.OhCheri.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReBeL Tech Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 I don't like them. Personal choice. If you have the cash and a good investment buy Dreamweaver CS3. Else the good old notepad.exe works wonders to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 Sorry, I really am a complete non-techie, what is notepad.exe? I don't like them. Personal choice. If you have the cash and a good investment buy Dreamweaver CS3. Else the good old notepad.exe works wonders to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReBeL Tech Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Its the word editor that comes preloaded on MS Windows :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 (Dang, this is like pulling teeth) Where would I find this magical item on Windows XP Home Edition? :blush: Its the word editor that comes preloaded on MS Windows :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReBeL Tech Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Start - All Programs - Accessories - Notepad Its just a text editor/creator. No images. For graphics stuff get Dreamweaver. Its a simple but highly powerful program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 OK, I've used Notepad to just write letters, etc. I don't understand how it interprets that into HTML? Looks like I will need Dreamweaver anyway as I will also have to edit graphics. Thanks for your input! Start - All Programs - Accessories - Notepad Its just a text editor/creator. No images. For graphics stuff get Dreamweaver. Its a simple but highly powerful program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 My website designer is telling me I will need an HTML editor to edit certain areas of my website. I am a complete newbie, and while I am a fast learner, I took one look at my FTP access and ran. Is there such a thing as a simple way to edit this stuff without actually learning HTML? I found coffeecup.com and they appear to have some very cool tools available at very reasonable prices. Does anyone have experience with this software? Is this what I'm looking for? Must I learn HTML no matter what? Any ideas, comments, etc. are appreciated. FYI, my website is www.OhCheri.com Hi, I bought coffeecup html program several years ago. I used it a lot back when my site was html only. Now that I am using php, I don't have so much need for it. I still use it for several reasons and a newbie to html would like it a lot. Do you know how to create a bulleted list from scratch. Just create a new file, choose insert bullets from the menu, type in the title of the list and a title for each line and click ok. One tab shows the code, and preview shows what it looks like in a browser. Do you know how to code some text so it is a certain size, color and underlined? Coffeecup does it all in just a few clicks. Then you have the proper code and you can go in and manually chage the size or color or whatever and see it on the preview tab. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks for taking the time to reply. I don't know how to code anything, don't even know where to start. This is like the first day in foreign language class. Looks like maybe a class at community college is on my to-do list. :blink: Hi, I bought coffeecup html program several years ago. I used it a lot back when my site was html only. Now that I am using php, I don't have so much need for it. I still use it for several reasons and a newbie to html would like it a lot. Do you know how to create a bulleted list from scratch. Just create a new file, choose insert bullets from the menu, type in the title of the list and a title for each line and click ok. One tab shows the code, and preview shows what it looks like in a browser. Do you know how to code some text so it is a certain size, color and underlined? Coffeecup does it all in just a few clicks. Then you have the proper code and you can go in and manually chage the size or color or whatever and see it on the preview tab. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks for taking the time to reply. I don't know how to code anything, don't even know where to start. This is like the first day in foreign language class. Looks like maybe a class at community college is on my to-do list. :blink: You can google some great tutorials on html and php. I still recommend coffecup for a beginner. It is as simple as typing in MS word and clicking bold. Then you can look at the code tab and see what was done. You can learn basic html just from using the program. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 Does it make any difference that my site is written in php? (whatever that is...) Meaning is it compatible with HTML or ??? In case it matters, the server is Linux based. You can google some great tutorials on html and php. I still recommend coffecup for a beginner. It is as simple as typing in MS word and clicking bold. Then you can look at the code tab and see what was done. You can learn basic html just from using the program. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Does it make any difference that my site is written in php? (whatever that is...) Meaning is it compatible with HTML or ??? In case it matters, the server is Linux based. Yes it makes a difference. Oscommerce is written in php, but it has html inside of it. If you want to add formatting to your product descriptions, that is done in html. if you want to create new pages like 'about us' or an informational section, you can write the content in html. The overall page is written in php and either has the html written iside or calls it from another file. PSPad editor is a nice free php editing tool. coffecup has a nice low cost html editor Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrueger Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 So when my web designer calls part of my site the "shell" is that what she means? Through OSCommerce I can easily change pics, add description, etc. it's in "English" to me and is pretty straightforward. But there are areas on my site that I can't edit from OSCommerce. Is this the part I can access from RTF? Or are the edits made somewhere else? (I'm really not dumb, only ignorant) Yes it makes a difference. Oscommerce is written in php, but it has html inside of it. If you want to add formatting to your product descriptions, that is done in html. if you want to create new pages like 'about us' or an informational section, you can write the content in html. The overall page is written in php and either has the html written iside or calls it from another file. PSPad editor is a nice free php editing tool. coffecup has a nice low cost html editor Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 So when my web designer calls part of my site the "shell" is that what she means? Through OSCommerce I can easily change pics, add description, etc. it's in "English" to me and is pretty straightforward. But there are areas on my site that I can't edit from OSCommerce. Is this the part I can access from RTF? Or are the edits made somewhere else? (I'm really not dumb, only ignorant) Shell? Not sure about that one. I am not familiar with that terminology, but it sounds like what you are talking about. Shell means other things in web hosting too, so I am not sure what she means exactly. You are correct in that there are areas that you cannot edit from your admin in oscommerce. You would use FTP to download the file, edit the file, and use FTP to upload it back to the server. Another part of your site is the database. It holds many many different pieces of data. It is edited through a program called phpmyadmin. This is usually found in the Cpanel at your webhost. I would not start messing with database edits just yet though. And lastly, ALWAYS make a BACKUP before you edit. If anything is messed up, you just restore the backup copy and it should be fixed. Before I ever installed Oscommerce, I would read this forum everyday to see what other folks were running into. Also it gave me a lot of ideas on what to change on my store. If you can make some time, this is a great place to learn all about the code that makes your store run. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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