Builder Builder

Personal Book Builder Editor

An HTML editor for PBB projects - Download 07/06/07 Install Footnotes Fix

Scratch Pad interaction Document

Scratch Pad Page

THM2PBB in Builder Builder Documentation

User Function Toolbar Documentation

Tutorial Walk-Throughs - Download

Description

This is a very quick and dirty guide for Builder Builder. Hopefully, for the time being, it will be relatively easy to become familiar with the tools just by playing with them for a little while. I made an effort to make everything as user friendly as possible.

Download the walk-through bundle above to get a tour of the application. The bundle contains a walk-through document with four sample projects and some other files that are used in these projects. The walk-through document comes in HTML, PDF and MS Word Doc format.

Watch this page for updates. This project is ongoing and the installer package will be updated from time to time with fixed versions and enhancements.

When building PBBs all of the special formatting should really be done with stylesheets. Optimally the only HTML tags a PBB will contain are paragraph and Header tags. However sometimes it is desirable to format with lists, tables and so on and hyperlinks, images, horizontal lines, etc are also sometimes used. Therefore the functionality for providing all of this markup is provided. Support for things like forms is not provided (for obvious reasons).

A default stylesheet is provided. This sheet will be added to every document opened in the editor. The style sheet addition can be turned off in the user preferences. Also the default stylesheet can be changed to one of the users choice in the preferences dialog.

Two new working folders are created when this tool is installed. They are 'Builder Builder HTML' and 'Builder Builder PBBs' in the users 'My Documents' folder. The project as a whole is only half finished. The plan is that an entire PBB project will be able to be loaded into the editor and manipulated on a per file basis by a tree view in the left hand panel. Also, the THM2PBB utility is going to be built in so that a THML document can be formatted, divided into project files and loaded into the editor all in one swoop. For now all this editor will do is edit one file at a time. A 'Project->New' command has been added to open a new project folder in the 'Builder Builder PBBs' folder and open an initial file. However it is mostly up to the user to manage these folders for now. The 'Builder Builder HTML' folder is the default folder for HTML files that are not necessarily associated with a PBB project.

The default folders may be changed by the user in the user preferences (File->Preferences).

The toolbars may be moved, floated or docked where the user chooses. The toolbar locations are saved when the program exits and are restored the next time the program starts up.

The replace dialog is a very powerful tool that will allow you to manipulate, change and remove text and HTML elements in a variety of ways. It requires a document all on it's own and, unfortunately, it won't be provided here. I will say that regular expressions are supported for text search and replace. I will try to get a document together for the replace dialog soon. For now, just play with it and see what happens.

ToolBars

Standard ToolBar

All the standard open, close, copy, paste, etc. stuff you usually get in a standard toolbar.

Utility ToolBar

Open URL - (little globe) a mini browser that will load web documents into the editor.

Panel Buttons - For opening and closing the side panels and the source editor panel.

File (left) panel - Not in use at this time.

CSS (right) panel - For manipulating styles.

Source (upper) panel - source editor.

Open Scratch Pad - (pad with pen) Opens the Scratch Pad or makes it visible. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document.

Paste From Scratch Pad- (pad with left pointing red arrow) Pastes the entire contents of the Scratch Pad into the main editor window. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document.

Paste Into Scratch Pad- (pad with right pointing green arrow) Pastes the main editor window selection into Scratch Pad. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document.

Note: The source editor is very rudimentary. Changes can be made by typing into the source window and then either double clicking the source window or clicking on the web view window. Virtually everything you would want to do can be done through the main editor and the CSS panel. The source editor provides a shortcut for some tasks and a way to make obscure changes that can not be made with the other tools. When working with large documents or documents with at great deal of markup the source editor should be kept hidden, otherwise it will slow down the editor considerably.

I haven't gotten all the bugs identified in the source editor yet. If the window doesn't update properly then just close the panel and reopen it. That should fix it. Sometimes this can be a problem with complex pages downloaded from the web. Look under the commands menu for utilities that clean out junk like scripts and MS Word markup.

If you make changes to the head segment in the source editor then the changes can not be undone (the undo list is lost).

PBB ToolBar

Buttons for inserting PBB milestone and reference links. The buttons with the little '@' signs in the top left hand corner are for inserting milestone tags. The ones with the red arrows are reference tags. If text is selected then the selected text will be wrapped with an HTML span that is tagged. Otherwise a standard PBB tag will be inserted as standalone.

Symbols

Cross - Bible milestone or reference tag. Text selection is not necessary.

Light Bulb - Topic milestone.

Page - Page number milestone.

Question Mark - Miscellaneous milestone or reference tag. Text selection is not necessary.

Lines - Text reference tag (for footnotes, etc.). Text must be selected.

Omega - Greek reference tag. Text must be selected.

Alf - Hebrew reference tag. Text must be selected.

'L' - Latin reference tag. Text must be selected.

GS - Greek Strongs reference tag. Text selection is not necessary.

HS - Hebrew Strongs reference tag. Text selection is not necessary.

All of these except the language tags bring up dialogs which hopefully are fairly self explanatory.

Footprint in Brackets - Insert selected text based footnotes into the main body of text as PBB text tags.

Fonts Toolbar

Standard stuff. Font Face, Font size, bold, italic, underline and text color.

HTML ToolBar

HTML functions. From Left to Right:

Line Break (<BR> tag) - places a line break at the insertion point.

Non-breaking Space - Inserts '  at the insertion point. If a line of text is selected then it will replace all blank spaces in the selected text with non-breaking spaces.

Paragraph (<P> tag) - Makes a paragraph of the selected text or starts a paragraph at the insertion point if there is no selection.

Horizontal Line - Inserts a horizontal line (<HR>) into the selection.

Left Alignment - Of selection.

Center Alignment - Of selection.

Right Alignment - Of selection.

Numbered List - Of selection.

Ordered List - Of selection.

Definition List - Of selection.

Definition - Of selection within a definition list.(secondary indent)

Header Dropdown - Change selection to a Header of selected type or remove block formatting (header or list).

Insert Table - Open the new table dialog.

Hyperlink Dropdown - Insert or remove hyperlink at selection.

Anchor Tag - Insert a bookmark. (e.g. <A name="thisplace">).

Insert Image - Insert image dialog.

User Functions Toolbar

Each of these buttons, if assigned, will execute a user defined function. See the "User Functions" documentation.

Other Commands

Commands Menu

Sweep MS Markup

If content is pasted into the editor from an MS Word document a lot of undesirable XML markup will come with it and in most cases the images (if any) won't be visible. This command does the best job it can of removing the junk and recovering the images.

Remove HTML Markup

This will remove all HTML markup from the document except paragraphs and images (Unless otherwise specified in the user preferences) This is handy for pages downloaded from the web that are too convoluted to be practical for PBB use.

Remove Scripts and Events

Remove all script elements, inline java and all that other nonsense that won't work in a PBB.

Remove Inline Styles

Remove all style attributes from document elements.

Reformat Text File

Reformats a document that is loaded as preformatted text (<PRE>) so that the <PRE> tags are removed and the file is divided into paragraph blocks for easy editing.

Add / Remove a User Function

Opens a dialog that allows the user to add a User Defined Function to the "Functions" tool bar. See the "User Function Toolbar" documentation.

Table Menu

Insert

Insert a table, table row, table column, table cell, header row (<TH> tag) or header column depending upon the menu selection.

Delete

Delete a table row, table column, table cell depending upon the menu selection.

ColSpan

Set the number of columns the selected cell spans..

Rowspan

Set the number of rows the selected cell spans..

Class

set the CSS class for the table, row or cell depending upon the menu selection.

note: all of the above are available in the right click context menu.

PBB Menu

Install Footnote

This is the only PBB menu command that does not correspond to a toolbar button.

Many text format documents (and some HTML documents) use a footnote convention whereby the footnote is indicated in the text by a footnote number surrounded by square brackets (e.g. [25]) and the footnote itself is placed at the end of the document next to the same bracketed number.

If a document like this is being converted into a PBB then the footnote may be selected and inserted into the main body of the text as a PBB 'text' tag by executing this command. The beginning of the selected text must be the bracketed number of the footnote and that bracketed number must match the one in the main body of the document exactly or the command will fail. If the command succeeds then the end footnote will be removed from the document.

This command is available in the right click context menu.

CSS Menu

New Style

Add a new style (CSS class) to the document. The new style may be added to an existing style sheet or added inline.

New Style Sheet

Create a new style sheet and add it to the document. It won't show up in the Styles window until at least one style is added to it.

Add Style Sheet

Add an existing style sheet to the document.

Remove Style Sheet

Remove a style sheet from the document. If you remove "pbb.css" it will be readded the next time you edit the document unless you uncheck the "Add Style Sheet" option in the user preferences.

Export Inline Style Sheets

Remove all styles that are defined as style elements inline in the document, save them the css files in the working folder and add them to the document as linked style sheets.

Remove Inline Style Sheets

Remove all styles that are defined as style elements inline in the document.

Save Style Sheets

Saves the style sheets to disk.

This program was designed and implemented by John McComb

Go Back

	Standard ToolBar
All the standard open, close, copy, paste, etc. stuff you usually get in a standard toolbar.
	Utility ToolBar
Open URL - (little globe) a mini browser that will load web documents into the editor. Panel Buttons - For opening and closing the side panels and the source editor panel. File (left) panel - Not in use at this time. CSS (right) panel - For manipulating styles. Source (upper) panel - source editor. Open Scratch Pad - (pad with pen) Opens the Scratch Pad or makes it visible. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document. Paste From Scratch Pad- (pad with left pointing red arrow) Pastes the entire contents of the Scratch Pad into the main editor window. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document. Paste Into Scratch Pad- (pad with right pointing green arrow) Pastes the main editor window selection into Scratch Pad. See the "Scratch Pad" documentation and the "Builder Builder / Scratch Pad Interaction" document. Note: The source editor is very rudimentary. Changes can be made by typing into the source window and then either double clicking the source window or clicking on the web view window. Virtually everything you would want to do can be done through the main editor and the CSS panel. The source editor provides a shortcut for some tasks and a way to make obscure changes that can not be made with the other tools. When working with large documents or documents with at great deal of markup the source editor should be kept hidden, otherwise it will slow down the editor considerably. I haven't gotten all the bugs identified in the source editor yet. If the window doesn't update properly then just close the panel and reopen it. That should fix it. Sometimes this can be a problem with complex pages downloaded from the web. Look under the commands menu for utilities that clean out junk like scripts and MS Word markup. If you make changes to the head segment in the source editor then the changes can not be undone (the undo list is lost).
	PBB ToolBar
Buttons for inserting PBB milestone and reference links. The buttons with the little '@' signs in the top left hand corner are for inserting milestone tags. The ones with the red arrows are reference tags. If text is selected then the selected text will be wrapped with an HTML span that is tagged. Otherwise a standard PBB tag will be inserted as standalone. Symbols Cross - Bible milestone or reference tag. Text selection is not necessary. Light Bulb - Topic milestone. Page - Page number milestone. Question Mark - Miscellaneous milestone or reference tag. Text selection is not necessary. Lines - Text reference tag (for footnotes, etc.). Text must be selected. Omega - Greek reference tag. Text must be selected. Alf - Hebrew reference tag. Text must be selected. 'L' - Latin reference tag. Text must be selected. GS - Greek Strongs reference tag. Text selection is not necessary. HS - Hebrew Strongs reference tag. Text selection is not necessary. All of these except the language tags bring up dialogs which hopefully are fairly self explanatory. Footprint in Brackets - Insert selected text based footnotes into the main body of text as PBB text tags.
	Fonts Toolbar
Standard stuff. Font Face, Font size, bold, italic, underline and text color.
	HTML ToolBar
HTML functions. From Left to Right: Line Break (<BR> tag) - places a line break at the insertion point. Non-breaking Space - Inserts '  at the insertion point. If a line of text is selected then it will replace all blank spaces in the selected text with non-breaking spaces. Paragraph (<P> tag) - Makes a paragraph of the selected text or starts a paragraph at the insertion point if there is no selection. Horizontal Line - Inserts a horizontal line (<HR>) into the selection. Left Alignment - Of selection. Center Alignment - Of selection. Right Alignment - Of selection. Numbered List - Of selection. Ordered List - Of selection. Definition List - Of selection. Definition - Of selection within a definition list.(secondary indent) Header Dropdown - Change selection to a Header of selected type or remove block formatting (header or list). Insert Table - Open the new table dialog. Hyperlink Dropdown - Insert or remove hyperlink at selection. Anchor Tag - Insert a bookmark. (e.g. <A name="thisplace">). Insert Image - Insert image dialog.
	User Functions Toolbar
Each of these buttons, if assigned, will execute a user defined function. See the "User Functions" documentation.

Other Commands
*Commands Menu*
Sweep MS Markup	If content is pasted into the editor from an MS Word document a lot of undesirable XML markup will come with it and in most cases the images (if any) won't be visible. This command does the best job it can of removing the junk and recovering the images.
Remove HTML Markup	This will remove all HTML markup from the document except paragraphs and images (Unless otherwise specified in the user preferences) This is handy for pages downloaded from the web that are too convoluted to be practical for PBB use.
Remove Scripts and Events	Remove all script elements, inline java and all that other nonsense that won't work in a PBB.
Remove Inline Styles	Remove all style attributes from document elements.
Reformat Text File	Reformats a document that is loaded as preformatted text (<PRE>) so that the <PRE> tags are removed and the file is divided into paragraph blocks for easy editing.
Add / Remove a User Function	Opens a dialog that allows the user to add a User Defined Function to the "Functions" tool bar. See the "User Function Toolbar" documentation.
Table Menu
Insert	Insert a table, table row, table column, table cell, header row (<TH> tag) or header column depending upon the menu selection.
Delete	Delete a table row, table column, table cell depending upon the menu selection.
ColSpan	Set the number of columns the selected cell spans..
Rowspan	Set the number of rows the selected cell spans..
Class	set the CSS class for the table, row or cell depending upon the menu selection.
note: all of the above are available in the right click context menu.
PBB Menu
Install Footnote	This is the only PBB menu command that does not correspond to a toolbar button. Many text format documents (and some HTML documents) use a footnote convention whereby the footnote is indicated in the text by a footnote number surrounded by square brackets (e.g. [25]) and the footnote itself is placed at the end of the document next to the same bracketed number. If a document like this is being converted into a PBB then the footnote may be selected and inserted into the main body of the text as a PBB 'text' tag by executing this command. The beginning of the selected text must be the bracketed number of the footnote and that bracketed number must match the one in the main body of the document exactly or the command will fail. If the command succeeds then the end footnote will be removed from the document. This command is available in the right click context menu.
CSS Menu
New Style	Add a new style (CSS class) to the document. The new style may be added to an existing style sheet or added inline.
New Style Sheet	Create a new style sheet and add it to the document. It won't show up in the Styles window until at least one style is added to it.
Add Style Sheet	Add an existing style sheet to the document.
Remove Style Sheet	Remove a style sheet from the document. If you remove "pbb.css" it will be readded the next time you edit the document unless you uncheck the "Add Style Sheet" option in the user preferences.
Export Inline Style Sheets	Remove all styles that are defined as style elements inline in the document, save them the css files in the working folder and add them to the document as linked style sheets.
Remove Inline Style Sheets	Remove all styles that are defined as style elements inline in the document.
Save Style Sheets	Saves the style sheets to disk.