Shown above is a screenshot of PlainHTML 7.0 in Designer Mode (WYSIWYG) and connected to an FTP server.  Add to this the different external tools that Beerwin ships with this IDE and what do you get?  A complete web workshop!

Below is a screenshot of PlainHTML 7.0 in Code Editor mode. Apart from the Toolbars that one sees also in top rated HTML editors, there are three features that I really like: the Tag Inspector, TIDY, and the Clipbook.

Notice that unlike other WYSIWYG editors available on the web now, PlainHTML 7 maintains an HTML code that is nice to look at and consistent with the default “XHTML 1.0 Strict” DocType it creates for each page you create. Now that is a great plus if one would like to have one’s pages validated by the Consortium.

Working on Scriptures has not drawn me away entirely from the web-things I’ve been monitoring.  Beerwin for example has released WebSuite 2.0.  He announced earlier that it would be ready by Christmas, but the guy has anticipated his scheduled release by a number of days.  And man, I tell you the work is beautiful, and the screenshot below does no justice to it.

BeerWin’s Websuite 2.0 is your All-In-One web design software.  It has PlainHTML6, CSnipper,Auto-Backup and MultiNotepad with a host of other applications (like a CSV viewer and a File Viewer) that anyone who manually designs webpages would appreciate.  One added application I was not expecting was the File Viewer.  I already have the free Universal Viewer from UVViewSoft and have been using it quite extensively.  BeerWin’s addition of the File Viewer in WebSuite 2.0 makes it easier for me to survey and organize my work environment.

PlainHTML is simply wonderful.  I use it for formatting my webpages before copying and pasting them into the WordPress blogs I employ in my sites.   The control panel is simply a smorgasbord of features designed to help the web designer with his work.

It will probably take me awhile to try out the features of the new WebSuite 2.0.  Give me some time to work through it and perhaps I’ll have something decent to say about it.  For the moment, I am working with PlainHTML for those articles I have to produce for my students.

GGo to BeerWin for WebSuite 2.0

If you are looking for free photos that you can use for your blog or website, you can find them at the Stock.Xchang.  I find normal stockphoto sites annoying since they either give photos with a very large resolution that  one will have to resize afterwards.  Or they show you a note that the picture you desire can be downloaded for a fee. At Stock.Xchng, I don’t have to worry about that.

Here is another CSS Template originally by DesignsbyDarren and ported for WordPress by me (AgustinongPinoy).  The theme, like the one before it is widget-ready.  If you want to see a live demo of it, go to http://theo.agustinongpinoy.net/notes.  I like the school theme, it goes well with the site, I think.

Description

Noteworthy has a fluid width, 3-column design. It flexes to a width of 85%. The right and left columns are both a fixed width of 160 pixels. It’s fairly easy to change the width of the columns. You can also quickly change it to have a fixed width vs. fluid width. This page style can hold a ton of content. Great for adverts also.

License:

The template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License. Essentially this means you may use the templates for any personal or non-profit web design project as long as you give me credit (attribution). Do not take out the links to DesignsbyDarren and AgustinongPinoy at the footer of the theme. (You may take out the ones at the header portion, of course)

Extra Notes: It is widget-ready!

Instructions

1. Download noteworthy-wp.zip
2. Unzip it into your WP themes directory (under wp-content)
3. Go to your WP Admin control panel and enable the theme

I saw Bookworm as a theme for the e107 CMS and used it for my e107 installation for a class in the Social Teachings of the Church.  Then I found out that it was originally a CSS template from DesignsbyDarren.  After reading a tutorial on how to convert templates into WordPress themes (authored by a Cebu-based blogger), I decided to try my hand on Bookworm.  So here it is.  It has been tried on WordPress 2.5 and 2.6.

Description:

Bookworm includes both a 3-column index page and a 2-column index page. Both pages have a fixed width of 920 pixels so it requires a minimum resolution of 1024×768. The index page has a main content area that is 490px wide, and two side columns on the right that are 160px wide each. The inside page has a larger content area (660px) and only one side column (160px). The page expands vertically to hold as much content as needed.

License:

The template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License. Essentially this means you may use the templates for any personal or non-profit web design project as long as you give me credit (attribution). Do not take out the links to DesignsbyDarren and AgustinongPinoy at the footer of the theme. (You may take out the ones at the header portion, of course)

Extra Notes: It is widget-ready!

Instructions

1. Download bookworm-wp.zip
2. Unzip it into your WP themes directory (under wp-content)
3. Go to your WP Admin control panel and enable the theme

The theme is widget-ready so if you have configured your widgets, it would look great

Tags: bookworm, wordpress+theme

BeerWin has replied to an earlier blog (Get It Before It Turns Pro) where I expressed my apprehension regarding the free status of BeerWin’s Plain HTML.  He writes:

I state here now, that PlainHTML and Web suite will not be released as commercial software, nor shareware. PlainHTML is intended to be free software and it is not planned to be turned into another annoying commercial software, at least in the previsible future. Since i don’t have much time for answering to any support or software related questions (and i’m making it alone in my spare time), converting it into a commercial stuff is not worth at all this time.

But the main reason of keeping PlainHTML free for everyone: I got so many free things from geeks and non-geeks through the internet, that PlainHTML and all included software is just a small gratitude expressed to them. (Featured Commentary dated July 9, 2008)

What still can I say?  Thank you, Beerwin for making things easier for the rest of us!

By the way, there is an update of the software — now on version 5.6.2. — and you can get it free from Beerwin.Com

If you go to the Mystical Geek, you’d find that it has an animated portion on top of the blog entry and right under the main title header of the blog.  The trick is produced by some lines of code for an iframe and an external file which contains the script and the contents that are rotated.  The script is provided by Dynamic Drive and is easy to customize.  Below is the main code for the iframe.

 <!--<IFRAME> ticker- By Dynamic Drive-->
<!--For full source code and more DHTML scripts, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com-->
<!--This credit MUST stay intact for use-->
<img src="http://img000.imageshack.us/img000/8350/pensmzl9.jpg"
 align="right" hspace="10">
<iframe id="tickermain" src="exfile.htm" width=300 height=80
 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 hspace=0 vspace=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no>
</iframe>

The choice for the code was determined by the fact that I cannot use scripts that require one to add codes in the header of the Squarespace index page where the Mystical Geek resides.

The external file which is invoked by the iframe consists of the javascript and the content displayed by the iframe in between DIVs.  It looks like the following

<script language="JavaScript1.2">

//IFRAME TICKER- By Dynamic Drive (http://www.dynamicdrive.com)

//configure delay between changing messages (3000=3 seconds)
var delay=5000

var ie4=document.all

var curindex=0
var totalcontent=0

function get_total(){
if (ie4){
while (eval("document.all.content"+totalcontent))
totalcontent++
}
else{
while (document.getElementById("content"+totalcontent))
totalcontent++
}
}

function contract_all(){
for (y=0;y<totalcontent;y++){
if (ie4)
eval("document.all.content"+y).style.display="none"
else
document.getElementById("content"+y).style.display="none"
}
}

function expand_one(which){
contract_all()
if (ie4)
eval("document.all.content"+which).style.display=""
else
document.getElementById("content"+which).style.display=""
}

function rotate_content(){
get_total()
contract_all()
expand_one(curindex)
curindex=(curindex<totalcontent-1)? curindex+1: 0
setTimeout("rotate_content()",delay)
}

window.onload=rotate_content

</script>
 <style type="text/css">
 <!--
 P {
   font-family:Garamond;font-size:11pt;
 }

 A  {
   text-decoration:none
 }

 -->
 </style>
<BODY>

<!--ADD YOUR TICKER CONTENT BELOW, by wrapping each one inside a <DIV> as shown below.-->
<!--For each DIV, increment its ID attribute for each additional content (ie: "content1", "content2" etc)-->

<div id="content0" style="display:''">

<!-- ADD TICKER's CONTENT #1 HERE--------------------->

<span style="color:maroon;font-size:14pt;font-family:Trebuchet MS;Helvetica;Tahoma;font-weight:bold;">Update Your Bookmarks</span>
<p>You may now access this site using the shorter URL:  

<a href="http://www.agustino.org" target="_top"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;">www.agustino.org</span></a></p>

<!-- END CONTENT #1----------------->

</div>

<div id="content1" style="display:none">

<!-- ADD TICKER's CONTENT #2 HERE--------------------->
Some content here. <ul><li>even<li>lists<li>are<li>allowed</ul>
<!-- END CONTENT #2----------------->

</div>

<div id="content2" style="display:none">

<!-- ADD TICKER's CONTENT #3 HERE--------------------->

Some content here.  Even <span> specifications are allowed.
<!-- END CONTENT #3----------------->

</div>

<div id="content3" style="display:none">

<!-- ADD TICKER's CONTENT #4 HERE--------------------->
<table border="1"><tr><td>Some content here.  

Even tables are allowed.</td></tr></table>
<!-- END CONTENT #4----------------->

</div>

The ticker was useful in that it allowed me to fix links to the blog posts that contain the keywords visitors of the site look for. The hits to these increased dramatically over just a twenty-four hour period.  Try out the ticker.  Just copy the codes off this page and modify them.  And please, don’t delete the comments that say the codes are from Dynamic Drive.

And why not!  There are commercial software that are in many ways inferior to BeerWin’s web applications.

Apart from the excellent HTML editor, PlainHTML, (I’ll write more about it later on) the Web Suite comes with MultiNotepad, a replacement for Windows Notepad, and a CodeSnippet database. Just these two applications working with PlainHTML is already enough …

Add to the these Extension Manager and the Automatic Backup and you get a freeware Web Suite that can easily be among the top commercial software in the web today.

What, you don’t think I’m serious? Visit Beerwin now and see for yourself.

Man, a big hand clap for BeerWin.  He has done an excellent job providing us with these tools.

If you are looking for high quality JPG files for your website to use as headers or as category images (for blogs), go to DreamTimes.  They have a wide collection of searchable free stock photos that are high quality (with resolutions reaching 3400 in width).  Free downloads however require membership.  If you don’t like registering for free downloads, try the stock photos at DesignsbyDarren.  They are excellent too but fewer in number.