favwrite - Homepage Maker Files

favwriteDescribe -- Homepage Maker  (Windows 64-bit Version, may be buggy, test build2)
instructions     November 18, 2023
- readme not thouroghly edited

CONTENTS
===================================
-- ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
-- INTRODUCTION
-- ABOUT NEW DESCRIPTION FEATURE 
-- HOW TO USE
     - Quickly create your homepage
     - Making favwriteDescribe lists (manually)
     - cascading style sheet
     - Batch File Support (optional)
-- FILES AND FOLDERS INCLUDED
-- COMPILING AND OPTIONS
-- INSTALLATION
-- REMOVAL
-- COMPATABILITY
-- DRAWBACKS
-- ADDITIONAL NOTES/TROUBLESHOOTING
-- SUPPORT/DISCLAIMER



ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
===================================
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 General Public License for more details.  You should have received a
 copy of the GNU General Public License version 2 along with this program.  If
 not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

See license.txt for license.

Some programming algorithms/code may be found in 'favwriteDescribesrc.zip' file.
Inno Setup files for the Windows Installer are also Included if you want to 
use them.


INTRODUCTION
===================================
Some websites have long names and some have short names.  
Repeatedly typing in the same web address for a frequently visited site can be annoying.

favwriteDescribe (pronounced fave write) is a program that converts a text file of urls into a web page with a title.  
You can easily access your favorite websites or folders by clicking the links on the web page.  
Each of the web or folder links on the web page will open in a new window.  
Read the HOW TO USE section in the readme.txt for instructions on use.


Features include:

 * all web links open in a new window
 * groups of your favorite web links can be given a title
 * NEW your urls can be given a description
 * use a cascading style-sheet to customize favwriteDescribe file appearances
 * command-line option/batch file support

Benefits include:
 
 * convenient access to your favorite web pages
 * create small portable web pages that can be used on any internet enabled      computer
 * easier login to websites


 
ABOUT NEW DESCRIPTION FEATURE
===================================
This is a test build.  you can now add descriptions for each url in a text file of your choosing.
Drawbacks.  This version of favwriteDescribe cannot be used with previous batch files... because it is set up to now read 4 command arguments instead of 3.

1.  Text File of web links - A text file of urls.   
2.  Description Filename - A Text file with a description of each of the urls.
3.  The name of the homepage or webpage to be created.
4.  A Title

HOW TO USE
===================================

Batch File creation update/fix in future, hopefully


Making favwriteDescribe Lists (manually)
----------------------------------


	-Run the program-
1.)In order to start the program you simply click the favwriteDescribe.exe file.
You will then be prompted for the name of a text file.  
This file will be used to create an HTML file.


	-Name the text file of web links-  EXAMPLE: websitelist.txt
2.)Type the name of the text file containing web links and press the Enter key on the keyboard.  

	-Name the text file of web link Descriptions-  EXAMPLE: descriptions.txt
3.)Type the name of the text file containing web links and press the Enter key on the keyboard.  

The name should end with .txt and the filename you are typing should be located in the same directory as favwriteDescribe.

	-Name of the file for your web page or homepage-   EXAMPLE: mywebpage.htm
4.)Type the name of the html file to be created and press the Enter key on the keyboard.

The web page name you type should end with .htm or .html and should not have any spaces.


	-Give it a title-           EXAMPLE: test web page
5.)Type the name of the title for your web page and press the Enter key on the keyboard.

The file you now created will be placed in the same directory as favwriteDescribe.exe.

NOTE:

If at any time you want to abort the program press Alt+F4 on the keyboard.


WARNING!
If you specify names of html files that already exist, they will be overwritten.



Making favwriteDescribe Lists:
----------------------------------
favwriteDescribe lists are simply text files that you create before you use favwriteDescribe to convert them into web pages.  You need to specify one web address per line.  You can push the Enter key to go to the next line.

Most web addresses should be written using 'http://'
  for example http://www.hotmail.com . 

NOTE: You can also specify links to favwriteDescribe webpages or other local webpages in the text file.  For Example: homwpage.htm


Cascading Style Sheet
----------------------------------
(favwrite.css)

The files created by favwriteDescribe can be used with cascading style sheets.  The name of the sheet needs to be titled 'favwriteDescribe.css' and placed in the same directory as favwriteDescribe webpages.  By editing this file you can easily customize the appearance of favwriteDescribe pages.


Batch File Support (optional)
----------------------------------
(favwriteDescribe homepage updater.bat)

favwriteDescribe supports the following command line options (without quotes):

"favwriteDescribe.exe homepagelinks.txt descriptions.txt homepage.htm Homepage"

For the batch file multiple words in the title will be seperated by a single space.

By default this batch file will update 'homepage.htm' with the links you provide in weblinksfile.txt and will name the title of homepage.htm such as Homepage.

It contains the line (without quotes):
"favwriteDescribe.exe homepagelinks.txt describe.txt homepage.htm Homepage"

You can right click the batch file, to add more options to it.



Only the following three or more type of single-word arguments can be accepted:

homepagelinks.txt -- Can be any textfile name without spaces.  It should contain a list of websites.  


describe.txt -- Can be any textfile name without spaces.  It should contain a list of descriptions for websites.  


homepage.htm -- Can be any web page file name without spaces.  The name should end in .htm or .html  

title -- Can be a single or multiple word title for the webpage seperated with spaces.
EXAMPLE: MY Home Page

FILES AND FOLDERS INCLUDED
===================================
MAIN DIRECTORY
readme-favwriteDescribe.txt   -- this file
license.txt   -- a copy of the GPL version 2 software license
favwriteDescribe.exe  -- the main program
favwrite.css  -- favwriteDescribe cascading style sheet

BATCH (folder) - favwrite webpage updater.bat -- batch file to automatically create an html file with weblinks and discriptions in a table. 

TEST (folder) -- example text and webpage files

src folder -- source code for programmers contains favwriteDescribe source code, algorithm, and change log.

COMPILING AND OPTIONS
===================================
//Windows 64 version compiled with DevC++ 5.11
//Note: compiler options use: -std=c++98


INSTALLATION
===================================
Extract the files to a directory of your choice.


REMOVAL
===================================
Delete the files and folders


COMPATABILITY
===================================
The favwriteDescribe program can be used with windows 64bit for now.
In order to view web pages you will need a web browser.
The web pages you make are viewable from any computer with an internet browser.
In order to make a list of your favorite web links you will need a text editor that supports the ASCII format 
such as notepad.exe.


DRAWBACKS
===================================
 * This program lacks a graphical user interface.
 * url lists cannot be edited from within the program
 * more error trapping
 * ???
 * no compatabity with 3 command batch files for now (test build)


ADDITIONAL NOTES/TROUBLESHOOTING
===================================
favwriteDescribe lists, text file names, and titles are limited to approximately 250 characters in length.

If web page html files you specify are marked as read-only or have the same name as text files you will get an error message.

To prevent this from happening simply right-click the files and make sure the read-only box is unchecked.
Also make sure that the name of the text file and html file you type are not the exact same. 

Decription text file should come after the url list in the batch file

SUPPORT/DISCLAIMER
===================================
Use this program at your own risk.