Easy HTML for cache descriptions?

[+La Deep Hike]

Hi cachers:

 

I could use some help with easy HTML for my cache descriptions (links, pix, tables, etc.)

 

I've tried any number of tricks available via Googling, but just cannot get easy HTML up and running. I run MS Office Word 2007 on a Windows EX machine, and it seems it'd be simple to save a Word doc as a Web page, then view source and select all and paste in -- but neither that nor any tricks I've researched that stem from that yield even remotely clean and viewable HTML.

 

Help! How do *you* create your HTML cache descriptions, aside from creating it from scratch? I'd rather spend my time creating/solving puzzles and actually caching rather than futzing with my rudimentary HTML skills.

 

Thanks, and cache on,

Lucrezia La Deep Hike

[hardkoretech]

Hi cachers:

 

I could use some help with easy HTML for my cache descriptions (links, pix, tables, etc.)

 

I've tried any number of tricks available via Googling, but just cannot get easy HTML up and running. I run MS Office Word 2007 on a Windows EX machine, and it seems it'd be simple to save a Word doc as a Web page, then view source and select all and paste in -- but neither that nor any tricks I've researched that stem from that yield even remotely clean and viewable HTML.

 

Help! How do *you* create your HTML cache descriptions, aside from creating it from scratch? I'd rather spend my time creating/solving puzzles and actually caching rather than futzing with my rudimentary HTML skills.

 

Thanks, and cache on,

Lucrezia La Deep Hike

Word adds too much "carp" to the actual coding. for an image simply use

<img src="url of imagegoes here">

For a link use

<a href="where you want to link to">what word(s) you want the link to have</a>

 

for more coding help I recommend going to www.webmonkey.com

[+J-Way]

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flatery".

 

I'm sure there are books you can buy and web-tutorials you can read. But the simplest method is to find a cache description you like, select View -> Source, and see what they did. Or even send a PM/email to ASK what they did. The disadvantage of this method is that it might require manual HTML coding, unless the owner can hook you up with the software they used.

[+Kealia]

I think most WYSIWYG editors add stuff in that causes problems.

 

Using simple HTML code is the easiest way IMO.

 

Google HTML code or HTML tags and you'll find some simple pages that will allow you to format what you want fairly easily. It's really not very hard at all if you're looking for simple formatting. Tables may be a bit much to start with if you're not comfortable editing/writing HTML but I'm betting you could get around that if needed.

[+DavidMac]

I would recommend that you NOT use Word or Frontpage to generate HTML, for several reasons. First, the HTML generated by these programs is often much more bloated than it needs to be (remember, we're talking Microsoft here ), thus you will run into the description size limit sooner. Second, HTMLtidy (server-side software use by gc.com to filter code from cache pages) can completely destroy code that does not follow fairly strict standards or uses nonstandard tags. Third, many of the HTML "bells and whistles" offered by these Microsoft programs do not follow web standards, and thus will not display correctly unless visitors are using Internet Explorer (even then, maybe it still won't always be consistent).

 

I think there's a list floating around somewhere that outlines what tags Tidy will accept.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Easy HTML for your cache page

 

[+paleolith]

I agree with the others, "save as HTML" from any word processor will give you terrible headaches and possibly incinerate your firstborn child.

 

The only tags I've used in a description are (I think) p, b, a, img, table and the subtags of table.

 

As already mentioned, it may be easiest to imitate. The key is to select and copy an important series of words in the description, then show the HTML source, then find what you copied.

 

Here's a cache with some bold text and some external links.

 

Here's a cache with bold text, a table, and an image hosted on gc.com. Note that you upload the image for the description, then get its URL and put that in the description text.

 

Here's a cache with several embedded images, all of which link to larger images, which are displayed using the "lightbox" technique that you see used for photos in logs.

 

Edward

[+keehotee]

Yes it's a wysiwyg editor - but I use NVu and don't have any problems...

http://www.nvu.com/

(and it's free)

[+GIDEON-X]

Hi, I've messed with several editors and found them a pain.........I free-hand all my pages, the tags needed are not all that hard to keep in my head.........oh sure I do have a mental lapse at times and have to go to my cheat-sheet. Here's one of my pages Utilites-101 ................................

[+Trucker Lee]

My solution was to find an HTML guide online and open in a seperate browser. Then, finding the proper format for my wants, simply cut and paste it in the example, add my info and delete the unneeded. I was less prone to mis-enter the code this way.

 

Just Google HTML and several of the guides will be prominent. Check them out to see which you prefer.

[+Prime Suspect]

Yes it's a wysiwyg editor - but I use NVu and don't have any problems...

http://www.nvu.com/

(and it's free)

I'll add another vote for Nvu. Generates very clean code.