Python script to use HTMLDOC with UTF-8 files

You know, HTMLDOC is a good tool to complement txt2tags features, specially to break an HTML file into multiple pages.

But the current version of HTMLDOC (1.8.x) has no Unicode support.

When you try to use it to convert or split an UTF-8 file, all the special characters (not ASCII) will be incorrect in the resulting HTML.

The Unicode support will be released on the 1.9 version, which is still in beta stage.

If you can’t wait for the stable 1.9 release or are stuck into an old version and just want a quick solution to your messed files, try my Python script:
fix-htmldoc-utf8.py

It restores the original UTF-8 characters that HTMLDOC has messed.

You can use it as a filter (reads STDIN, results to STDOUT):

cat myfile.html | fix-htmldoc-utf8 > myfile-ok.html

You can inform the file and send the results to STDOUT:

fix-htmldoc-utf8 myfile.html > myfile-ok.html

Or you can use the -w option fix the file in place:

fix-htmldoc-utf8 -w myfile.html

Enjoy!

New tool for webmasters: gensite

I know, you have a beautiful website that rocks the neighborhood. The styles are all separated in nice CSS files. The contents are text files that you convert to HTML with txt2tags, of course!

It works just fine.

But everytime you edit some file, you have to remember to convert it to HTML. And maybe you also have to copy this updated file to your web server.

For just a few files you can do it by hand every time. But as the site grows, it’s easy to lose control.

Enter Dave Fancella’s gensite tool. It’s a Python program that detects which files has been modified and automatically converts them with txt2tags. It can also copy the generated HTML files to a new destination. You can use command line options and even create a configuration file to fit your conversion needs.

Go to Dave’s site for detailed information on WHY and HOW. Oh, and yes, his site is txt2tags powered :)

Txt2tags + NanoBlogger

Gabriel Kerneis write me to talk about the NanoBlogger plugin for txt2tags he have written.

If you’re a NanoBlogger addict, don’t miss this plugin so you can use our beloved simple txt2tags markup in your blog posts!

Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) with txt2tags

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all diferent.

If you decide to go left, turn to page 4.
If you decide to go right, turn to page 5.
If you decide to cry, do it ;)

Jokes apart, this the format of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, where the reader can decide the flow (an the end) of the story.

What if you want to make your very own CYOA book?

You could use a PDF file as the book, it has pages. As a bonus, you can also use direct links to the pages on the “turn to page 4″ excerpts, improving the user experience.

Looks cool enough? And what if I say that you can do it all in a single nice flat text file?

Eric Forgeot has written an article teaching how to transform a text file into a full CYOA book, using txt2tags. The article is itself a CYOA, check it out now: txt2CYOA : a “choose your own adventure” easily made with txt2tags.

I don’t know about you, but I’m amazed to see how creative the txt2tags users are!

Txt2tags and gedit

Stefano D’Archino told us about his new creation: the txt2tags language file for gedit.

His instructions follows:

• Put the file in /usr/share/gtksourceview-1.0/language-spec
• Adjust the colors for the syntax in Gedit preferences

Zoom.Quiet, a long time txt2tags user, gave us a nice screenshot of his gedit using this file:

FYI: gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. I know you already knew that, but… You know :)

TextMate Txt2tags Bundle

If you’re one lucky guy/girl that owns a copy of the excellent TextMate text editor, listen on and prepare the “Hooray!”.

I’m a recently converted TextMate user and as you may wonder, to edit txt2tags files is part of my everyday routine. Websites, articles and books, everything is t2t-marked.

For a few days I’ve used TextMate on the “black & white mode” and that was real unsexy. A decade of Vim hardcore use told me that syntax highlight is a Good Thing.

I’m the Great Cornholio! I need some T.P. for my Bundle!

For my total surprise, the making of the TextMate Txt2tags Bundle was a breeze. It’s damn easy to add the syntax rules and as the regexes format are similar to Python’s, it was a copy & paste dream.

Since I was there, I just couldn’t stop.

Besides the colors for the txt2tags markup, we also have:

• Tab Triggers for all the marks
  
  Just type the mark’s character and hit Tab. For example, to start a bold sentence, hit “*” followed by a Tab. It will expand to “****“, with the cursor right at the middle, waiting for your words to be inserted. Very handy!
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  
  Still on the bold example, you can select your words and press Command-B. They’ll be surrounded by the “**” marks. Quick comment/uncomment a block of lines with Command-/ and move quotation in and out with Command-] and Command-[.
  
  To type a link, it’s even cooler. First, copy the desired URL to the clipboard (Command-C, you know). Then type Control-Shift-L and the link mark will appear, with the URL already filled. Type the link name and press Tab to leave the mark. Killer!
  
  You can also select some already-typed text, press Control-Shift-L and see it being linked without any typing. The same works for titles, images and even tables (just Tab-delimit your data and press Control-Shift-|).
  
  Press Command-Esc at any time to get the key listing:
  
  
  Tip: Use keyboard shortcuts for selected text, use tab triggers for to-be-typed text.
• Tab Triggers for all settings and macros
  
  Never read the Txt2tags User Guide anymore. Just type the setting name followed by a Tab to have all it’s arguments shown. And what about those funky “%Y %m” for the %%date macro? No problem, type “date” and hit Tab.
• Drag’n'drop support
  
  Images, other txt2tags files and HTML files. Just drag them to the editor and watch the magic happening!
• Ready-to-use template for UNIX man pages
  
  Load the template, fill your program’s data and there it is: you have a full featured man page. To start, choose File > New From Template > Txt2tags > Manual Page (man).
• Painless conversion process
  
  There are several shortcuts to automate the conversion process and see the results.
  • Under the “Convert to…” menu you can convert your document to any txt2tags-supported format with a single click.
  • Press Control-Option-Command-P (Wow, that hurts to type, but it’s easy to press) to get an instant clear text-only version of your document, just in case the markup is stealing your attention.
  • My favorite: press Control-Command-P to convert the file to HTML and open it in Safari (or your other default browser). It avoids the boring save-convert-switch-reload every time you’re editing your site pages.

Check out the full bundle menu expanded to finally shout your Hooray!:

That’s it! Download and double click to install.

New version 0.3 for QuasiWiki (Txt2tags’ OpenOffice.org extension)

Dmitri Popov wrote me to tell that there’s a new version for his impressive QuasiWiki, an OpenOffice.org extension that lets you use the txt2tags markup in Office documents!

Dmitri says: “I thought you would like to know that I’ve released version 0.3 of the txt2tags extension for OpenOffice.org. The new release features some nice icons, bug fixes, and a few code tweaks.”

Wixi - A desktop wiki powered by txt2tags

You know what is a wiki, right? It’s a collaborative website where visitors can read and change its contents. Think Wikipedia.

What you may don’t know is that the wiki concept can be brought to your own computer, running as a nice standalone application. Then you can easily edit multiple documents using all the wiki’s benefits: save, compare (diff), restore, organize and link them.

That’s just what Kees Remmelzwaal has made. Wixi is a desktop wiki application that runs on Linux, Windows and Macs.

But wait, there’s more!

• Guess which is the markup used by this software, when editing documents?
• Guess which program is used to convert this markup to HTML, LaTeX and many other formats?

Txt2tags. Txt2tags.

If you are getting crazy trying to organize all those t2t files hanging around your disk, you should definitely give Wixi a try.

Txt2tags Web Editor

Let’s start 2007 with good news!

David Area from Spain brings us the brand new Txt2tags Web Editor.

It’s a web editor for txt2tags files, similar to editors found in phpBB forums. You write your text on the box and use the special buttons on the left to add formatting to it. For example, to make some text appear in monospaced font, just select it and press the “Mono” button. Quick!

The “Directives” menu is also very handy to insert all those funny %Y, %m and friends for the %%date macro.

This web editor is a mix of PHP and Javascript code, licensed under the GPL. You can download it if you want. The download page is in Spanish, but just click on the green ball and be happy.

Ktxt2tags Service Menu

More good news for you, KDE people!

David Area, a long time txt2tags user has made a Konqueror Service Menu to integrate ktxt2tags in the contextual menus of Konqueror.

Now you can right-click any .t2t file in your disk and choose the “Process with Ktxt2tags” menu item to open the file in ktxt2tags. Pretty handy!