I started my first PB webpage in January 2000, and found out all too soon how difficult it was to control. Backgrounds that identified me as a "webtver". Placement and alignment of text and graphics. No written information about how, or why things worked the way they did. Slow loading, and the on screen notices about how the publisher did not respond. The publisher was me, and I wanted to view my web page.
I have had my share of problems with the "Page Builder", but I have been working toward the defeat of the thing.
I began by searching out html tutorials on web developer sites. I found out about the latest versions of code acceptance. HTML, J-Script, CGI, PERL, and more. The knowledge I got off the net started to make sense to me. Then I put to use what I had learned. Now I will tell all I know, for the benifit of all Pagebuilders.
I found out later that I had company. That is to say that, this idea was being worked on by other people. I recognize the fact that Uncle Hughy aka h17 was the first to post a message in news:alt.pagebuilder.help with a somewhat similar method. I posted my discovery on 5-27-2000.
Initially, I just added a > to the right side of this portion <<>!-- of the comment tag to allow free access to the editor. The tag
<<>!> really doesn't need to be any more compicated.
Now I will tell you what I did, exactly as I did it.
I turned on the "webtv plus". I chose my name. I entered my password. I clicked on Community. I clicked on Page Builder. I clicked on Create, on the sidebar. I chose the gray background, but any page style will work. Then clicked Publish. Now I am at the "Ready To Publish" page. I removed the check from the box where it says "include in public list", then clicked Publish. I got the Congratulations "doc is now on the web it can be found at" page.
Then I clicked Done. Next I clicked on "Add an item". clicked on Text, and in the large textarea, typed;
><<>/head><<>body bgcolor="#000000" text="#ffffff" link="#000099" vlink="#006699">
After a short time I modified the > By adding to it so that it didn't show as code on the editor screen. Now it looks like this: <<>/>
You may use images for your backgrounds as well, using
( background="the image url" ) in the body tag.
I clicked Done, Publish again, Done again, Then clicked on Edit Title. Next I typed <<>/title><<>!//> into the title textarea. I clicked on the box with the checkmark that removes the title from the page. I clicked Done, and then Publish. That is it. The tag <<>!//> made it all possible. This allowed the editor to remain open to access, there is no more to do beyond the normal process. You may get a warning about markup in comment tags when you validate the page, but don't worry too much about it.
So, that took care of the background, the text color, and the choice of link colors, and I can change the body codes to suit myself with ease. This also allows an unrestricted use of the head area of the document.
To change, or add to your page, follow these instructions.
- Go to Page Builder Index
- Click on the page you want to change
- Click on Change Page
- Click on the Editor Box, or on Add an item.
- Add your image, code, or text
- Click on Done.
- Click on Publish
- To quickly see your page, click on Done first, and then Preview, not on the url.
(All of the page styles are closed by the pagebuilder. Let the page end properly. Do not violate your TOS, by disabling the Powered By WebTv link, and the barnesandnoble ad.)