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Creating better superscripts and subscripts

HTML character attributes

Character attributes such as font and size, and paragraph attributes such alignment and indentation, for HTML text are determined by the browser but you can set a limited range of character attributes to override these browser settings.

This chapter explains how to apply HTML attributes to text using either the Inspector palette or the Style dialog box. The options work in the same way in both controls. In some instances, you can also use keyboard shortcuts. To follow the sections make sure you have displayed the Inspector palette (choose View/Inspector if it's not already visible)

Font

When HTML text is displayed in a browser, it will be displayed in the browser's default proportional font, if no attributes are specified for Font in Freeway. For most browsers, this default is Times or the equivalent initially, but users frequently alter their default browser font, so you can't predict what font the page will be seen in by a visitor to your site, unless you specify a particular font set in Freeway.

Proportional or fixed fonts

You can choose between a proportionately spaced or a fixed space font.

The actual font which will be used is completely up to the visitor to your site, and is specified in their browser preferences.

Applying Font Sets

Some browsers can read additional HTML tags which allow the designer to select fonts to be used instead of the default proportional font. Because the actual font must be present on the visitor's machine, and even the names of the standard fonts vary across different computing platforms, font sets normally define a series of alternative font names, which the Web browser attempts to display the text in, in order of preference. If none of the fonts named in the font set are available on the visitors machine, the browser default font will then be used.

Freeway provides a list of four default font sets, named as follows: Times, Courier, Helvetica and Symbol. Versions of these fonts are commonly found on most computer systems and will be used if the browser can read the font tags and has the fonts on the system. Because the names of the fonts vary across systems, alternative names are specified in the font set definition and in the HTML output. You set up and edit font sets using the preferences dialog in Freeway.

You can apply a different font set to a run of text using the popup menu in the Text Panel of the Inspector palette or the Style dialog box.

For example, to change the font of a text selection to Symbol:

1. Select a run of text.

2. Choose Symbol from the font popup menu.

Defining new font sets

You can specify new font sets as follows:

1. Choose File/Preferences

2. Click the font sets icon

3. Click Add, and specify a name with which to refer to the new set. This name will appear in the HTML Font popup menu.

4. Choose a screen font which will be used within Freeway to display text which has this font set applied to it.

5. Enter the list of font names you wish to use as the set, separated by commas. You must take care to spell the font names correctly.

Type style

The available HTML type styles are plain, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and blink.

Applying a type style

Using the Inspector palette

You can apply type styles by choosing from the Style buttons in the Text panel of the Inspector palette or the Style dialog box:

1. Select the text.

2. Apply type styles by clicking on the appropriate buttons.

Text set to Blink will flash on and off in the browser screen. You can see this effect using Preview to build the site and launch your default browser.

Using the Style menu

You can also apply type styles using the Style/Type Style menu options.

The Style dialog allows you to apply these attributes to a style.

Character size

The size of HTML characters is set by the browser. You are able to influence the point size by choosing larger or smaller point sizes. However, the actual size viewed by the reader is still determined by the browser.

It is essential to note that the standard point sizes in use by browsers are different on Windows PC's compared to Macintosh computers, and are much larger. Because of this, and because the visitor can additionally set the size larger or smaller as they choose, you cannot predict accurately how many lines your text will occupy when viewed, compared with how it appears in Freeway, nor can you be sure how many words to the line there will be. Do not use Shift-Returns (line breaks) to try to control the line breaking, as these will shift and the breaking will be wrong when the page is viewed.

You set the size of an HTML character or selection using the Inspector palette, the Style menu or the Style dialog box. Freeway also provides keyboard shortcuts for altering the character size.

Using the Inspector palette

The simplest way is to apply the increase or decrease in size from the Size popup menu in the Text panel of the Inspector palette.

Using the Style menu

You can choose directly from the list displayed in the Style/Size menu.

The style dialog box also allows you to apply size to a style.

Color

You can change character color using the Inspector palette, the Style menu, the Style dialog box or the Colors palette.

Using the Inspector palette

The most direct method is the Text Panel in the Inspector palette:

1. Select the text.

2. Choose from the Color popup menu.

If you want to apply a custom color:

1. Choose Color/Other.... Freeway displays the color picker.

2. Select the required color and click OK.

There's more on choosing and defining colors in Working with color.

Using the Style menu

One method is to choose directly from the list of colors displayed in the Style menu. You can apply a custom color by choosing Other....

You can also apply color using the Style dialog box.

Shift

HTML allows you to specify a change in the baseline of selected characters in relation to the normal position. Unlike the baseline shift available for GIF text, this Shift for HTML text also decreases the size of the characters slightly. There are three levels of shift which can be applied plus or minus. The change in size and vertical position is greater the more shift you apply. Shift in HTML is therefore more like superscripting or subscripting than true baseline shift.

You can change the baseline using the Inspector palette, the Style menu, or the Style dialog box. Freeway provides keyboard shortcuts for altering the baseline shift.

Using the Inspector palette

1. Select the text.

2. Choose the relative change in baseline from the Shift popup menu.

A negative value lowers the baseline; a positive value raises the baseline.

Using the Style menu

You can also choose directly from the list of values displayed in the Style menu.

Creating better superscripts and subscripts

You can create better superscripts and subscripts by combining a shift in baseline with a change of character size, as the amount of HTML Shift necessary to reduce the character to a suitable size takes it too far up from the adjacent text.

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