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Using jEdit

Some of the basic features of jEdit are outlined below to help you get started using the program.

  1. View of jEdit
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    Figure A: A typical view of jEdit
  2. File System Browser

    This browser shows you the directory of the current file on your computer and allows you to browse other directories to find other files. The pathname for the selected file is displayed in the Path: box at the top.

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    Figure B: File system browser
  3. Tool Bar

    Performs several basic functions listed below. 

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    Figure C: Tool bar
  4. Working Area

    This is the central, text-editing region of the jEdit application where you edit all your buffers, or files.

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    Figure D: Work area
  5. Buffer Tabs

    Shows all opened buffers as a series of tabs. The floppy disk icon next to the buffer name indicates new changes that you've made have not yet been saved. Once the changes have been saved, a diamond symbol appears before the buffer name. A new document is distinguished by a star.

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    Figure E: Buffer tabs
  6. Clipper

    Provides a list of all XHTML tags and character entity codes.

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    Figure F: Clipper
  7. Editing Pages

    jEdit includes several features that help you create XHTML documents. These features can be used on any document with a recognized web file extension, like .html. Some of these features are:

    1. Closing tags; e.g. if you have an open tag and begin typing the end tag, jEdit will quickly complete the end tag for you.
    2. Color-coded XHTML documents to make it easy to see begin and end tags and to distinguish between tags and content.
    3. Lists of possible tags are displayed as you type; e.g. if you start typing a header element, jEdit will show a list of header tags to choose from
    4. Lists of possible elements and values appear for certain tags you choose.

    jEdit also provides a convenience reference list of XHTML tags and XHTML character entity codes. These are located on the right side of the window.

    Note: If you are make drastic changes to an existing page, you may want to save a copy of your old page in case something goes wrong. To do this open the original file, choose File >> Save As from the menu and give the file a new name. Then open the original file again and make your changes.

  8. Saving

    To save changes you've made to an existing file, you can choose File >> Save from the menu. If you have a created a new page, it's a good idea to save your document before you start adding XHTML. By saving your document with the extension .html, jEdit recognizes that you are creating a webpage, which enables additional features (such as color-coding and tag completion) to help you.

  9. Previewing

    To test a personal page, open a web browser and enter http://personal.denison.edu/~[username] in the address bar. To test an official Denison page, open a web browser and enter http://staging.denison.edu/ and navigate to your page. Be sure you are pointed to staging, because page changes won't be reflected on the Denison production server (http://www.denison.edu/) until you publish them through Seshat.