I really don’t understand how HTML works, etc. So, this question comes from complete ignorance.
My son is actually a software engineer among other things. Is there some way I could put up a simple TBX tree map, or map? I have my own website, maybe I could put it there or somewhere temporarily. I just want him to be able to open up both the map window and the text window. So a JPEG wouldn’t be good enough. Or I could send him the HTML code and he could do something with it so he could see it. That would probably require that he has TBX. But he doesn’t and probably has no interest.
Simplistic Approach
Choose Edit ▸ Copy View As Image to copy the view to your clipboard, and then paste the map into (say) an email message. Then copy the text, and paste that into nd email message.
Even Simpler
Open a big Tinderbox window with text and map visible. Make a screen shot. Send that.
Easy Approach
Have your son download the Tinderbox demo. Send him your Tinderbox file. He can explore it, though he won’t be able to extend it.
It’s probably worth adding that whilst Tinderbox has a very flexible export system for notes (including inline images), it doesn’t export views. So there’s no button click export to give, for instance, a Map view in HTML form. But the method mention above to save as an image is pretty neat. If you paste the image into Preview, rather than straight into a bitmap image editor, you’ll find the exported map image is in vector data and so you could probably make it into a large SVG image (no idea on how resource intensive).
For anyone wanting to take some starter steps at HTML export, there are some demo exercises written here, They are marked as ‘v6’ but the export process is unchanged.
Edit: fixed link to demo files.
Where are the demo exercises located?
Mark, I am not so sure what you are referring to. Could you cite an example that is already on a webpage?
I would like to use this for another project where I want to translate pages in a book that is mostly photos. I want to put the translations on a website so others can easily see it. I don’t want to invest a lot of time into formatting text translation that fits the photo. If the text can be clicked to pop out like a note would, that would be ideal.
In the past, I have seen examples of notes that can be clicked open. I thought it was a map view, but perhaps the note is simply positioned like a jpeg would be. Being able to open and close the notes, makes for a visually simple access.
Mark B,
Thanks. I already did you suggestions of copy paste in an email.
Mark A, I never realized that Preview uses a different editor. I guess any jpeg gets more resource expensive as it get larger and more easily visible.
Is the beauty of exporting HTML that you reduce resource use?
Mark B, Downloading a demo is a great idea. The problem it, there is a learning curve to using TBX. My son would have no problems, but a person like me would have to struggle up the learning curve. I am thinking of putting up things for a less computer literate reader.
I’m not sure why the link I put in a previous post didn’t turn up, but here it is: http://www.acrobatfaq.com/tbdemos/HTML-v6.zip (I’ll fix it in the previous post too.).
I’d suggest trying out the demos. They aren’t complex - you just open a document and export it to HTML. The idea is that you can see the relationship between source text, export templates and what actually get exported. The only difference in v7 is you can embed images in note $Text. If you do that the images are exported, as described here.
Tinderbox doesn’t, by intent, design web sites for you. That is left tor the user as there’s no one-size-fits-all design and providing complete finished websites is not part of Tinderbox’s purpose. If you don’t know how to design your website, perhaps your son could show you how to do this or I believe one can find plenty of freelancers online who can design for you for modest sums (designers have to eat too!). I appreciate you value your free time, but do please remember everyone here is helping you in their free time - this is user-to-user forum rather than vendor tech support.
I think you’ve misunderstood Mark B’s last suggestion. If, as you say, your son would have no problem understanding the Tinderbox demo and he understands HTML, then he would be able to show how you to do export or implement something for you to use (without you needing to have full understanding of the process).
In the past, I have seen examples of notes that can be clicked open. I thought it was a map view, but perhaps the note is simply positioned like a jpeg would be. Being able to open and close the notes, makes for a visually simple access.
It sounds like you’re talking about Tinderbox up to v5. From v6, the design moved to a single window concept - the view is shown in the left pane and the selected note in the view is shown in the right pane. However, as stated, views aren’t exportable to HTML as visual layouts. The design expectation is that generally notes are exported. It’s not impossible, but certainly not trivial, to try and re-create views in HTML form but you will need to design that (or commission someone to do that for you).
Instead of starting with what can’t be done, I’d look at the demo examples an see how you could build out from those.
Thank-you Mark A. I do appreciate that you are volunteering your free time. Doing a Phd at the same time, I don’t know how you do it.
I couldn’t open the zipfile, but maybe something wrong with my Sierra upgrade. I will try again with the next Sierra upgrade.
Probably, When there are so many more basic things about Tbx that I don’t understand, I am pushing the envelope trying to get a TBX note on to my website.
I will try again later. Half of my inquiry is motivated by trying to understand what can be done with TBX. Gotta master that basics first. Can’t afford to be impatient.
Ellen
Odd, the Zip works here. In Finder, select the ZIP file, right-click an on the pop-up menu put your mouse over the ‘Open with’ item which makes a sub-menu appear. Choose “Archive Utility.app” from the list and your zip should unpack. Archive Utility is Mac’s default for this but you may have something installed that has hijacked’ the association with the ‘.zip’ extension so Finder does the wrong thing when you try to open it. Or, it might be worth asking your sun if he can check ZIPs are working OK on your system. My hunch is it’s something small and trivial, albeit unguessable before the fact.
Here’s a different tack. I’ve made the same content used for the ZIP into a Disk Image (DMG) instead. Try downloading and mounting this: http://www.acrobatfaq.com/tbdemos/TB7-HTML-export.dmg
If the DMG mounts OK, it’s IMPORTANT you move to copy to your local hard disk before you try to open any files.
Hi Mark A,
The utility worked. I closed it and opened it again. A typical glitch. I am just slow to make amends.
I found the manual v6 and read about exporting. There I learned about templates. Not that I learned anything, but it was also in my menu bar. It seems so obvious to you, but even poking around to find the template HTML took some investigation.
So, I am guessing that I would not be able to just copy my text to many websites like github. But, Wordpress allows me to copy any text. Although the extra hidden information in for example, a word document is dead weight. So, this export system would eliminate this problem. Then I just copy the text and/or photo to my site page and format it there. Is this the idea, if I need the text for my webpage?
Ideally, if my webpage is laid out as a map or outline in TBX, then I have a map of pages and perhaps even links that reflects the organization of my site.
Best,
Ellen
I’m not clear what “manual v6” you read, but I’d suggest that now v7 is out you use the v7 version . You’ll note above that I also specifically re-wrote the HTML exercises for you using v7 so as to include image export examples. So, it might be worth giving those a try.
Not that I learned anything, but it was also in my menu bar.
I’m not sure what you mean by this.
I think a number of false assumptions are confusing you. Tinderbox is a Mac desktop tool for note taking. It has a powerful export mechanism for HTML (and other formats) but doing so it mainly left as an exercise for the user. It is not a blogging tool per se. Wordpress is a database-backed online website tool. Chalk and cheese.
If you’re unfamiliar with HTML, I think github probably isn’t something to which you should try exporting as a first exercise.
Ideally, if my webpage is laid out as a map or outline in TBX, then I have a map of pages and perhaps even links that reflects the organization of my site.
For export, I’d recommend working in Outline view as it’s a more intuitive mapping to the output.