a_Introduction to the HW HTML Drafting Project
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Well done! You have found this illustrious wiki! The goal of the pages which you have chosen to broach upon is to proffer adequate description of both user interaction with and file structure of the HW HTML Drafting Program. Don't worry, this wiki will not be overly technical in nature but, I have been known to take liberties with turn of phrase.
Just have a look at the following diagram: It looks so complex that it maybe can't even be explained, right?
Wow, just look at all of those bright colours on this wordless key-map! It's enough to give somebody flashbacks of recent eye-strain. Are your hands feeling numb yet? Hopefully I am kidding because this keyboard layout isn't really so complicated at all. The reason for that is very simple: The entire program works completely inside of your web-browser. So, why does that matter?
Short and sweet: The browser is already using most of the keyboard shortcuts. The browser is 'completely-hogging' all of the alt and ctrl keyboard shortcuts. Naturally, this also extends to key-combinations with ctrl+alt, ctrl+shift, and the seldom used ctrl+alt+shift combinations… All that our little program has left is the scraps that the browser hasn't used: The shift+key combinations are all that was left. So just think, there are only so many letters in the English Alphabet, 26. This leaves us 52 combinations, right?
For now, let us continue on into the first of the very simple looking key-maps. Don't worry, the 52 keys that I mentioned earlier, we can actually double that number by considering caps lock to be a mode but, do not be discouraged because many of those keybindings are nearly duplicates.
When the caps lock is turned on, we are in 'Construction Mode', and when caps lock is turned off, we are in 'Style Mode'.
The following key-map is a bit smaller than the last one because I have decided that the number-pad will be treated separately, and so we will learn about it later. For now, the most important keys that we can consider are the alphabet keys, basically the ones in the middle.
So, you can see from this illustration that we have the letters in the middle, and the caps lock key over there on the left shown in yellow. Notice the keys highlighted in blue? Those blue keys have the same functions in both Construction-Mode and Style-Mode.
The keys which are indicated with the little red stars have a special function: While holding ctrl+shift, the mouse is able to enter a new part along the lines of the grid. The reason that I have included the letter T in this group is that it enables a mode that will temporarily disable the normal ctrl+shift action enjoyed with the mouse. So, if you are not sure why ctrl+shift is not allowing you to enter parts with the mouse, make sure that you press the G key. That will put the program back into a normal mode. Always remember that the G key is the safest key to press if you are not sure of what mode you are in.
If you want to know more about T, G, and other 'mode-enabling' keys, check out this link.
From this point we diverge into two different reading paths, we can read about Construction-Mode, or we can next read about Style-Mode… The choice is yours.
It is suggested that, if this is your first time reading through this wiki, that you first read about Construction-Mode. After all, if you have not 'constructed' anything, there will be nothing to 'style'.
However, if you prefer, learning the finer points of that thing which we call Style-Mode, the next one might be more to your liking. Fonts, colours, corners, padding, overflow, classes: What's not to like about that?
