Dead Space

Are you using Design view? The third-party control we use for that MAY have some sort of bug that adds that space into your document.

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I switched back and forth between source and design many times.

Sounds like you are telling me that this is something I should expect to just live with?

Unfortunately I don't know if that's what's doing it or not. If you work in Design view and when you switch back you notice more spaces being added, it most likely is the problem.

If this is the case and since the bug lies somewhere in Microsoft's code, we cannot fix it ourselves. You'll find that a lot of other HTML editors that offer WYSIWYG modes also use this component and will experience the same problem. Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

I'm sorry, but the program is unacceptable. On a recent page, I ended up with 1300+ lines of code, almost 1000 of which was "dead space" composed randomly of spaces, tabs, and line feeds.

I don't care whose fault it is - Spider Writer does not perform adequately.

This is a great program in all other regards. However, if I can't use the design function, the program is no good to me.

Please tell me how to arrange to have my payment refunded.

I'm sorry, but the program is unacceptable. On a recent page, I ended up with 1300+ lines of code, almost 1000 of which was "dead space" composed randomly of spaces, tabs, and line feeds. This only seems to happen when I bring in existing code, not from when I compose.

I don't care whose fault it is - Spider Writer does not perform adequately.

This is a great program in all other regards. However, if I can't use the design function, the program is no good to me.

Please tell me how to arrange to have my payment refunded.

Don't give up on us yet, Barry. We've investigated the problem and we have two possible solutions.

1) There is a SourceCodePreservation option that we currently have set on for that control. The line feed bug seems to lie in Microsoft's implementation of that feature. We tried turning it off and it removed all space. What that option attempts to do is keep the formatting of the source code similar to the way you originally had the file. This is useful for source code programmers but not for people like you who are more interested in WYSIWYG editing. The option here is to make an option in the Settings that turns this on or off.

2) Change the Beautify feature to remove excess blank lines. This would require an extra step for you though so I'm more inclined to do the first option since it would be simpler for us to implement and easier for you to use.

We can get this in the next release of Spider Writer if you'd like.

If you can do the above, it would be worth waiting for.

Question though - I do write HTML code and go back and forth between "design" and "source". Will the proposed change to the "SourceCodePreservation option" affect me at all in that regard?

Also, I just tried beautify and that added tab/indent marks before almost every line. Any idea what that is about?

Anyway, I'll hang in there for the next release (any estimates?).

Thanks for being so responsive!

Whenever we capture the text from the Design view (when you Save or when you switch to Document Source view) the new option will take effect. We added the new Source Code Preservation option in the Display Options node of the Settings dialog. It will ship with Spider Writer 5.02.

Beautify is supposed to properly indent HTML. It currently doesn't remove blank lines if you have them in there.

Spider Writer 5.02 should be released in several weeks. I can make you a beta tester so you can try out the new feature sooner.

I would be happy to be a beta site for you.

Also, I can do a clean up myself IF I could figure out how to insert a tab into a search and replace (with nothing).

In the interim, I also wouldn't mind taking the extra steps you mentioned when using Beautify to remove excess blank lines. All I need to know is how.

To search for tabs, just highlight a tab in the Document Source view. Then open the Extended Find/Replace window. This should automatically load the tab character into the find textbox.

Like I said earlier the Beautify feature currently doesn't remove lines. That was an option for the future.