Overall Appearance

This page contains the basic configurations I made which affected the overall appearance of the HTML Kit program interface. The main idea was to create more space and do away with some of the 'clutter' (stuff that I was inclined to use much less frequently). Click on the buttons marked More Information Please... for details about why I did what.

Appearance of Main Menu, Workspace and Message Window

MAKING APPEARANCES

Use Windows 95 style menus, Appearance of Workspace and Message Windows: I prefer to have the menus, Workspace and the Message Window all colored gray thus reserving a white background style just for the Editing Window. Using Windows 95 style menus will also shorten the height of the drop-down menus creating a more compact look.

No High Color Icons I prefer the clean crisp look of the old-style 256 color icons.

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Figure 1 - Screenshot of Misc. tab on Preferences dialog

If you already have the Preferences dialog up, go to the Misc tab.

(If you don't have the Preferences dialog up, click on Edit » Preferences » Misc.)

Click to check
Use Windows 95 style menus
Click to clear
Use high color icons on the Toolbar

Go to Workspace tab in
Preferences dialog.

Click to check Match border colors

Go to Messages tab in
Preferences dialog.

Click to check Match border colors

Click OK to apply all settings.

Restart HTML Kit.

(If you've been following this tutorial from the beginning, you don't have to save 'untitled'. When HTML Kit restarts, just click OK to create a new file.)

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Close Workspace, Message Window, Tabs bar and Toolbars

CLEAR THE CLUTTER

Workspace and Message Window - If you're like me, you'll see the Workspace and the Message Window as peripheral functions that won't be used nearly as much as the Editing Window. Typically, they will come into play at the end of a work session to validate source code and to upload files. Hence off the desktop they both go.

Tabs bar - The Tabs bar appears at the bottom of the Editing Window and contains four tabs labelled, Editor, Preview, Output and Split View which allows you to quickly toggle between the Editing Window, the Preview Window (what your web page will actually look like), the Output window (contains corrected code after running your page through HTML Tidy) and Split View (Editing Window / Output window) respectively.

I have no use for the Preview tab since I always fire up the actual browser itself (be it IE 6, Mozilla, Netscape, whatever...) to preview my documents in progress. I guess this harks back to the days that I just used NotePad and Internet Explorer to slap together my web pages. Likewise I always use the W3C online validating service so I have no need really for the Output window and nor for Split View. So off goes the Tabs bar.

Tools and the Windows toolbars - The Tools and the Windows toolbars also contain options related to previewing, validating and other stuff that I'm inclined to use much less frequently (if ever). So once again... off they go as well.

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Click on Edit » Preferences » Editor
Click to clear Show window tabs bar

Click OK.

Click on View » Workspace
Click on View » Messages
Click on View » Editor » Show Tabs bar
Click on View » Toolbars » Windows
Click on View » Toolbars » Tools

To reverse any of these, simply repeat the same respective action in the View menu. HTML Kit will remember how you had your desktop configured each time you shut it down. Hence, if your Workspace was open when you shut down then it will be open when you restart.

To quickly toggle between the Editing Window and the Preview Window, press F12 on your keyboard.

To demonstrate, type "Hey! How's it going?" in the Editing Window anywhere between the <body>...</body> tags and then press F12. Press F12 again to return to the Editing Window.

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Move and dock Task Bar at the top

DOCKING THE TASK BAR AT THE TOP

I did this partly because it just seemed to make sense to have all the HTML Kit program buttons grouped together at the top to create a kind of 'dashboard'. This also visually separates the HTML Kit Task Bar from the Windows task bar, the latter of which for me is always stuffed to the gills with tabs related to other running processes that usually accompany my HTML editing sessions. Admittedly though, the primary reason I moved the HTML Kit Task Bar to the top was so that it would emulate another HTML editor that I had become very accustomed to. (What can I say? Old habits die hard... heh heh... )

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Click and hold on the double vertical line at the far left of the Task Bar produce a dotted outline around it.

Figure 2 - Screenshot of Moving the Task Bar

Move Task Bar up to hover over Actions Bar. Release left mouse button to drop Task Bar in place. It will automatically dock below the Actions bar.

MOVING AND DOCKING OTHER STUFF

To undock the Main Menu, the Actions Bar or any of the Toolbars, simply double-click on the double vertical line (or the horizontal hash marks) at the far left of the respective bar. To automatically dock it back into original position, double-click on its title bar. To dock it on the left side, the right side or the bottom of the HTML Kit program window, click and hold on the double vertical line and drag the bar to the far left, to the far right or to the bottom. Release to dock it in place.

TO QUICKLY DOCK THE ACTIONS BAR LEFT, RIGHT, TOP OR BOTTOM:

Right click any button on the Actions bar.
In the popup menu, hover your mouse pointer over Dock.
Select and click the position where you want to dock the Actions bar.

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Turn off tooltips

TURN OFF TOOLTIPS

I figured that since hovering over anything in HTML Kit will display an explanatory message in the Status Bar anyway, then there's no need to have tooltips as well. This is especially true since tooltips are of a come-and-go nature and they often disappear before I fully absorb what is being said. The Status Bar messages, on the other hand, stay up as long as your mouse pointer remains hovering over the respective component and hence much better serve their intended purpose.

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Right click anywhere on Toolbars

Click on Customize » Options
Click to clear Show tooltips on Toolbars

Click Close to apply.

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Next we'll configure HTML Kit to open with no file loaded so that you can make a clean start every time you begin working. We'll also configure some Windows and Internet Explorer shortcuts so that HTML Kit is never too far away...

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