Temple of Ranma's Sailor Senshi Seifuku

Spokavriel wrote: There is a way to keep everything on fanfiction.net . But even they keep truncating things. If you want to keep itallics bolds select the whole text on the screen then View Selected Source. It will have the tags still where all of that is. And you can do a find replace in most word processors that will let you quickly replace all the tags with what they really should be using only a few replace operations.

which still leaves me cutting and pasting into separate content boxes, which is the main time sink...

because if I just save it all from ff.net (and for some reason I can keep most italics and bold commands), it's still one lump sum of text which I can't just paste onto the web-builder and expect to separate itself...If I save otherwise, then put it up, the html is fine, but now I've lost my sidebar...

I don't particularly understand how the program is labeling content boxes for tags, it uses numbers somehow

so all I can foresee using some automatic thing is a massive headache of unnecessary corrections that would take even longer.

That's a pretty damn inefficient way or creating the content. I mean it's relatively easy to use but not efficient. If you have your original Word Processor DOC files or XML files of whatever file type you even use Word to save it as an HTML file (Save As) you can then copy the raw code it creates into the Web Builder you're using and then only fix the links, or you can use the program I linked before (Calibre) to convert the files to HTML as well and it will retain formatting. Word, and to a lesser extent Calibre, will maintain the Horizontal Bars and spacing when doing so. And yeah lots of your link process can be dramatically simplified with a CSS file and some JavaScript work.

I can summarize how to go about copying and pasting raw HTML code for you. But the JavaScript and CSS work is a little beyond me and it'd take hours of reading up on it till I would understand it which you could do yourself hehe.

@Frice2000

One item... Word can create HTML, Word can create PDF, Word can create RTF. However, it should be noted, the generated file and code is not very efficient at least for HTML, which I've looked at.

Functionally it is the same as a hand created one, and certainly easier since it is generated, but not efficient size wise or code placement and tag wise.

Many would not care. As a programmer myself I do though.

@Thrythlind.

In the end, it is your works, and your project, for your page. If the way you are doing it works for you... go with it. We may be able to see better ways... but if they are not what you are used to... you do not have to use them.

Wish you best of luck with it no matter the method done.

Oh I know Word is crazily inefficent with its HTML markup but it works and it displays alright. We're talking about it generating HTML code for text information it does that acceptably and standard enough to be readable in my mind. Now if Thrythlind was using it to add pictures and other more advanced code yes it'd suck for that.

As I am currently working as a web programmer for an university web portal, I can give you some tips. Mind you, I'm not a web designer, but I work in a very close contact with one so I picked a lot of things, at least in theory.

1. Try to find some CMS (Content Management System) that fits your needs. The idea is so transparent I even wrote a primitive CMS for my homepage before even knowing what a CMS is!
(I'm pretty sure what you are using is your hoster's CMS web-interface).

The basic idea is to separate content and the way it is represented (the page layout and style). This way you can do a complete rehaul of your website by only changing the "template" -- the thing that describes how your content will be presented.

Take, for example, a look at my homepage: http://www.chebmaster.narod.ru/ Each page, in its source form consists of its middle part with two commands "include header" and "include footer" at the respective ends. The header and footer are two single files, so I only have to change them once and then press the "Compile" button in the program that does all the dirty work to completely change my homepage design. The same goes for the side menu. The header contains command "include local submenu if found" and there are exactly one side menu file per section of the website. I only have to change it once and it reflects on all pages.

This is a primitive, home-made CMS and still it's immensely useful.

Then, there are such systems as Joomla (yeeech ) based on php that literally compose the web page on the fly from the fragments you provided.

The bottom line: never start a website lagrer than a few pages without basing it on some CMS or other. Without a CMS any massive change you'll need later turns into a tremendous chore. With CMS it's a breeze.

P.S. Let's look at http://ranma-fanfics.mikata.ru/ . It does not (or to be correct did not) use a CMS but it uses such thing as "virtual includes', which are very similar to php includes. When you view a page, the web server takes that page (which, in fact is just the center column framed with include directives at the top and the bottom) and inserts the header, the side menu (s) and the footer, from separate files composing the final page on the fly. Note that the style and position of the center column is ruled by the code in the header and footer (two files per whole site).

It's the same principle of separating content from the rules of its visual representation.

P.P.S CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a much older mechanism based on the same principle, if severely limited. You define the styles (fonts, colors, page elements width and height, background pictures used et cetera) in one .css file per site, then link all your pages to it. I have to only edit a couple lines in my .css, for example, and then upload it, to make my entire home page white on black background.

These things are relatively simple and totally worth the effort of learning the basics.

2. Try to find a pro web designer and have him look at your site. After you pick yourself together from feeling as an utterly useless failure and your design a horrifying mess of fundamental, inexcusable blunders... You'll have to start from the scratch. Believe me, it hurts. Been there, done that. But at least it doesn't kill you (read: it makes you stronger) and is (probably) worth the pain

my eventual hope is to earn enough money to be able to hire a pro web designer...

@Cheb - Not entirely correct. CSS and CMS have very different roles. CSS is a beautician, CMS is a secretary.