Environment Options

This dialog box lets you determine global options to customize HTML Executable, default settings that will be used each time you start a new project, and miscellaneous properties.
You can access to the Environment Options dialog box by selecting the "Tools|Environment Options" menu command.

General Options

  • Show tips at startup: it will display the famous tip of the day each time you start HTML Executable. Note that you can still see them by using the "Help/Show Tips window" command. Highly recommended of course.
     
  • Create a file backup when a HTML page is modified: if you edit a HTML file using the internal HTML editor, HTML Executable can backup the original file before saving the changes back to the file. The backup filename will be the same except that the extension is changed to .BAK. Recommended.
     
  • Directly add files to publication using the relative path: when new files are being added (manually or using the Live Folder update), HTML Executable can prompt you to specify the publication virtual path for these files, or automatically find the best virtual path and use it. This option lets you actually disable the prompt and lets HTML Executable decide itself for the virtual paths. This is however NOT recommended: it is better to keep an eye on how files can be accessed in the publication at runtime.
     
  • Display the changes when an old project is converted: some changes may occur during the conversion when you open a project file created with HTML Executable 3.1. If this option is turned on, the program will display these changes once the project is converted.
     
  • Archive cache: compare file date-times when compiling: an additional option for the archive caching feature. HTML Executable only compresses files again when they were modified or the source file lists were updated; if this option is enabled, it stores the file date-times when it compresses them for the first time. For the next builds, it then compares the file date-times with the stored ones. If a pair is different, then it will compress all source files again. This option is highly recommended.
     
  • Timestamp feature enabled for digital signing: click here for further information. Requires the SignTool executable program file.

Additional Options

Pre-Processing Options

  • Automatically update [...] tags in HTML pages when compiling:

    HTML Executable can automatically make special changes (when required) to HTML pages when compiling them. These changes are not saved to the source file, but directly into the publication. These changes include updates of some HTML tags that control the display of specific external objects like Adobe Reader (for PDF files), Adobe Shockwave (for .DCR files) and Java applets.

    It is recommended to let HTML Executable make these changes, otherwise you would need to make them yourself in your source HTML files. However if you experiment troubles while browsing your publication, then disable these options.

    Note that the HTML Viewer runtime module now handles Adobe Flash object HTML tags directly without requiring the conversion to the PANEL tag. In addition to HEScript, you can use ActionScript to interact with the runtime module thanks to these script events: OnFlashFSCom or OnPageFlashFSCom. The option to convert these tags to the PANEL tag is still provided for compatibility, but it is deprecated.

    List of possible changes made:
     

    • For HTML Viewer publications: the HTML Viewer runtime module can work with a special HTML tag (PANEL tag) to display external objects in publications. This Panel tag can handle ActiveX controls like the Adobe Reader control, etc... For instance, if you compile a Web site, your page generally contains the default tags to display your ActiveX controls <object ID...>). HTML Executable will then automatically convert the default HTML tags to the tags recognized by the HTML viewer.

    • For IE Browser publications: due to the way the WebBrowser control handles Java applets, it should not be possible to directly run Java applets in a IE Browser publication. Anyway there is was workaround that sometimes works so Java applets can run (but with a limited support), provided that you let HTML Executable update your Java applet tags in HTML pages (click here for further information).
      Adobe Shockwave DCR files may also not work properly due to new Microsoft Windows security updates.
       
  • Mark modified HTML pages in log when compiling: if a HTML page is updated by HTML Executable when it is being processed, a notification can be put in the compilation log, so you can see which page(s) were modified (and actually you can test it then). As explained above, the HTML source file is not modified.

Search Engine Options

Word Delimiters: when compiling your publication, HTML Executable parses HTML pages to create an index with all words it finds. In order to determine the words, the parser uses delimiters which are special text characters, space, punctuation (comma, full-stop, etc...). You can determine the list of all word delimiters that will be used by the parser. Just enter each separator after another one.

Compatibility Options

Use the built-in protocol instead of HTTP: if you have Adobe Flash objects in your compiled publications that do not work properly, enable this option (for instance if you have a main Flash movie that loads another SWF or external files using ActionScript). By default, publications read data with a custom HTTP, however the Flash Player might not load external files in some cases if they are delivered with that custom HTTP. If you turn this option on, your publication instead will work with a built-in protocol which is supported by the Flash Player.

Warning: Flash video FLV files can only be played if this option is disabled.

If you still have troubles with your Flash files, please contact the technical support team.

Default Settings

These settings will be used each time you start a new project.

  • Author Name/Company Name: enter your full name or even your company name.
     
  • E-Mail Address: enter your e-mail address where end users can reach you.
     
  • Web Homepage: enter the URL to your Web site.
     
  • Default copyright: enter the default copyright information for your packages.
     
  • Add the "default macros" script to the project: turn this option off if you don't want HTML Executable to add the Macros script to each new project you start.
     
  • Compile the runtime viewer into the .exe file: see more information here.

Default Files

These files will be used each time you start a new project.

Note: the default language file must exist! If the default language file is not found, HTML Executable will try to use the one in its program folder. If this one does not exist too, an error will occur.

The default logo must be a true bitmap file (.bmp).

Extension Manager: special extension list

Only for IE Browser publications.

If you use some ActiveX controls (a.k.a. Internet Explorer plug-ins) in your website, some of them may not work properly. In fact, if these plug-ins need an input file (video AVI, audio MP3 and WAV, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Windows Media Player WMA or WMP, Flash files SWF, Flash video files FLV, Shockwave DCR, Microsoft Office Word DOC & DOCX, Powerpoint PPS or PPT...), they may require that file to be either downloaded from a real server (through a HTTP connection) or read from a physical file on the hard disk, in other words not directly from memory.

Consequently these input files must be first extracted to a temporary location on the user's hard disk, in order to be read by the plug-in. When the publication closes, these files are removed. The IE Runtime module identifies these input files thanks to their file extension. When a required file has a "special extension", it is first unpacked as explained above.

You can manage the list of these extensions yourself, and determine which files should be extracted or not. If you get troubles with a plug-in, then you should read its documentation to see whether it requires input files.

Note that the unpacked files can be easily found and copied by end users. Anyway this is the sole solution to allow these plug-ins to work properly.

To add a file extension, click on Add and enter the extension including the dot. To remove an extension, select it and click on Remove.
To reset the file extension list, click on Reset and HTML Executable will automatically add known extensions.

Exclude Files

For the Live Folder Update operation

You can exclude files based on their file extension, like executables, projects, backups and other types of files. Just add the extension(s) you wish to the list.

Notes:

  1. You should exclude all files associated to HTML Executable: projects (HEP), languages (HEL), backups (BAK), table of contents & system HTML pages (XML), skins (HES)...
     
  2. If you want to exclude a single file from the compilation, you can set this in the File Properties dialog box.

Source File List Update

Additional options for the Source File List Update operation

  • Automatically remove non-existing files: when turned on, HTML Executable automatically remove missing files from source file lists (a file is missing if it is not found on the hard disk at the place it should be). Otherwise you will be prompted. Note that this will also remove the properties associated to this file, but not the possible references (in the TOC for instance).
     
  • Monitor the source folder for changes: if turned on, HTML Executable will use the Windows Shell extensions to monitor if some changes happen to the root folder and its subdirectories. If something has happened, the entire file lists will be rebuilt (and the File Manager refreshed). If turned off, file lists are updated only when a live folder update occurs.
     
  • Perform a file list update when a project is loaded: the source folder will be scanned for changes and file lists will be refreshed as soon as the project has been loaded.
     
  • Perform a file list update when a project is compiled: the source folder will be scanned for changes and file lists will be refreshed just before the compilation of the publication really starts.