Multimedia
Only .pct (PICT) picture files are supported, rather than the usual .gif
(GIF) and .jpg (JPEG). These additional formats are expected to
be supported in future releases of JWM. All popular picture editing packages for both the PC and MacOS support
PICT format. This includes shareware packages available freely on the Internet
such as PhotoLine and PaintShop Pro for the PC and GraphicConverter for MacOS.
Sound files in the very popular .aif (AIFF) and .afc (AIFC) formats are supported, though they are currently restricted to uncompressed 8-bit mono. All sound editors on the MacOS platform support these formats, and the very popular shareware package called GoldWave (on the PC) supports both formats.
Offline browsing supported only
The browser in JWM is currently an offline browser only. ie. it won't
load up pages directly from the Internet. If you want to do this, you will
need to use a normal web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet
Explorer to go to the web site, then save the source code of the web page
to your hard disk, and then open it with JWM for viewing and translation.
If you want to use these materials as a basis for developing course materials for your students (subject to the usual copyright rules, of course), you will also need to save each picture you want included and convert it into PICT format using a graphics package. You may also need to modify the HTML source code somewhat to ensure that the page displays properly in the JWM browser (eg. change the picture names to .pct, etc).
All hyperlinks must be to valid HTML documents (or text files) - you can't link to a picture directly, as it won't load correctly. To display a picture via a link, simply create a small HTML document which links directly to the picture, as in this example.
File paths
When you open a HTML document with the browser, all paths (such as links, graphics and sounds) are referenced from that document. This also applies to subseqent documents which may be loaded in when you click links. To put it another way, all documents and files are located relative to the inital document you opened. If you find a link is not working, you probably did not load in the same initial document first.
The best way to edit a complex hyperlinked set of HTML documents is therefore to have a key initial document that you always load first into the browser (ie. using the Browse... menu item in the Text menu). Once you've done this, use links to navigate to the document (in the set of HTML documents) you wish to edit and then press the View HTML source code button to edit it. When you've made some changes and want to see how it looks in the browser, save the source code (ie. press Command-S, or Left-Alt-S on the PC), close the Text dialog (ie. press Command-W, or Left-Alt-W on the PC) and then press the Reload page button on the browser. To make further changes, press the View HTML source code button again, and so on. This is a very efficient way to edit your set of HTML documents, and is actually the way the entire JWM help system was created.