Managing large files for HTML

Managing large files for HTML

When you build a Web Concordance, the program displays your source (original) text as part of the Web Concordance, with links into the text so that you can display a passage in the full-text original by clicking on a line in the concordance.

In order to do this, Concordance makes a copy of your source text and turns it into HTML. (Your original file is not altered.) Just as the source text from which you made the concordance is in a single file, so the HTML version will by default be all in one file. However, a really large HTML file can slow down a web browser or even overload it altogether. And the larger the file, the longer it will take to load across the Web if you publish your Web Concordance.

The solution is to let the program split the HTML version of your source text into multiple smaller files. Chunks of around 300 to 500 lines, or 20KB to 40KB, can make a good compromise. But the points at which to split the file need to be chosen intelligently by you so as to avoid breaks in undesirable places.

To define the points at which you would like your text to be split when making the HTML version, do this:

1. Load your source text into the Multiple Document Editor

2. Choose a location where it would make good sense to split the text

3. Move the caret to column 1 on a blank line (create a new blank line if necessary)

4. Choose Insert File Division Marker from the Edit menu

5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 as often as required to define further chunks of text

6. Save your file.

You can now make a concordance and build a Web Concordance from it.

Whenever you insert a File Division Marker, a row of characters like this will be inserted into your text:

งงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงงง

When you turn a concordance into a Web Concordance, the program's HTML generator will start a new file at each of these points.

The supplied sample file Demo4.txt (in the Sample Files folder) shows an example of using a File Division Marker.