HTML, ASCII, and Homesite

[Crystol Wigemyr <Crystol -dot- Wigemyr -at- KENONIC -dot- COM>]

Hello,

I am a relatively new HTML user writing for an intranet but attempting to
bear in mind issues such as universal (haha) browser compatibility and
problems associated with WYSIWYG html editors.

I discovered that my eval copy of Homesite 4.0 was automatically changing
some of my tags based on an option that, by default, was "on".

The option is:

"When characters above ASCII 127 are entered, convert them to their
corresponding entity name...."

The software kept changing my — to — .

I have a few questions:

What is an "entity" ??

Why would this option be "on" by default? What advantages are there to using
"entities" vs. ASCII code?

Several PCs display "$mdash;" instead of the actual em dash. Anyone know
why? I think those PCs are using IE 3 and I'm using the latest version of IE
4. Is this display problem an IE 3 thing? How am I supposed to make pages
that are multiple-browser-friendly when I can't even get a consistent
display in a company where everyone has the same browser (albeit different
versions)???

I'm enjoying this foray into the world of html, but at times I do get
frustrated.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Regards,

Crystol Wigemyr, BA, BEd
Technical Writer/Editor
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
(403) 934-4577
crystol -dot- wigemyr -at- kenonic -dot- com

(p.s. I am also a professional barrel racer. Anybody else involved in rodeo
outside of your writing? Please don't respond to this last bit via the
listserver! Ciao!)


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