dynamically adding links with textStyle, linkText, and an ask dialog

[Devin Asay]

On Apr 3, 2007, at 1:46 PM, Curt Ford wrote:

> In my project I want to let users enter text into a field, then  
> highlight some text to add a link; the field contents are then  
> saved to a text file to be read in later & displayed with an active  
> link.
>
> This works fine, attached to a button for adding a link:
>
> on mouseUp
>   set the textStyle of the selectedText to "link"
>   set the linkText of the selectedText to "http://www.google.com"
>   put the HTMLText of fld "source" into fld "resultHTML"  --a check  
> to see how it looks
> end mouseUp
>
> But when I try to let the user enter a link with:
>
> on mouseUp
>   ask "Please enter a link:"
>   put it into tLink
>   set the textStyle of the selectedText to "link"
>   set the linkText of the selectedText to tLink
>   put the HTMLText of fld "source" into fld "resultHTML"
> end mouseUp
>
> ..the link ends up following the text that was selected; so if in  
> "one two three" the "two" was highlighted, the result is:
>
> <p><font face="Geneva">one two<a href="www.google.com"></a> three</ 
> font></p>
>
> Is there a way I can keep the ask dialog box from interfering with  
> the selection?

Curt,

The ask dialog will change the selection, so the best approach may be  
to save the selectedChunk information in a variable while you do the  
ask dialog, then restore it after the dialog is dismissed.

put the selectedChunk into tSelChunk
ask "Please enter a link:"
put it into tLink
select tSelChunk -- or whatever the precise syntax would be
-- do the rest of your business here.

HTH

Devin


Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University