wordScriber

HTML local document editor
Linux version

WordScriber is a simple offline HTML document editor. There is probably no great use for it as an application; however, it does domonstrate how to create apps that combine a python/tkinter module and an HTML GUI in an offline desktop situation. In other words Python manages local resources while HTML manages the user interface.

To accomplish this the pywebview python module provides communication between Python/tkinter and HTML/Javascript.

There are certain limitations depending on the web engine and API employed. Web engines used outside of an Internet browser may be missing features found in the browser versions. For Linux pywebview uses WebKitGTK to render HTML in a an HTML contentEditable block.

In WebKitGTK spell checking is absent. In the Windows version of wordScriber pywebview uses WebView2 (part of Edge) which does provide spell checking in a limited way.

Python 3.x and a few other things must be installed:

sudo apt install python3   
sudo apt install python3-tk
sudo apt install python3-pip
sudo apt install python3-pil.imagetk
pip install pywebview
pip install spellchecker

Before using wsr.pyw open the options.dat file with a text editor (default: Mousepad) and review the initial settings. In particular make sure the text editor and file manager are items installed on your system. The Linux file manager is called Thunar, caja, Nemo, or Nautilus which ever you use.

Run the App:

c:\wsr\python3 wsr.py

Often you will need to select the text that you want to apply formatting to.

Hot Keys

Ctrl-h ... Help
Ctrl-s ... Quick Save
Ctrl-q ... Quit
Ctrl-c ... Copy selected text to clipboard
Ctrl-v ... Paste from clipboard
Ctrl-e ... Edit Options.dat file 
Ctrl-z ... Undo
Ctrl-t ... Redo
Ctrl-m ... Launch File Manager
Ctrl-i ... Italic 
Ctrl-b ... Bold
Ctrl-f ... Find Text
Ctrl-ESC.. Clear Found
Alt-i  ... Indent
Alt-o  ... Outdent
Alt-u  ... UPPERCASE selected
Alt-l  ... lowercase selected

WordScriber does not have a "Replace" function. Once Word Scriber is installed it will not require an Internet connection.

File and Graphics

Files can be opened and stored anywhere. The default location for files in in the application directory in a folder called "docs". Graphic file must be stored in or under the application directory. An "images" folder is provided by the installation. There is a button that will open your systems file manager to the applications directory.

HTML

The HTML is 'roughly' formated so at least it is readable. The document.execCommand() function is no longer supported for relevant web standards but will probably be kept for compatibility purposes. There is no adequate replacement for it, in my opinion, that works as smoothly.

In wordScriber I've used a Javascript function called insertHTML which replaces the execCommand("insertHTML") function and enabled me to write Javascript functions for table and fieldset as well.

Options file

The options.dat file in the application's directory contains settings important to initialization of the app on startup.

font
like Arial or DejaVu Serif

font size
like 11pt

font color
#000 or black

text line height
like 125%

background color of app
like #ADD8E6 or lightblue

background color of editing area
like #fff or white

text editor
name of a text editor installed on your system Its only use at this time is to open the options.dat file like gedit or mousepad or sublime or ...

file manager
name of a file manager install on your system It will help with document and graphic management like thunar or caja or nautilus or ...