# How to edit html in IE 8



## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

I have been in the habit of editing our church's web pages in Internet Explorer and uploading them with WS_FTP Pro.

In IE, I just clicked File, Open, Browsed for the file, View, Source and then placed my cursor and did the edit, saving at the end.

I have updated to IE8 but now have a problem: I can't seem to edit web pages anymore the way I could in IE7.

Now, when I do this, I can't get cursor placement. The page opens, this time with line numbers - a new feature - but I can't place a cursor in the body of the page to commence editing.

This may have to do with a feature on installation of IE8 that asked if I wanted to import settings from Firefox. I opted yes. For some reason, I have been prevented from editing in Firefox in the past. I wonder if I have inadvertently imported some prevention feature from Firefox.

Anyone have any ideas how to get around this?

Failing that, can I just d/l and install IE7 again somehow? 

Thanks.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Is there some problem with just browsing for the file from Notepad's File menu? It really sounds like you took the long way round, unless I'm missing something.


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

Thanks for your reply Elvandil.

I guess I'm missing something. 

Notepad opens htm files as text files and saves as text, ie with txt extension. There is no option to save with htm extension. 

Are you saying that it doesn't matter? That is, I can upload the file as either an htm or txt file and get the same result?

Sorry for my ignorance but I've just been running on this track for so long, with this change, I've been derailed! 

Thanks.

Tip


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

In Notepad "Help" it says:

*Because Notepad supports only very basic formatting, you cannot accidentally save special formatting in documents that need to remain pure text. This is especially useful when creating HTML documents for a Web page because special characters or other formatting may not appear in your published Web page or may even cause errors.

You can save your Notepad files as Unicode, ANSI, UTF-8, or big-endian Unicode. These formats provide you greater flexibility when working with documents that use different character sets.*

I have never used these formats. Which would I use to save as for a web page? Any one of these works? Any idea?

Thanks.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

You save the files with an HTML extension. It's that simple. That's assuming the code you're editing is straight HTML.


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

Holy smokes. The code in Notepad is unlike the code I used to see in IE. It's a lot more complicated. I'm not sure I can work with this.

Couldn't I just uninstall IE8? Would I be left with IE7 or would I have to find and install a copy of IE7?


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

You can uninstall IE 8 and go back to IE 7, but it doesn't make sense that viewing the page source looks different in the different version of IE. I'd say the more likely problem is that you were editing pages in a different program with IE 7 than you are with IE 8 since you can't edit pages directly in Internet Explorer. I can't say for sure if the same functionality would be restored by going back to IE 7.


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## colinsp (Sep 5, 2007)

If you want to stick with IE8 you could get something like Komposer or M$ Visual Web Developer both are free programmes.


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

Some good ideas to think about and play with. Thanks for your interest and efforts.

Of course, from my pov, it would be much simpler just to return to the status quo.

Has anyone here successfully restored the old web page edit ability by uninstalling IE8 - before I give it a try? (I know there are others out there with this same problem because It is a topic on another Forum. It seems to be old geezers like me who having been editing web pages this way.)

I don't have any web editor installed so maybe IE7 just opened Word or Notepad and I wasn't aware of that. In any case, I could get cursor placement there - in IE7 - whatever it was and I can't get that with IE8.

Incidentally, I have been opening files saved to my hard drive to do the editing. I never was able to edit files opened from the web.

I can open the files saved on hard drive directly in Notepad or Word or Wordperfect and get cursor placement, of course. Just not when opened in IE8 using either the Notepad or Word options there.

Also, the code in files opened in Notepad or Word has much more detail than what I used to see in IE7. For a neophyte like me, it's all a bit overwhelming. All I want to do is edit some coming events etc on our church web site. I'll leave design or redesign issues to someone more capable if it ever comes to that.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

On my IE 7 system, when I click View Source, a Notepad window opens. IE doesn't come with a special webpage editor. As I said before, you must have had something special setup and just didn't realize it. If you could figure out what that was, you could use it with IE 8 as well. There's nothing unique, that I'm aware of, with IE 8 web page editing. A web page is a web page. 

This is why I don't know if your old functionality can be restored. The problem is that we don't really know what that functionality was.


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

The solution (provided from a contributor to another forum):

Instead of View>Source
Select File>Edit with Notepad

We are back in business. 

Thanks, folks, for persevering with me. Appreciate it.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Tipacanoe said:


> I can open the files saved on hard drive directly in Notepad or Word or Wordperfect and get cursor placement, of course. Just not when opened in IE8 using either the Notepad or Word options there.
> 
> Also, the code in files opened in Notepad or Word has much more detail than what I used to see in IE7.





Tipacanoe said:


> Instead of View>Source
> Select File>Edit with Notepad


That's exactly the same thing.


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

Actually, it isn't. I don't know why but if you open the file in Notepad, there is a lot more detail - apparently - than if you open it in IE8. It's different.


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Tipacanoe said:


> Actually, it isn't. I don't know why but if you open the file in Notepad, there is a lot more detail - apparently - than if you open it in IE8. It's different.


You're confused with something mate.

In order to clarify do you write HTML code by hand or edit your site like you edit a Word document?


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

Yes, I know I am confused.

I don't understand your question. 

I edit each page on the screen. Obviously, it is a notepad document although I didn't realize that when I was doing it in IE7 because it just popped up when I clicked view source in IE7.

After installing IE8, I could pop the document up with view source but couldn't place a cursor in the document to edit it. If I opened the document from hard disc into Notepad, it looked quite different and confused me.

Now, using Select File>Edit with Notepad, I can edit as I am used to.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

The very first suggestion was to open the files in Notepad, and you said that was too confusing. Now you're opening the files in Notepad and saying it's exactly what you're looking for. 

That would be why we're all a tad confused.


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Do you actually write the HTML code by hand e.g. (, ,

, *)?

Or do you edit the html like you're editing a word file (wysiwyg)?

If you are opening it with notepad you must be doing the former but I doubt that.*


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## Tipacanoe (Feb 7, 2001)

The former.

Sorry that my confusion confused everyone. 

Thanks again. And to all a good night!


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## Licker4U (Jun 4, 2009)

I'm having the same problem and I don't like the fix. With IE7 I could right click on the page I wanted to edit and view the source code and do my editing. With IE8 I have to right click the html file while it's still unopened in a folder and select Open with Notepad to do my editing, but to view the page and see my changes I have to go back to the unopened html file and right click and select Open with Internet Explorer. Is there any way to toggle back and forth from the page view to the source code without all the "Open With"? If not I'm going back to IE7


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## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

i think i know what happend.

it's possible ie8, and the method of viewing source, would probably completely get rid of all spaces and line breaks so that all the code was mashed together.

this happens to me sometimes depending on how i view source.

it's IMPOSSIBLE to edit any html code like that. so i guess he just needed the page to preserve all the nice spaces and indents and line breeaks so he can make sense of it all.

that's my guess on it all. at least you got it fixed.

i code by hand 100% of the time. i'll never touch a wysiwyg in my life. all i gotta do is view source. done.


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## Licker4U (Jun 4, 2009)

Tact said:


> that's my guess on it all. at least you got it fixed.
> 
> i code by hand 100% of the time. i'll never touch a wysiwyg in my life. all i gotta do is view source. done.


I code by hand as well but it's not fixed. After saving my code I want to refresh the page I was working on and see my work. With IE 8 I have another step I have to go through, go back to the html file and Open With IE to see the actual page. I want to be able to toggle from the Source to the page, not have to open the html file with IE. Why in the world would the "brains" at MS do this?? I'm seriously thinking about going back to IE 7....


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## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

this is so curious. i havne't tried 8 yet. i would be angry too if they ruined a perfectly fine system as: view>source, edit, save, refresh. 

you can't beat that. too easy. that's why i never liked firefox much. it creates a temp copy of the source so saving it is pointless. is that what IE8 is doing now too? maybe that's it.

a workaround for that would be, open the file twice. one in the browser, and one in notepad. you can do both directly from the file itself. right click on the "whatever.htm", and you should have options on HOW to open it. regular "open" defaults to browser, and "edit" should open in notepad. 

my edit opens it in microsoft word which ticks me off so i have to click "open with" and select notepad from there. 

anyway. you only have to do that annoying chore once per session that you're working on it as long as you don't close them again. 

that should let you get back to the edit/refresh style were so used to just flipping back and forth from notepad to browser. 

hope that helps.


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## Licker4U (Jun 4, 2009)

Tact said:


> a workaround for that would be, open the file twice. one in the browser, and one in notepad. you can do both directly from the file itself. right click on the "whatever.htm", and you should have options on HOW to open it. regular "open" defaults to browser, and "edit" should open in notepad.


That's what I 'm doing but after saving my work and refreshing the page, to go back and do more coding requires me to go back to the original html file and click "Open With Notepad" instead of just right clicking and "View Source". More steps for an already harrowed webmaster.

"Open the file twice" MS, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO OPEN A FILE TWICE!! I wonder if the MS people heard me....

If I wasn't afraid of really f*cking something up I would uninstall IE8 and go back to IE 7. Does anyone know of a MS forum where I can ask about doing that?


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## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

> to go back and do more coding requires me to go back to the original html file and click "Open With Notepad" instead of just right clicking and "View Source"


yah that's what i meant. first you let the original file open like any regular page. the browser page. no editing.

then, "open with notepad" the original file as you described. you should only have to do this once ever for every time you work on the site. unless you accidently close notepad and have to go aalll the way back again to the original file. 

and i know you don't have to close notepad everytime to see the changes. leave it open. i never close it till i'm done for the day.

but you're right, ms fumbled real bad if they changed ie8's behavious in this way.

bad M$! go to your room!

edit:

i was curious to see what the web had to say about this. check out what i found!
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/default-view-source-editor-changed-in-ie8/

i hope this helps.


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## Licker4U (Jun 4, 2009)

Tact said:


> i was curious to see what the web had to say about this. check out what i found!
> http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/default-view-source-editor-changed-in-ie8/


You rock! That link had instructions on how to get back like it was with IE 7. Now I have everything back like it was!

(I tried what you said about not closing Notepad and saving, didn't work. I have to close Notepad, save my work, _then_ refresh the page to see my changes)

But all is as it should be, the planets are lined up, my yard is full of four leaf clover, and I caught the Leprechaun... :up:

Thanks again!


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## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

glad i could help. 

can i borrow that lepechaun? i need him to make me some tabs in photoshop.


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