thevintagezone1,

Yes, ShipScript also has another tool called ZippySlots. The tool enables you to turn your template into a form filler by tagging your code with ZippySlots. The tool will create editing fields right there in your template, making it a snap to update template content.

http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/zippyslots.htm

Nate, thanks for mentioning ZippySlots, since it is also a "template to make a template tool", but from a different direction.

Turn your existing template into a form filler

Many are familiar with TagBot, a free and fairly comprehensive desktop program for designers and users that automates templates by creating form-filling slots. Well, it seemed there could be something a little simpler for those who had only the most rudimentary of form filling needs, and something that would work for a Mac.

ZippySlots

Online ZippySlots was developed so that designers or template users can freely convert the text and photo parts of their auction templates into form-filler slots for easier editing. It works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

      http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/zippyslots.htm

The tool is a two-stage process:

1. The first stage is to use the tagger at the online site to add tags to the template code and generate the form-filler.


2. The second stage is to use the form-filler at home (online or offline) to create new listings.

Tagger
To use it, a complete template (such as one of the free Spring, Fall, or Holiday templates created by forum members) can be pasted into the online tool.

Highlight the block of text in the code that will be edited on a regular basis, and click the button to convert that text to a slot. There are several shapes of slots, and reminder captions can be added if desired.

The text blocks can be used for substituting text or whole blocks of code (like image codes). They should not be used for substitutions within scripts or for attributes within HTML tags, as the form-filler page may not display correctly at home during editing.

Additionally, there are wildcard slots that are handy for exact text replacements. You'll think of many ways to use the simple wildcards. Choose a unique phrase in your template - it can occur in more than one location and might even be an HTML attribute or script variable. Then that phrase can be globally replaced with another word or phrase of your choice. It's a handy way to change colors, the seller name in links, or even the host URL for photos or image name for graphics.

Make and Save
After all the text areas are tagged for slots and substitutions, the MAKE button will generate the second tool, the form filler. You can preview the form-filler to see if everything is tagged. If so, click the "Save to your computer" button and the form filler code will be downloaded to your computer. If you wish, you can simply copy and paste that code from the bottom window to a file on your computer.

Form filler
That second tool is the template Form-Filler that can be saved and used on one's own computer or designer's server. The form filler looks just like your original template except that there are slots where the text should be.

On your own computer or server, fill in the form slots and the wildcard slots (if any were used) and click the Make button below the template. The slotted template will be replaced by the finished version, and the source code will appear below the template. Use the "Edit Again" button to return to the slotted version. No data is lost in swapping screens.

More details can be found at the bottom of the ZippySlots page.

Wow! I am speechless! That is what I have been looking for for years. This will help me get listings up at a number I could only dream of! I will have some questions later today when I can work on it. If there is any cool things you can think of to stick in there that other people would like to use also please feel free to do so. Endless thanks!

Rebecca

I think there may be some problems with open tags in your original starter template that may be causing some parts of the tool to disappear. Could you post the base template (before it was tagged in ZippySlots) and let me take a look? Perhaps I can clean that up a bit so that it will work a little smoother. Save it to this practice site and then bring back the link it shows you in the middle of the page.
http://practicewriter.com

I copied the link but it isn't connecting.....

Link

That one shows my template but no place to edit. The edit words dont seen to be working right on there.

Here is a modified version of your template. I updated a few tags since the template was originally created when Internet Explorer owned the browser market. The table attribute called "bordercolor" is a Microsoft invention and is not a web standard, so it didn't display correctly on other browsers. The number codes for colors require a #-sign in front of them to work on other browsers. Then I closed all the open tags that were causing table problems.

I tried not to change too much because you are accustomed to looking at your code.

But I did go ahead and create an entirely different measurement chart. Since a tenth of a "cm" is a "mm", which is smaller than the thickness of a straight-pin, it didn't seem necessary to carry the calculation even further to the hundredth place. So I rounded the numbers to tenths. For clothing, I would even be inclined to round off to whole centimeters, which would be about 3/8 of an inch. But I leave that up to you.

I did something a little different with the size table. I used the "PRE" tag, which will display text exactly as typed, with spaces and tabs and returns. That allows you to see and modify all the measurement values without sorting through a lot of extra code. In order to make all that work, I had to use some CSS styles (everything within the style="" quotes). Hopefully you will be able to make sense of them, as I tried to keep them to a minimum.

Then I put all your ZippySlots back in there. To get back to the base template, click MAKE, and you will have a starter copy to tag again.

http://PracticeWriter.com/?5BA1F

I also cheated a little. Since I was editing anyway, I edited your image ZippySlots and gave those slots a dimensioned width so that your page wouldn't stretch too wide while editing. The ZippySlot site doesn't know how wide your page will be and just does the best it can.

You did an excellent job tagging your page with ZippySlots. I think you have grasped the basics of using the tags, but came up against a template with some obsolescence and errors. Hopefully this will give you a head start for setting up your other templates.

Ok, I have been working on it for awhile. I have a couple of questions. Can I get raid of the white boarder on the inside of the table? And also can I get raid of the white around the pictures. i am thinking I probley can't because it is the box for the code. I'm I right about that.
I have it saved to my computer and it works great but can I paste it to Ebay in HTML and then edit it in the standerd form. I can edit the words but I can't edit the pictures.
If I need to edit the code is there a way i can do that on my computer copy or do I have to save a new copy to my computer?