Are Automated HTML Helpers Available?

Factual Questions
1

I post messages to sites running Haloscan or similar no-frills comments boards. Typically these sites support only basic HTML tags, and require one to manually type out HTML tags for italics, bolding, hyperlink, etc.

Is there any application (freeware would be nice) or technique to improve upon adding such tags from scratch each time, one that would work on any basic text editor, e.g. in Haloscan or Wordpad?

As a non-technical user, I can envision a nifty tool like the one employed here, or a simple program that, say, allows one to block text and then use CTRL + hotkey or invoke a simple menu that would easily slap italics tags or whatever on the blocked text.

I’ve Googled for “HTML” tag applications, but am overwhelmed by listings for advanced HTML web publishing tools which is way over my head. I’d just like a simpler, foolproof method for inserting basic HTML tags on comments boards that support basic HTML text-enhancement. Thanks.

2

Textpad will do what you’re asking. It’s a fairly straightforward text editor. It has what they call a “clip library”, which is basically a menu of choices, and two of the lbraries are for HTML characters and HTML tags respectively.

I just checked (I use it for SQL coding, so hadn’t tried your task), and to do Italics, for example, you highlight the text, then double click the “Font-Italics” option in the clip library.

3

I forgot to add that if you do end up using it, do a search of their Downloads section, especially the Add-ons subgroup, as there are a ton of user-added features, some of which might help you even more.

Also, one of the nice things about the editor is that it’s as simple to use as Notepad, but once you start delving into the keyboard shortcuts, etc., you find a treasure trove of power.