**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/1 "2007-02-20T21:10:34Z")
At my place of employment, we put together a singular, large, HTML file that is later broken down by our server into multiple pages, by virtue of the \ commands and display it as such so the hyperlinks work in a test environment?
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/2 "2007-02-20T23:03:47Z")
Pages breaks are not HTML code. They are part of the CSS standard. See [Paged media](http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/page.html)
Why don’t you create an identical test page on the server and test it? As long as no one else knows the existence of the page, feel free to test away.
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**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/3 "2007-02-20T23:11:49Z")
Because we sadly don’t have test pages…it’s an old, archaic system.
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/4 "2007-02-20T23:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=Red Barchetta]
Because we sadly don’t have test pages…it’s an old, archaic system.
[/QUOTE]
So if the web page is called foo.html you can’t copy it, call it foobar.html and post it to the web site? Even archaic web sites can do that.
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**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/5 "2007-02-20T23:30:04Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster]
So if the web page is called foo.html you can’t copy it, call it foobar.html and post it to the web site? Even archaic web sites can do that.
[/QUOTE]
It’s not a direct FTP; we input everything into fields and it’s then processed by some CGI script.
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/6 "2007-02-20T23:47:35Z")
[QUOTE=Red Barchetta]
It’s not a direct FTP; we input everything into fields and it’s then processed by some CGI script.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, crap. You guys are ancient. So why can’t you get your sysadmin folks to create an identical CGI script that outputs to a different file name? No, go, eh? Any chance you guys can move into the 21st century? Say PHP or ASP or something better than CGI?
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**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/7 "2007-02-20T23:52:00Z")
Heh, well, if it were that easy, it’d be done by now 🙂 You know how big corporations work.
So I take it there’s no program that can mimick it then?
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**Author:**  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/8 "2007-02-21T02:03:17Z")
Install CGI (and probably Perl?) on your own machine to mimic what the server does, maybe?
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**Author:**  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/9 "2007-02-21T02:07:59Z")
[QUOTE=Red Barchetta]
Heh, well, if it were that easy, it’d be done by now 🙂
[/QUOTE]
Clearly this is a joke. Because it is that easy. It’s easier than CGI scripting, anyway.
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**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/10 "2007-02-21T02:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
Clearly this is a joke. Because it is that easy. It’s easier than CGI scripting, anyway.
[/QUOTE]
Well, seeing as how I have no control over the backend, there’s not much I can do.
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**Author:**  [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/11 "2007-02-21T06:12:46Z")
[QUOTE=Red Barchetta]
Well, seeing as how I have no control over the backend, there’s not much I can do.
[/QUOTE]
A couple of lines of Perl or VBScript could do the job easily enough. You’re not a developer, I take it?
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**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/12 "2007-02-21T06:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=Cerowyn]
A couple of lines of Perl or VBScript could do the job easily enough. You’re not a developer, I take it?
[/QUOTE]
No, I’m merely a writer.
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/13 "2007-02-21T20:32:55Z")
At some point in this mix, someone has access to the web server. Surely there is a business need for what you ask so that the sys adsmin for the server should be able to assist you. If there is no business need to do what you ask, I wouldn’t sweat it.
Getting back to your OP, why can’t you install a web server on a local PC, complete with Perl and test there. Apache and IIS are both free.
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**Author:**  [@Schnookered](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnookered)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-html-question/393018/14 "2007-02-21T20:52:10Z")
Sounds like a clear case of needing to complain upstream, focusing on how making this change would increase your productivity a zillion percent. The higher upstream you can go, the better.