Using Netscape Composer
to create a web page

Topics

• I. Introduction
  
  
• II. Creating your page in Composer
  

• A. Formatting your page
  
• B. Adding a horizontal line
  
• C. Creating a list
  
• D. Adding external links
• E. Adding internal links
• F. Adding a table
• G. Adding a graphic
• H. Setting page properties
• I. Using the spell check
  

• III. Saving your page
  
  
• IV. Viewing your page
  
  
• V. Publishing your page
  
  
• VI. Accessing your web page

Full Document

I. Introduction

Composer is a web authoring program that is included with Netscape Communicator. With Composer, you can easily create, edit, and publish web documents. Using Composer is similar to using a word processing program in that you can access most of the options and features from the main menu and the toolbar.

Composer allows you to select type elements, such as size and style, choose colors for text and links, and set a background color for your page. You can also include features in your page such as graphics, links, horizontal lines, and tables.

II. Creating your page in Composer

To start your web page in Composer, open Netscape, then go to the Communicator menu and select Composer. Note that the Communicator menu may appear as the Netscape icon on the main menu bar.

As you create your web page, you can easily format your text and modify the various elements as you add them. These elements include horizontal lines, lists, links, tables, and graphics. You can also select colors for text, links, and the background of your page.

A. Formatting your page

As you create your page, you can use the formatting toolbar to select the text style and size and attributes such as bold, italic, or underline. This toolbar also offers options such as color, tabs, and alignment. You can also go to the Format menu and select Character Properties (PC) or Character Info (Mac) to set these formatting options.

B. Adding a horizontal line

1. From the main menu, select Insert and then choose Horizontal Line.

2. If you wish to modify the line, click on the line to select it. Then, from the main menu, select Format and then choose Horizontal Line Properties (PC) or Horizontal Line Info (Mac).

3. At the Horizontal Line window, you can choose line properties, such as dimension, alignment, and shading. If you are using a PC, you can also set the properties that you select as the default setting for additional horizontal lines that you may add to your page.

4. Finally, click on OK to set the properties.

C. Creating a list

From the Format menu, select List and then choose Bulletted. A bullet will appear and you can start to create your list. When you finish typing an item in your list, press Enter to add a new bulletted line. When you finish creating your list, press Enter to move to the next line and add a bullet. From the Format menu, select List and then select None to deselect the bullet formatting and remove the last bullet.

D. Adding external links

With Composer, you can include external links to your page. Links that go to another web page are considered external links. An external link can bring the reader to another web site or to an HTML file that you have created.

To create an external link:

1. Place the cursor where you wish to create the link or highlight the text that you want to display as the link.

2. From the main menu, select Insert and then choose Link.

3. At the Character Properties (PC) or Format (Mac) window, check that the Link tab is selected. In the Link source (PC) or Linked Text (Mac) box, type the address of the link, or, if you highlighted text in step 1, it will appear in this box.

4. In the Link to box, enter the complete address for your link. For example, if you are adding a link to the Temple Web Kit page, you would enter the following address for the page location:

http://www.temple.edu/cs/web

Or, if you are adding a link to a file that you have already uploaded or published in your public_html directory, you would type the filename. For example, if the filename is resume.html, you would type resume.html. (If you need to check your Astro account for the filename, refer to the instructions in section V, under To determine the path name of your public_html directory.)

5. Then, click on OK.

E. Adding internal links

With Composer, you can also include internal links to make your document easy to browse. An internal link is composed of two elements: a link and a target or anchor.

A link can be clickable text or a graphic that takes the reader to another point on the same web page; a target or anchor is the destination point of that link. For example, if you have a long report on your page with headings that introduce each new topic, you can create internal links to make your document easy to browse. To do this, you would first create a table of contents that includes all of the headings at the top of your page. These headings would then function as individual links that connect to their corresponding section or target within the web page. Therefore, when you click on a heading, the browser goes to that particular part of the document.

If you wish to create an internal link, you must first create the target or anchor and then create the link. When you create a target for an internal link, the target icon will appear in your Composer file, however, this icon will not appear in the browser window.

To create an internal link:

1. Place the cursor where you wish to create the target or highlight the text for the target.

2. From the main menu, select Insert and then choose Target.

3. At the Target Properties window, type a name for the target or, if you highlighted text in step 1, this text will appear.

4. Click on OK. A target icon will display in the Composer window.

5. Then, highlight the text that you want as your link.

6. From the main menu, select Insert and then choose Link.

7. At the Character Properties (PC) or Linked Text (Mac) window, check that the Link tab is selected. In the Link source box, check that the name of the target you created in step 3 appears. If you created more than one target in your page, select the target you want for your link.

8. Then, click on OK.

F. Adding a table

1. From the main menu, choose Insert, then select Table, and select Table again.

2. At the New Table Properties (PC) or Insert Table (Mac) window, you can choose from a variety of elements to define your table. These elements include the number of rows and columns, table alignment, and background color. You can also include a caption, set the cell spacing and padding features, and select the width and height of the table.

3. After you select the features for your table, click on OK (PC) or Insert (Mac).

4. If you wish to change any of the elements of your table, first click once inside the table. Then go to the main menu, select Format, and then choose Table Properties (PC) or Table Info (Mac).

5. At the Table Properties (PC) or Format (Mac) window, you can make the necessary changes to your table. After doing so, click on OK.

G. Adding a graphic

Note that in order to use a graphic on your web page, the graphic must be in .gif or .jpg format. For more information about using graphics on the web, refer to the document Using graphics on the Computer Services Web Kit site.