Using Netscape Composer to Create or Edit Web Pages

Placing images

1. In Netscape, go to File | Open Page and open the page you want to edit (e.g. your index.htm page), select the button Composer, and press Open. (If you have the file open in the regular Netscape browser itself, you can simply go to File | Edit Page).
2. Click on the location where you want the image, then go to Insert | Image. Be sure the box Leave image at the original location is checked. Then click the Choose File button and browse to where you have stored your image file. [Note that it can be in a separate directory (e.g. images), but your directory structure on Aurora will need to be the same as that on your local disk (i.e. if images is a subdirectory of webproject locally, it will need to be a subdirectory on the server as well).] In the Insert Image window, doubleclick on the image you want, then press OK.
3. To see what your image will look like in an ordinary browser, click on the Save button, then on Preview. To return to editing, simply click anywhere in your Composer window.
4. If you want text to flow on one side or other of your image, right click on the image and then click on Image Properties. In the Image tab (which should be open) click on the icon representing text flowing on either the left or the right of an image. In the Space around image section, type in something like 8 for the number of pixels to separate the image from the text on the left and right and top and bottom. Then click on OK. As always, Save and Preview in order to see the effect in a browser. You may need some trial and error to get the location of the image and the text the way you want it.
5. If you want the image to be a button that will cause something to happen (e.g. pull up a larger version of the photo, or take the user to another page), once again right-click on the image, go to the Link tab, and either type in a location using an absolute (full) address (e.g. http://www.wells.edu/why/faculty.htm) or press the Choose File button to browse to a document or an image on your own disk. Then press OK.

Changing your background and text colors or adding a background image

1. If you want to change your background color, go to Format | Page Colors and Properties, click on Background, then click on the color you want. If you want a wider choice, click on Other, then on the spot of the color chart that you want.
2. If you want to change your text or link colors as well (which is often advisable if you make a change in your background color), follow the same procedure but click on Normal Text, Link Text, etc.
3. If you want to use a textured background image instead of a plain background color, you must first locate the image you want (there are many free backgrounds available through links on Yahoo) and save  it to your disk. Then follow the procedure above, but put a check on the Use Image box and the Leave image at the original location box, and then press the Choose File button. Browse to the file you want, doubleclick it, and click OK.
4. http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/mosaic-w/coolstuff/Backgrnd/

Improving your pages in other ways

1. One simple but effective way to provide structure and visual interest to your page is by dividing sections with "horizontal rules" (lines). Click where you want a line, then click on H. Line in the menu bar. Lines can have different width and thickness, length, and alignment. After you have placed your line you can modify it by right-clicking on it, selecting Horizontal Line Properties, then selecting the thickness (in pixels), width (in percentage of window or pixels), etc. that you want.
2. If you have a large document, you can create internal links that will allow the user to jump quickly from one part of the document to another. First select (highlight) some text at the point you want the user to be able to jump to (e.g. a subheading), then go to Insert | Target. Enter a name with no spaces and press OK. A small icon will appear next to your target text in Composer, but will not be visible in an actual browser. Now go to the text you want to function as the link, highlight it, go to Insert | Link, highlight the name of the target you want, and press OK.
3. There is not a great deal of control over alignment of page elements in basic HTML (in general only left, right, or center, so to get more precise effects it is necessary to use workarounds. HTML foresaw that people would need to use Tables in order to organize information in columns and rows. But page designers quickly recognized that they could use tables (or tables within tables within tables) to provide more precise placement of images and text. Netscape Composer has a useful table creation and manipulation tool, that allows you to control alignment of the table as a whole, of rows, and of individual cells. Start by going to Insert | Table | Table and start with the number of rows and columns that you think you will need. Don't worry: you can always add or remove rows and columns later. The degree of control over each table and table element is such that it is most useful simply to experiment and see what the possibilities are. Remember that you can nest another entire table inside a table cell and so on to achieve even greater precision. You can place anything in a cell: text, images, links, etc.
4. There is an abundance of free icons, backgrounds, and clip art available on the Web that you might use to enhance your pages. You can find links to many sites offering graphics, along with guides of all kinds to Web site creation and maintenance, on Yahoo, under the category Computers and Internet > Internet > World Wide Web > Page Creation (http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Page_Creation/ ). Within that category follow Graphics to Backgrounds, Clip Art, and Icons (http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Graphic_Design/Web_Page_Design_and_Layout/Graphics/). Yahoo's pages and even categories may change over time, but browsing  a similar path will lead to good results. A useful page for some restful backgrounds is http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/mosaic-w/coolstuff/Backgrnd/. A word of caution: people frequently become so excited by the wealth of graphics available that they overload their pages, and lose sight of the real purpose of a page: useful content, presented in a simple, readable manner. But the occasional splash of color and fun may not hurt.