in the upper right-hand corner of the Web browser. Click on the middle
button
(you may have to click on it a second time to restore it to maximum size
if the window shrinks instead of expanding.)
You can quickly jump to a section of this document that you are interested in by selecting one of the topics below.
Composer's features include the ability to:
bar in the lower, right-hand corner of the screen. Click on the 
icon. This brings up a blank page in the editor.
Alternate Method #1:
Another way to start the Composer
is to use the pull-down menu. Click on the File pull-down
menu (top, left-hand corner), select New and choose from
one of three options listed below.
Incidentally, using the Page From Wizard option is a great
way to start a simple, basic page. Follow the instructions provided
carefully. After creating the page, you can then view the HTML source
(and edit it further if desired).
Alternate Method #2: Edit a Web Page from the Web
Another alternative to begining with a blank page is edit an existing
Web page (anywhere on the Web). While viewing the desired Web page,
click on the File pull-down menu and choose Edit Page.
This will bring the Web page into the Composer
editor. Then, simply save the page (click on the File
pull-down menu and choose
Save or Save As...
and begin making changes to the document).
Highlighted text can be bolded, italicized or underlined by selecting one
of these buttons located at the top of the screen. Alternatively,
these same formats can be applied to highlighted text by clicking on the
Format
pull-down menu and selecting the appropriate Style.
Hint: Paragraph markers can be displayed (or hidden) by clicking on the View pull-down menu and selecting Show Paragraph Marks.
A variety of tags can be applied to selected or highlighted text. Below, the words "TITLE PAGE" were selected (by dragging the cursor across them). Then, the Heading 1 tag was applied by selecting the option from a list of format tags in the pull-down menu (located below the New and Open icons). A brief explanation of each tag type is provided on the right-hand side of the illustration below.
 |
Heading 1: Largest text size
|
JustificationBy highlighting text and then clicking on the alignment button (as illustrated in the picture on the right), text can be justified as follows:
|
 |
The color of text which has been highlighted (by dragging the cursor across
it while holding the mouse button down) can be changed either by clicking
on this button (located near the top of the Composer
window) or right-clicking on the highlighted text and selecting Character
Properties. In either case, the Character Properties window
will be brought up. Click on the color box (usually black initially)
next to Use Color and select the appropriate color setting.
icon into the Composer
window.
(image is saved in same directory as the HTML page you are creating or
editing).A target is a "name tags" that is inserted into the document. After
inserting a target, a 
icon will appear at the point of insertion. If you right-click on
the target icon and select Target Properties, you can determine the name
that the target was assigned.
 |
Press the Image button to insert an image... or click the Insert
pull-down menu and select Image (depicted in the image at the left). |
Right-click on the image (that you previously inserted) and select Image
Properties to control justification and the alignment of text associated
with the image. Note that you will not see the effect until you press
the 
followed by the 
button.
This
text illustrates the effect that this button has... to associate this format
with the image, right-click on the image and select the Image Properties
option.
This
text illustrates the effect that this button has... to associate this format
with the image, right-click on the image and select the Image Properties
option.
This
text illustrates the effect that this button has... to associate this format
with the image, right-click on the image and select the Image Properties
option.
Using Images as Page Backgrounds
Images can be used as Web page backgrounds. Excercise judgement when selecting an image, however. The image should be as small as possible (Netscape will tile the image repeatedly to fill the Web page background) and should not distract from the wording of the page (i.e., the background image should not be too wild!).
There are several sources of free background images on the Web. Just search the web for "free background images" or use one of the sites listed below (listed in no particular order nor endorsed but provided as a quick resource).
Throughout the document that you are reading, images of portions of
the screen are replicated. You can easily create these images and
bring them into the Composer.
For instructions on how to accomplish this using NT or Windows95, refer
to the workshop on
Inserting Blank Lines After Images
New users may be perplexed by the disappearance of blank lines after
images. To insure that the blank lines that you insert do not disappear,
insert a space on each blank line by pressing the space bar when the cursor
is on the blank line. (Note that the Insert pull-down window located
at the top of the screen contains two options, New Line Break
and Break below Images(s), that can be used when attempting to insert
blank lines. Nevertheless, you may find that you will still need
to insert a space on each of these lines in order to retain them.)
To readjust a table, right-click anywhere inside the table
and select Table Properties.
button
(or from
File menu, select Browse. A
Navigator browser window will open displaying the page (the Composer
window remains open behind it).
Before you publish, you can check the spelling and correct any mistakes.
To check spelling, click the button depicted above or click on the Tools
pull-down menu at the top of the screen and select Check Spelling.
To Publish your document (i.e.., copy it to a Web server), press the 
button. This will bring up the Publish window (the top portion of
this window is depicted below).
The Page Title field (depicted in the illustration above) contains the information you specified for a title when you first saved your Web page. This information does not actually appear in your document but will appear in the title bar of the Web browser. If you wish to change it, do so now.
The HTML Filename field (depicted in the illustration above) should contain the name that you gave the file when you saved it. If you want it to have a different name on the server than it has on your PC, you can change it here. Please note that your personal homepage (i.e., the first page that viewers will see when they visit your pages), should have the name index.html on CCSF's Web server.
The fields entitled HTTP or FTP Location to publish to: (depicted in the illustration below) specifies an FTP transfer to the host hills.ccsf.cc.ca.us Appended is the path to the directory where the files will be copied--in this illustration, /students/login01/public_html
I
Note that this information does not actually contain the name of the file... it just specifies the path to the directory where the file will be put.
In the User name field (depicted above), type your user name for the Web server. This user name will always be lower case--never containing any capitalized letters. In the illustration above, the user's logon name is login01.
In the Password field, enter your password for your account. Note that asterisks will appear for each keystroke you make.
If you are using your own personal computer that no one else has access to (i.e., it is in your office and not in a computer lab), check the Save password field by clicking on the small, blank square immediately in front of the field name. If this field is checked, the next time you publish to this location (Composer will remember each location that you specify), you will not have to supply your user name or password.
Other files to include (not depicted in this document) has two options. If you want all of the files that are in the same directory on you PC as the Web page you are editing, you can select the All files in page's folder option as illustrated above. However, in most cases, it is recommended that you use the Files associated with this page option so that you only update the page you are currently editing and publishing.
This completes the Publish options. When you are ready to send a copy to the server (i.e., actually publish your document on the Web), press the OK button.
Once you have successfully published a document, future modifications to the document can be published simply by pressing the Publish button (Composer will remember all the information that is required). To specify the location that the document is to be published to, simply press the down arrow symbol located at the right-hand side of the HTTP or FTP Location to publish to: field. Then select the location you want to publish to from the list that will appear (this is useful if you are using subdirectories or different servers).
PERMISSIONS
In order for your published files to be accessible on the Web to
the general public, you must change the permissions in hills. This has
been automatized recently. Just access your account on hills through Telnet
and type setup at the $ prompt. The permissions will be automatically
set for your new files freshly uploaded. Repeat this process everytime
you upload new files. If you modify an existing file il is not necessary
to repeat this process. The permisssions set will remain,
What to do if a published page appears unchanged: After
you publish your document, you may find that the page appears unchanged
when you invoke the Navigator (Web browser) to see how it looks.
This happens because the Navigator determines that the page has been previously
loaded from the network--and to save time and traffic, the Navigator loads
it from cache (a copy stored on your local machine). In this case,
you must force the browser to reload the page from the network instead
of your cache in order to see your published version. Hold the keyboard's
SHIFT
key down and click on the Reload button while viewing
the desired page.
Alternatively, you can edit the HTML source of the page you are viewing in Composer by clicking on the Edit pull-down menu at the top of the screen and selecting HTML Source.
You can configure Composer
to edit the HTML source in an editor of your own choice (such as NotePad.)
Click on the Edit pull-down menu and select Preferences.
Then, in the frame on the left, click on the plus sign in
front of the word Navigator and select Applications.
In the frame on the right, scroll down until you find Hypertext Markup
Language. Highlight it and press the Edit button
on the right. Click on the Application radio button
and then click on Browse button. Locate the editor
of your choice (double clicking on it to fill in the path name).
Click here to go back to the Top or here to go back to the Table of Contents.
Corrections/additions should be sent to the notice of
webmaster@nutmeg.ctstateu.edu
Written by Stephen L. Frazier, Eastern
Connecticut State University
Last modified on 11/24/97 by slf
Adapted to CCSF by Pierre Thiry 9/21/99
Please
let us know if you discover problems with this documentation!
Click this arrow to go back to the Table
of Contents.
