Netscape Composer Directions -updated 1-25-06. For Netscape 7.1 or 7.2.
Save Background:
-open Netscape and type in the URL: http://mtwow.org/ .
-right click on the background color, click on "View Background Image." This opens up a view of the background image called grassbg-2.
-right mouse click and save as grassbg-2, a .jpg (j-peg) file, on your disk in the A drive and/or on your hard (C) drive.
To Edit An Existing Page: Click File, Edit. You may then edit it as you need. Be sure to save it using the exact same file name or it will not publish correctly and you will have to redo it.
Open Blank Page in Netscape Composer: (to start a brand new page)
-from Netscape hit File, New, Composer Page. You now have a blank web page open in Composer with a white background.
Background and Spacing:
-hit Format, Page Colors and Properties - the Page Colors and Background window opens.
-go to Page Colors and click: Use custom colors:. Do not change any colors here!
-Under Background Image hit Choose File - and choose the grassbg-2 from where ever you saved it - hit O.K..
-hit the Indent text button on the tool bar twice (to move left margin of web page out of the weeds).
Text and Horizontal Lines:
-type some text (your name or the title) and use the tool bar buttons to increase the font size, change the color, bold, italics, underline and center the text. This works much like a standard word processor. Practice editing text for a while....
-Horizontal Line: click: Insert and Horizontal Line. This adds a horizontal line.
Images:
-click Image in the tool bar - the Image Properties window opens.
-in the Image folder, click on Choose File - find the image you want from your disk/hard drive and click Open.
-add (type in) some descriptive Alternative Text about the photo.
-click the Dimensions Folder and customize size as needed.
-click the Appearance Folder and add a 2 pixel solid border (type "2" in the Spacing box).
-click Align Text To Image drop down and pick Wrap to the left or Wrap to the right (which ever you think will look the best).
-you may also make the image a link (to a larger version of the photo or to the site where you copied the image).
-click OK. - the image may appear much to large or too small!! Do not worry, you can edit the size.
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You have 2 ways to edit the image:
1. Click once on the image and change the size by dragging at the corners.
2. Double click on the image - the Image Properties window opens again. Under Dimensions / Height change the size to 200 pixels - click OK and see how the photo looks. Edit what ever else you need to from the Image Properties window.
View Page as if on Internet:
-to view how the image and text together will really look on the Internet, first save the page to your disk or hard drive.
-click on the save button and save the page where you want. Be sure to use an exact descriptive name for your page (check with teacher for name).
-click on Browse. This will show the page on Netscape as if it was on the Internet.
-to get back to editing your page, turn off the Browse (Netscape) window. Your page in Netscape Composer was behind this window all the time.
Links:
-open the Netscape window (get back to the Internet) and highlight the URL (the web address in the Location box in the tool bar) of the web page you want to link to. Press the Control-C keys on the key board (or hit Edit - Copy in the tool bar). You have now copied this address.
-reopen (maximize) your web page in Composer, and get your cursor to the place you want the link to be - press Control-V (or Edit - Paste in the tool bar). You should see the URL pasted into this place. Hit space once.
-highlight the URL and hit Link in the tool bar. This opens the Link Properties window.
-be sure the cursor is in the "Link Location Box" and hit Control-V to paste the link into the box.
-click OK and the link should appear as blue underlined text on your web page.
-Make all links Bold and blue.
Tables:
-Tables can be visible to separate items on your web page or invisible to hold items in place on your web page.
-To insert a table: click Table in the tool bar and a Table Insert window will open. You can set the number of Columns, Rows, the Width and the size of the Border of your table.
-To edit the table, dbl. click on the table and the Table Properties window will open. From this you can edit the whole table or individual cells within the table.
-More editing: you may also right click on the table or a cell and edit it. You can delete, insert, change the colors or open the Table Properties window.
-To make a table invisible, open the Table Properties window and click on the Table tab. In Borders and Spacing delete the Borders, Spacing and Padding numbers (leave blank). Click OK. In Composer the boarders will be dotted lines. On the Internet they will be invisible.
To Finish Page: We always have a link back to the home page of the mtwow.org web site and a link back to the page(s) the user used to get to this page. Make the like to home look like this: mtwow.org HOME .
-Make all links Bold and blue. (they turn blue/underlined when you make the link so leave the text color default black).
mtwow.org Protocol:
-all pages have grassbg-2 background.
-all titles in red color (#ff0000). All other text colors default.
-left margin indented 2 clicks.
-2 pixel border around all photos.
-document sources.
-all pages inter linked and linked to the home page.
-few photos per page (must download fairly rapidly). Make extra linked pages for more photos.
mtwow.org HOME Back to Lesson Plans
By: Mr. Breitenfeldt