Using Netscape Composer 4.x to Create and Edit Web Pages

on Lehigh's website, www.lehigh.edu

Technical Bulletin #33

Netscape Communicator (4.0 and up) includes a Composer function for creating, editing, and uploading web pages. This editor function is best used by those:

Getting Netscape Composer

Netscape Communicator with the Composer function is available through Install Software/Winstall on the Public sites and LAN connected machines, or it can be downloaded from the Netscape Web site.

Configuring Netscape Composer

Open Netscape Communicator and choose Composer from the Communicator menu.

In Composer, choose Preferences from the Edit menu. In the left-hand menu box, double click on Composer.
In the right-hand box:

  1. Put your name in the Author Name area.
  2. In the radio buttons, choose 'Show relative HTML scale and absolute "point-size" attributes
  3. Choose an editor to edit raw HTML. We suggest Word Pad.

    4. (C:\Program Files\Accessories\Wordpad.exe)
Click on the Publishing item in the left-hand box, and in that section:
  1. UN-check the box:
  2. Consider whether or not to check the box:
  3. In the Publish to: box, type:

    4. https://www.lehigh.edu/~userid/
    where userid is the Lehigh userid of the AFS account you want your web pages to go into.

Using Netscape Composer to create and edit a document

To create a document in Netscape Composer, choose New  from the File menu, and choose Blank Page. In the window that appears, create and edit your page.

To edit either an existing document on the Web or a document created in Netscape or saved as HTML from another program:

  1. View the document in Netscape. (If the document is still on your machine, you may need to choose 'Open Page' from the file menu, then use the Browse option to find it on your drives.)
  2. From the Communicator menu, choose Edit Page
  3. A Composer window will come up with the document in it.
  4. Make the changes you wish to, using the Composer tools.
Editing an HTML document created in Netscape and saved previously, created in another editor, or in fact any HTML document:
  1. From the Communicator menu, choose Page Composer
  2. Choose Open Page from the File menu
  3. Click Browse to find the file if it is on your local hard drive, or enter the file name if it is on the Web.
  4. Make the changes you wish to, using the Composer tools.

Typing in your document

To make a break (BR) in the document, simply press the return/enter key. If you are in a list, pressing return will give you a new list item.

To a make a new paragraph (P) in the document, simply press the return/enter key twice.

To create line break (BR) in a list without making a new paragraph or list item, hold down the shift key while pressing return/enter.

To create a horizontal line (HR), click on the H.Line icon, or choose Horizontal Line from the Insert menu.

To change the style of the text you are typing, highlight it and choose the style you want from the Style item on in the Format menu.

Change text alignment by choosing Align in the Format Menu

To insert text that is already formatted (PRE)-- text that has tabs, special spacing etc., such as statistical tables, etc.--, start a new paragraph and choose Formatted from the Paragraph Style menu in the upper-right corner.

Headings

Headings are section titles in the HTML; they come in 6 levels, with Heading 1 (H1) the most important and Heading 6 (H6) the least.

To change a line to a heading, you need only click on that line and select Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. from the box in the upper left of the screen (usually displays normal). This is the Paragraph type box; you can adjust the paragraph type also by right mouse clicking on the line and choosing Paragraph/List properties.

Making Lists in your document

HTML includes three kinds of lists:
  1. Ordered, or numbered lists
  2. Unordered, or bullet lists
  3. Descriptive lists
Bullet (Unordered) and Numbered (Ordered) Lists

To create a bullet list or numbered list, go to the place where you want to put the list, and click on the bullet list or numbered list icon. You can also select text and make it a numbered or bullet list by clicking on the icons. Type in your points, pressing Return for new points. After the last point, press Return and then click on the list icon again, to turn it off.
You can put more than one line inside a single list item: hit Shift-Return for a line break to make a new line, rather than a new list item.
You can next lists inside other lists, by using the indent feature. Nested bullet lists use different bulletins; nested numbed lists use different numbering. To nest points, use the 'indent' icon.

  1. Part One
    1. Point A
    2. Point B
  2. Part Two
Descriptive Lists
Descriptive lists have two different kinds of items in them: Descriptive Titles (DT in HTML) and Descriptive Text (DD in HTML.) They are useful for definitions, glossaries, points that require explanation, etc.
To create a Descriptive list, choose List from the Format menu, then choose Descriptive.
Type in your list.
For each list item:
Go to the line, and right-mouse click on it.
Choose Paragraph/List properties
Choose Desc Title or Desc Text from the Paragraph Style pull down, and click OK.

Putting  Hypertext Links in your Document

Links to other documents
To create a link to another document, you must first have the URL (address) of the document. If the other document is in the same space and directory that the document you are linking from is, you can just use the file name; otherwise you should use the URL.
  1. You can copy the URL of a document from Netscape, by clicking in the Location box so that the URL is highlighted, and pressing Control-C.

    2. Or, you can copy the URL from a link to the document, by right-clicking on the link and choosing 'Copy Link Location' from the menu.
  2. Once you have the URL, go to the piece of text you want to be the link. Highlight this text with the cursor, and click on the Link (chain) icon, or select Link from the Insert menu.
  3. Paste or type the URL or file name of the document you want to link to into the Link to a page location box.
Note: Links have to have the full name of the server: http://www.yahoo.com, NOT www.yahoo.com.

Links within your document

You can also create links within your document, to serve as a table of contents.

  1. First, set targets in your document, where you want your links to go.
    1. Select text in the area where you want your links to go to.
    2. Click on the Target icon, or choose Target from the Insert menu.
    3. Enter a short piece of text to identify the target (something you will remember) in the Enter a name for this target box, and click OK.
    4. Repeat for each target you want to set.
  2. Then, create your table of contents (put the text into the document) to link from. You can use a bullet list for this if you like, or just a bunch of paragraphs. You can also link directly from one part of the document to another, by making a piece of text the link rather than using a table of contents.
  3. Finally, set the links from your table of contents to the targets.
    1. Select the text (either the table of contents entry, or the text in the section) you want to make into a link.
    2. Click on the Link icon or choose Link from the Insert menu.
    3. Choose the target you want to point to from the Select a named target box.
Links that send mail
From time to time, you will want to set up a way for people to send mail to a certain email address. This can be done with a link.
  1. Type in the email address. For example: xxxx@lehigh.edu
  2. Select the email address.
  3. Click on the Link icon
  4. In the Link to page location box, type in:

    5. mailto:[email address]
    For example:
    mailto:xxxx@lehigh.edu
  5. Click OK.

Putting Images in your document

  1. First, get your image. There are many ways to get an image:
    2. Your image should be in GIF (.gif) or in JPEG (.jpg) format. If it is in another format, you will have to use Netscape to convert it to a .gif or .jpg file, or use Photoshop or a similar program (which may produce better results).
  2. Either put your image in the same directory as your .html file, OR (if it is already a .gif or .jpg file) upload it to your web space (using SSH Secure File Transfer.)
  3. Now, you want to insert your image into the document.
    1. Place your cursor where you want the image to appear in the document.
    2. Click on the Insert Image button, or choose Image from the Insert menu.
    3. Enter the file name or the URL of the image you want to use.
    4. If the image is on the Lehigh web or another web site, click on the Leave image at original location button to keep Netscape from downloading a copy for you.
    5. Click on the ALT text/Low Res Button, and enter a caption or description of the image.
    6. Click on OK in the ALT text window.
    7. Click on OK in the Insert Image window.
  4. If the file is not a .jpg or .gif image, you will be asked if you want to save it as a .jpg file. Click on OK; then choose a quality of image.
  5. Your image will appear on the screen. It can now be dragged, moved, or repositioned with the mouse; you can change image properties by clicking on it with the right mouse button and selecting image properties.
  6. If the image was not originally a .jpg or .gif image, you must save it as one.
    1. Right-click on the image when you are satisfied with the size and shape.
    2. Choose "Save As" from the menu.
    3. Give a file name to the image; it should automatically end it .jpg
    4. Remember, when publishing or uploading the HTML page, to select the image as associated with it.

Changing item properties

To change the properties of an item, such as a horizontal rule, right mouse click on the item and choose the correct 'properties' option.

Colors

In working with colors, you have two options: you can adjust the colors for the whole document, or you can set colors for just the text you are working with.

To change the page colors (and background) right mouse click and choose Page Properties and click on the Colors and Backgrounds tab, or choose Page Colors and Properties from the Format menu.

To set colors for a specific piece of text, simply highlight it and choose Color from the Format menu. Choose the color you want from the colorbox.

In any case, you can change the colors available by clicking on the Other button in the color box, and adjusting the color.

Making Tables

Netscape Composer is not recommended for creating complex tables, but you can create simple tables using the Tables function.
  1. Click on the Table icon or choose Table from the Insert menu.
  2. Set the number of rows (horizontal sections) and the number of columns (vertical sections) .
  3. If you want the table to 'stretch to fit' the content inside it, uncheck the 'Table Width' attribute.
  4. Leave the 'border line width' attribute at 1 to get a thin border; set it to 0 (zero) and/or uncheck that option to get no border at all. Click on OK to insert the table.
  5. Type the information in the cells. Use the tab key to switch between cells.
Once you have created the table, you can use Add to add or delete table rows, cells, and columns.
  1. Right-click at the spot you want to add or delete a column, row, or cell.
  2. Choose either 'Insert' (to add) or 'Delete' (to remove) from the menu.
  3. From the submenu, choose the element you want to insert or delete.
You can also change background colors, alignments, etc. for tables and cells by right-clicking on the table and using the Properties menu item. Note: you cannot set text attributes (such as size, style or color) across table cells.

Previewing your page

To check the look of your page, choose the Browse Page item in the File menu. Netscape will open up another browser window and display your page.

To get back to the editor, simply close the new window.

Putting up your document on the Web

Composer allows you to put your documents directly back onto the web, called Publishing.

Once you have completed your document changes, save your document. Now you are ready to Publish it.

  1. Click on the Publish icon. A box with options will appear.
  2. Fill in a Page Title in the first box (this will be the title in the blue Netscape Bar at the top of the screen; it will also be the name of the bookmark when the page is bookmarked)
  3. Fill in the filename you want it to have on the Web server (Use the full UNIX file name).
  4. Make sure the Publish to location is the account and directory you want to upload to, usually:

    5. https://www.lehigh.edu/~userid/

    For instance, for
    http://www.lehigh.edu/~inwww/swat/index.html,
    you publish to:
    https://www.lehigh.edu/~inwww/swat/
     
  5. Fill in the userid and password for the account you want to put this in (inwww, for instance, in the previous example)
  6. If you have files, such as graphics or other pages, associated with the page, use the Other Files to Include box to select the ones you want to upload.
  7. Click on OK to start publishing.
  8. If the upload completed successfully, you will get a message saying that your file was successfully uploaded.
Note: if you are trying to publish to two different web spaces, which require two different userid/password pairs, you will need to either shutdown and restart Netscape between publishing. Otherwise, when trying to upload with the second userid/password pair, you will get an error.

Netscape Dos and Don'ts:

There are some things you should do in Netscape that you may or may not  be prompted to. There are a few things you can do in Netscape that you probably don't want to do: 11/05/02, jah