Web-Authoring Workshop

by GenTech
 
 


 
 

Netscape Communicator Format the Page Add a Table
Use Composer to Create Your First Page Add Images Add Sounds
Use Navigator to Surf Add Links Publish Your Page
 
 
 
 
 

About Netscape Communicator: The Software for this Workshop

Netscape Communicator (available for free download at http://home.netscape.com) is actually made up of several component programs, including:
  • Navigator is a WWW browser- your interface for viewing WWWpages


     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  • Composer is a WWWpage Authoring environment that supports your own WWWpage creation efforts

Search Engines help you to find specific pages using keywords and/or phrases (such as Metacrawler http://www.metacrawler.com or Altavista   http://www.altavista.com)


If you need to brush up on your Internet Surfing skills, visit SFU Faculty of Education's Welcome to the Web Tutorial  created by Jackie Dale.
When you are typing a WWW Page's URL, try typing only the Corporate identification, like "metacrawler", "netscape", or "sony" and don't type any other information in the Location window. Chances are good that this will suffice, since Netscape fills in the additional parts of the URL, e.g., http://www.metacrawler.com
This trick saves you time, and reduces the chance that you will make a silly typo, resulting in a time-wasting dead-end.

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Let's use Navigator to access this web page.

  1. Place your cursor in the long white rectangle next to Location
  2. Type in this page's URL (Universal Resource Locator)
  3. http://www.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/bryson/wwauthor1.html
  4. Hit Return


     

     

Use Navigator to browse sample web pages:

When you are typing a WWW Page's URL, try typing only the Corporate identification, like "metacrawler", "netscape", or "sony" and don't type any other information in the Location window. Chances are good that this will suffice, since Netscape fills in the additional parts of the URL, e.g., http://www.metacrawler.com
This trick saves you time, and reduces the chance that you will make a silly typo, resulting in a time-wasting dead-end.


How to Use both Navigator and Composer to Create Your Web-Page: The Art of Switching
When you are working on your own WWWPage, it's commonplace to switch back and forth between Navigator and Composer. You use Navigator to find appropriate images, check the URL's of links you want to insert into your own page etc... With a Composer screen close at-hand, you can use cut and paste tools to make use of what your browsing has produced.
The Netscape window has a streaming comets  image top-right. The Composer window doesn't, and is labeled top-left Netscape Composer.
 
 
 

Switching between Navigator and Composer is easy, thanks to the Component Bar which is always on your screen, and can be placed pretty much wherever you choose. The component bar sits in the lower right hand corner of the window, and can be moved to a new location.
 

  1. Place your cursor on the square/dots and keep the mouse button pressed down
  2. Use the mouse to reposition the component bar anywhere you choose

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Rearrange your desktop so that you can go back and forth between a Navigator and a Composer Window
 
  1. Put your cursor on the component bar, and click on the Composer icon. If you leave your cursor on the Composer icon (pencil on paper) for a second or more, a label pops up which says: "Open the web page editor"
  2. Put your cursor in the lower right-hand corner of the window, press down the mouse, and re-size the window so that it occupies only the right half of your desktop.
  3. The Navigator window should be sitting on the desktop. Find it and click on the Navigator window to bring back up front.
  4. If it seems to have disappeared, Select File > New > Navigator, click on the Navigator icon on the component bar
  5. Put your cursor in the lower right-hand corner of the window, press down the mouse, and re-size the window so that it occupies only the left half of your desktop.

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Your First Page

To start from a pre-existing text-file in Microsoft Word
  1. Open your Word file - double-click on the file icon, or Open Word and select File > Open
  2. Select File > Save As HTML
  3. Choose New folder as the location to save all the files associated with this WWWpage and your life as a WWW author will be infinitely more pleasant. WWWpages work best when all the .html files and image files and any other bells and whistles like sound files are all in one folder. Give your folder a descriptive name, and pay attention to where it is located. Remember that in virtual worlds, as elsewhere, what counts is "location location location".
  4. Type a filename that (a) is descriptive, (b) no spaces or non-text characters, and (c) ends in .html e.g., home.html
  5. Open Netscape Navigator
  6. Select File > Open > Page in Composer
  7. Find and open your .html  file
  8. Select File > Save

To open a New and Blank page in Composer

Select File > New > Blank Page

Save your page

  1. Select File > Save
  2. Choose New folder as the location to save all the files associated with this WWWpage and your life as a WWW author will be infinitely more pleasant. WWWpages work best when all the .html files and image files and any other bells and whistles like sound files are all in one folder. Give your folder a descriptive name, and pay attention to where it is located. Remember that in virtual worlds, as elsewhere, what counts is "location location location".
  3. Type a filename that (a) is descriptive, (b) no spaces or non-text characters,  and (c) ends in .html e.g., home.html 

HTML is short for (deep breath!) Hypertext MarkUp Language, which is a universal programming language that can be recognized by browsers like Netscape or Explorer in order to show your Web Page, complete with text, images and sounds etc... as the author intended (more or less). In the old days, not so long ago, WWWpage authors needed to use straight HTML to create their pages. Now we have WYSIWYG programs ("what you see is what you get") like Netscape Composer, Claris Home Page, Adobe PageMill, or Microsoft FrontPage that allow you to create a formatted WWWpage using menus and icons instead of HTML code, just like using a word processing program.

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Netscape Communicator Format the Page Add a Table
Use Composer to Create Your First Page Add Images Add Sounds
Use Navigator to Surf Add Links Publish Your Page