Making A Web Site With Netscape Composer

Netscape Composer is part of Netscape Communicator an Internet suite. It is available for free and can be used on most computers. There are other HTML editors around, but none are available for most platforms. You don't need to use Navigator as your browser, so if you like Explorer or Opera you are okay. If you don't have Communicator yet, please download it from Netscape. Remember to get Netscape Communicator, not Netscape Navigator stand-alone. They are different as Communicator contains Composer and Navigator
stand-alone does not.

This was intended for someone with a basic knowledge of their computer and the internet. Minor experience in using a word processor program like Microsoft Word, Claris, Wordperfect or anything else is a plus. Composer is not very different from these programs except it makes web pages.

Opening
Once you have Communicator installed, load it. If you are not connected to the internet, that is all right. Then go to File->New->Blank Page see Figure 1. A new window will pop-up with Composer in it.

Figure 1, How to Open Composer

Properties
Now comes the part of making your web site. You should see a window which says Netscape Composer on top and has two toolbars. If you do, you are on the right track. To set up basic properties of your page, go to Format->Page Colors And Properties. This will let you set the colors and and other basic information.
You have your colors and page properties set up, so now it is time to write.

Text
The lower toolbar allows you to change the font, styles and color of text. The first drop down menu contains text formatting stuff. See figure 2.

Figure 2 Text Formatting

Note the Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on commands. You can use these to make big text for a heading on your page. An example is the one at the top that says How To Make a page in Netscape Composer. Each Heading is a different size. See the different sizes below.

This is Heading 1

This is Heading 2

This is Heading 3

This is Heading 4

This is Heading 5

This is Heading 6

I always thought it was weird that Heading Size 1 is the largest, but that's the way it is. Once you have your heading on, now it is time to write your content. Just write away like your in a word processor. Make the text look nice and the way you want. Use that second toolbar for most text things.

Links
To add links, simply click on 'Link' on the first toolbar. This will bring up a link properties window. You can also highlight text and then click on 'Link' and the highlighted text will be where the link will go.

Images
To add an image, again simply click 'Image' on the first toolbar. This will bring up the image properties window where you can insert an image. Type in where the image is located, or click 'Choose File'. An image must be on your hard drive if you are not connected to the internet. If you are connected, you can type in an address of a graphic.

Tables
The last thing you really need to know about are tables. Tables are very hard to explain, so I suggest you play around with the table function. Tables are not very customizable and easy in Composer. That's why once again I am telling you to learn HTML. Tables are very helpful in designing a good layout.