Composer Tutorial for Composer 4.x
Getting Started - The Blank Page
Composer Tutorial for Composer 4.xGetting Started - The Blank Page |
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When you first open Composer, you will be presented with a Window similar
to the one at right. This is where it all starts. Don't be intimidated
by the big white space. We're just starting out and no one will see this
but you so have fun with this. Take your time.
The first thing you want to do is familiarize yourself with the different areas inside Composer. Like with any Windows based application, there is always more than one way to do things. The way I layed in these pages is just the way I've become accustomed to doing things. Remember, no right or wrong way to do things. |
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You could actually just start typing away right now, save it as an html
document, and you'd be done. But hey ... that's no fun.
Click on the Format command, then click on Page Colors and Properties. This will open the Page Properties box shown below. This is the first step in formatting your page. |
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Within this box there are several options that help you set up your page
contents. The General tab is where you can put in the title of your page.
Don't leave it blank. When you add a bookmark to your browser, this is
a piece of information that it stores. There is nothing worse than bookmarking
a page only to have it say "Untitled".
Go back to Composer and put "Your Name's First Webpage" in the Title box. The next line is Author. You don't have to fill this in but I always do. You won't see this information on the viewing page itself. Instead, it resides in the html code in the form of a meta tag. Meta tags are not covered in this 101 section. The same holds true for the Description box. Although search engines use this information for search criteria, you won't actually see this on the viewing page itself. |
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On
the Colors and Background tab you will find the section to actually do
some creative things with your page. The top section is called Page Colors.
Here is where you can specify different color combinations for text, links
and backgrounds.
You can get quite creative here. Composer gives you some built in color schemes to try as well as a default. I must warn you, most of the color schemes are eye popping and could cause retina burn out. You can also change each individual component so as to customize it to something that works for you. Be careful here not to get carried away with a lot of bright hard to read colors. What you eventually want to create is a page people will enjoy coming back to, not something that makes them squint and move on. For now click on the Background button and try a few of the colors to see the difference for your self. Once you find a color you like click on the Apply button. |
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lower section is called Background Image. This is for when you want to
have an image displayed on a page for the background instead of just a
color. An example would be like the off-white background image displayed
on this page. You don't have to check mark the box, that will automatically
happen when you choose an image. To use this options, just click on the
Choose File button.
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Once
you select this option a window will open up like the one to the left.
For background images it's best to stay with either a jpg or gif format.
Almost all browsers can view these graphic extensions without trouble.
Choose whatever background image you want to use and open it. It will then take you back to the screen above and the check mark will be there also. Be careful with background images the same way you would be careful with colors. Some images look great while others are quite unappealing. |
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you have selected your background image, click OK. This will bring you
back to what once was your white space. What ever image you select will
fill the whole page automatically. No matter how much content you add,
your image will continue to fill the screen.
Select a backgound that you want to use now and put it on your new webpage. backgound
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You can save this now by clicking on File then Save As. Give the file a name. You don't have to add the extension, Netscape will default by giving it an htm extension. However, if you want to, you can also add the extension of html. |
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| Well the easy part is done. You have your first page formatted with all the internal components you need and you have your background. Next comes adding some text content to the page. |
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| Move on to: Adding Content |
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