PREPARED BY DIVISION OF INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT
Office of Instructional Technology

Project Smart Schools

modified by Sheila Gersh

sogcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu

Netscape Composer Basics

 In addition to knowing how to create the coding (HTML) to make a Web page, you can also use authoring programs that look like word processors. They create the coding in the background. One program is called Composer and is available for both PCs or Macs. It is part of the Netscape Communicator (4.0 or later) package of software. It is available free to download from http://www.netscape.com or can be bought from http://cd.netscape.com. A free authoring program, called FrontPage Express is available from the Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 4.0 or later) that is available only for PCs, not Macs. Some others include DreamWeaver, HomePage, and Adobe Page Mill and Go Alive Cyberstudio.Here's some information that will help you get started using Composer.

1. Open Composer from Netscape screen. It's under the Communicator drop down menu. (under Tasks in 6.1)

2. Composer works like a word processor. You can write text and change the size, font, and color of the words. You can also center words, etc.

Type:
    MY FIRST WEB PAGE
Your Name
    Your School Name
    (press Enter)

Now:
    1. Drag Mouse over the title to highlight and change "normal" to  "Heading 1"
2. Drag mouse over the next two lines and change " normal" to "Heading 3".

    3. Click "Format" and when menu appears, click "Page Colors and Properties" and  then click "background" to change the background color. Click OK.

3. You can add on Graphics.

1.  Click image icon and when the "image properties" menu appears,  click "choose file", to find the file on your disk (make sure the "look in" window is changed to "3 1/2 Floppy (A:)" click on the file name to insert that picture.  Click open;  click OK.  The picture will now appear on your page.

4. You can create Links.

 Type:
        My favorite sites are:
            CNN
            Teaching with the Internet
            Alta Vista

Now:
        1. Drag the mouse across "CNN" and when it is highlighted, click the "link" icon.  When the "Character Properties" window opens, go to "Link to" - "Link to a page location or local file" and type the complete URL for the site which is  http://www.cnn.com
       2.  Drag the mouse across "Teaching with the Internet" and when it is highlighted, click the "link" icon.  When the "Character Properties" window opens, go to "Link to" - "Link to a page location or local file" and type the complete URL for the site which is  http://www.schoollink.org/twin
 3. Drag the mouse across "AltaVista" and when it is highlighted, click the "link" icon.  When the "Character Properties" window opens, go to "Link to" - "Link to a page location or local file" and type the complete URL for the site which is  http://www.altavista.com . To link to an e-mail address you, type mailto:(and the e-mail address). To link to another Web page file, choose the file name (and click).

5. You can create Tables.

6. You can also alter the page using HTML by going to Edit-->HTML Source.

7. When you are finished make sure you save your file with the .htm extension, using Save As from the File drop-down menu.  Alwasy name the first page of your Web site index