Creating Webpages with Netscape Composer or Nvu

 

Before beginning, a few important notes:

  • Create a folder and put in all of the items you want on your webpage: pictures, documents, Powerpoint projects, etc. (To create a new folder—PC, right click anywhere on the server or desktop and go to create a new folder. On a mac, hold the control key and click and go to New Folder or pull down the File menu to New folder.) Inside the main folder, you may wish to create another folder entitled Images.
  • Change all of the names of the above items so they do not contain any special characters or spaces. However, you may use an underscore.
  • When you name your pages, remember the above rule. And your main page should have the name Index in it, to indicate it is the main page. You may want to call it indexMeadowView.htm, or MaryAllenIndex.htm, for example. (notice the use of capital letters but no spaces.)

 

  1. Open Nvu or Netscape Composer or Navigator—you do not need to be connected to the server, so click cancel if it tries to connect.
  2. If in Navigator, go to file to new to Composer page or click on the Composer icon located in the bottom left corner of the page.
  3. Or you can go to Open and navigate to a file if using a template or editing an existing page. A good place for template is \\disk\special\teacheritems or www.oswd.org (download and unzip the folder –right click on the folder and pull down to Extract All to unzip.)

 

Format Background, set colors

  1. You will probably want to set you background color and font colors. Go to Format to Page Colors and Background.
  2. Click on “use custom colors” and choose what you want by clicking on the color swatch.
  3. To choose an image for the background, click on Choose File and browse to your webpage folder to choose a previously saved image. REMEMBER—the item must be in the webpage folder BEFORE you link it. If it is not, the link will be broken and no image will appear when you post it to the web. Also, small images are not appropriate for backgrounds so the computer will tile them. To find backgrounds, search Google for wallpaper or desktops and what you are looking for, for example, Lord of the Rings wallpaper. Be sure to observe copyright laws. Official movie websites will offer free wallpaper.
  4. Now you are ready to add content to your page. You may type in information and use the editing tools to center, enlarge, change the color or otherwise format the type.

 

Adding Images

  1. To add images, click on the image icon or go to Insert to Image. Then browse to the picture you wish to add to your page.  Make sure it is in the webpage folder before you do this.
  2. After selecting the photo/image and clicking okay, you will be prompted to add alternate text if you didn’t already. This is for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance. This alternate text will be read to someone who is visually impaired, so making a clear description of the picture is appreciated by people in this situation.
  3. Once the picture is inserted, you can center it or put it on the left or right of the page. To resize the image, double click on it and then click on the “dimensions” tab and change the dimensions. Some versions of Composer allow you to grab a handle on the picture and change the size that way. Note that you can also click on the link icon and add a link to the picture (see How to add links below). There are also other items you can modify on the image. You can click the Appearance tab to put a border on the picture or align it. You may also set a link to the image by clicking on the link tab—see directions below for linking steps.

 

 

 

 

Linking

  1. To add a link to a page, highlight/select the word(s) or image you wish to link to another item. The item could be another webpage you have created, a word or pdf document, Excel document or PowerPoint. Just keep in mind that the item must be inside your webpage folder BEFORE you link it and also keep in mind that anything besides a web page will require software to open. For example, if you link to a Powerpoint presentation, the person viewing your page would have to have PowerPoint on his/her computer to open the link.  It is always best to link to webpages, not documents or other items.  Word allows you to “save as” a webpage. This is the best choice even though you will lose some formatting. You may also link to an external website on the web. After selecting/highlighting the text/item that will be the link, click on the link icon or go to Insert to link. If linking to an external site, type in the url or copy and paste it from your browser. You need the full url, including the http, etc., so it is best to go to the site and copy and paste it. If choosing an internal link (something that you put in your webpage folder), click on Choose file and navigate to your folder and choose the item. You may need to pull down to All Files in the file types box or else just webpages will show. For a webmail link, click the box in the linking pop up for email or type mailto: in front of the address, ex: mailto:timsmith@msn.com
  2. To check your work and make sure your links are okay, click on the Browse button. You must be connected to the Internet to check your external links. You can also open the page in Internet Explorer if you wish to see what it looks like in IE rather than Netscape/Firefox. To get back to Composer to edit the page, click on the composer icon in the bottom left of your screen. Or open a new Composer page and then go to Open recent and find your page. Web editors usually check the look of their page in more than one browser because pages may look different in Firefox vs. IE or Safari.
  3. You may have noticed it is difficult to align items on a webpage. Designers often use tables with invisible borders to align items. To create a table, position your curser where you want the table, and click the table icon or go to Insert to Table.  Then select the table and go to Table to Table Properties. If you want invisible borders, set the borders to 0.  You can also set a background color for the entire table or click on one cell and change the color just for that cell.

 

Putting Files on the Server

 

To ftp and put the files on the server, go to the GFPS homepage and change the “http” to “ftp”: ftp://www.gfps.k12.mt.us/

 

You should work from your z-drive or hard-drive; otherwise, you are working live and people can see your work in progress, and if you make a mistake, you can’t go back to get another copy since you are working on the original. Remember, you can work from home or anywhere you have an Internet connection. ftp into the server, drag your folder to the desktop or wherever, work on your page and drag it back to the server when done. Make sure you drag it to the exact same place from which it came. You should get the message asking if you want to replace the old one. If you don’t, you didn’t save it in the right place and the changes will not be visible. You will want to delete it and drag to the correct place which would be inside Schools/yourschool/web/teachers.

 

To download Nvu or Netscape Composer, type in Netscape 7.2 download into Google and you will find it:

\\disk\special\teacheritems   and go to the Otherinstallers folder (Nvu or NSsetup).

 

Be sure to install the full version for Netscape or else you will only get the Netscape browser and not Composer. Netscape 8.0, the newest version, does not contain Composer as it has been discontinued as a free product and costs money now.