How to create the web pages

1. Install Netscape Gold or Netscape Communicator. The campus standard is Netscape Communicator. This was installed on most computers during the network upgrade. However, if you have an older computer (with limited RAM, processor speed, or disk space) you may want to use Netscape 3.02 gold. This is available at the Netscape web site.
2. Open Communicator and then open "Composer", the program for writing web pages [Communicator, Page Composer].
3. If you like to read the instructions, click on [Help, Contents], select "About Composer" from the menu on the left. Select "Using Composer". You may print this document by clicking on the printer icon at the bottom of the screen.
4. If you like learning by doing, start writing and clicking on buttons. Highlight text to make changes. Hold the cursor over the buttons to find out what each tool does. Click on Help when you are stuck. And don't get frustrated, HTML is not the same as a word processor and you have less control over formatting.
5. For a very brief overview of using Composer:
1. Type the text you want
2. To change formatting, select the text and choose attributes from the toolbar. Use Headings 1 to 6 to specify levels, avoid specifying font type or size. Bold, Italic, and Underline are available. Additional formatting styles are listed in the menu at the top.
3. To create a link, select text, click on the link icon, and type in the URL (Universal Resource Locator, i.e. http://www.widener.edu) for the link. If you are making a link to a web page at another web site, it is easiest to copy and paste the URL from the location line in the browser. This type of link, which includes the entire address is called an absolute link. If you are making a local link to a file located on your computer, use the browse option after clicking on the link icon. This creates a relative links that only includes the file name.
4. To insert an image, select the image icon in the toolbar and enter the address for the image file. The image must be a gif or jpeg file to display in the browser. For more information, look at the help menu.
5. To create a table; click on the table icon in the toolbar. For more information look at the help menu.
6. For more information see How to make HTML documents.

7. Test the web page

Please send any comments, corrections, or suggestions to svanbram@science.widener.edu.

This page has been accessed times since 5/30/97.
Last Updated 5/20/98