Creating
a
Web Page using Mozilla
Composer
Presented
By:
Laura Leonard,
Useful Links:
On-line Tutorials:
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/webdev/mozilla/mozillastart3.html
http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/mozillacomposer1.shtml
http://casweb.ou.edu/olr/technology/webpub/composer/index.htm
Download Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/
http://www.animationfactory.com
http://www.millan.net/anims/holidays.html
http://www.billybear4kids.com/clipart/clipart.htm
http://school.discovery.com/clipart/
http://www.teacherfiles.com/clip_art.htm
http://www.patswebgraphics.com/holiday.html
or….
Do a Google Search for what you
want to find.
Getting Started
Step 1:
Start by launching Mozilla; the icon looks like a red Dinosaur head.
Step 2:
Once Mozilla is launched, you will see a typical web browser window. To
start
creating a web page, go to the menu item:
File > New >
Composer Page
Step 3:
At the top, you see many icons that are similar to those found in a
word
processing application such as new, open, save and print.
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Other icons are unique to web authoring, such as image, which lets you
insert
an image in your page, and table, which lets you insert a table. Also,
you see
the link icon, which lets you create a hyperlink in your page.
On
the next tier of icons, you have many of your text formatting tools.
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On
the very left, you can choose the format for the type of text you are
typing,
whether part of the text body or a heading. Next, you can choose the
color of
your text by clicking on the black box in the foreground and the color
of your
background by clicking on the white box in the background. The small
and large
A’s let you change font size, and you can choose if you want your text
bold,
italicized or underlined. Finally, you can add in bulleted or numbered
lists
and choose a justification for your text.
At
the bottom of the window you see tabs.
![]()
These
will allow you to toggle between different views. There is normal view,
which
is the default view you see now, and the tags view, which shows what
part of
the page you are working on. The code view shows the HTML code for your
page
and the preview tab will show you what your page will look like in a
browser
window.
Saving
your
Page
Before you get
very far along on your page, you will
want to save it:
Step 1:
Go
to the menu item File
> Save As
A window will pop up asking you to give a title to the current page.
This will
be the title that appears in the blue bar at the top of the page, and
will be
the default title suggested by the program as you continue to save. Go
ahead
and type in a title and click O.K. Then, the standard Save window will
open. If
you are satisfied with the suggested title, go ahead and leave it.
Browse to
where you want your document to be saved and click Save.
Step 2:
To continue saving your work as you go along, go to the menu item File > Save.
Notice that when
there are no changes to save on the page, the Save selection is grayed
out.
Formatting
Text
Apply formatting
to the text of your page:
Step 1:
To
format text, use your mouse to highlight the desired text. Then look in
the
toolbar at the top of the window to choose from the various formatting
options.
Step 2:
Apply formatting changes:
To
increase the font size of the selected text, click on the large “A”
To
bold the selected text, click on the bolded “B”
To
align the text to the center, click on the “align center” button
Insert
a Table
To
insert a table into your web page:
Step 1:
Go
to the menu item Insert>
Table.
Step 2:
Specify the number of rows and columns you want in the table.
Step 3:
Determine how big you want the table by specifying the table width in
terms of
the percent of the page it will take up.
Step 4:
Specify
how thick or thin of a border you want around the table.
Step 5:
Click O.K.
Step 6:
To align the table, first make sure that your cursor is in the table.
Then, go
to the menu item Table
and then to Select >
Table.
This will highlight the entire table. Then click on the “align center”
button
in the tool bar.
Inserting
an
Image
To insert an
image from one of your files into your
web page:
Step 1:
Go
to the menu item Insert
>
Image.
Step 2:
Click on the “choose file” button. Browse to where your image is saved
and
select it by clicking on it once. Then click the “open” button.
Step 3:
Back in the image properties window, enter an appropriate description
in the
“alternate text” field. Then click O.K.
Step 4:
To
align the image: Use your mouse to click on it so that it is
highlighted blue,
then click on one of the alignment buttons.
A
note on File Management:
A
web page with images in it is actually a collection of files. You have
one file
that is your web page containing the HTML code. And when you insert an
image,
you introduce another file, the image file. The image file does not
live within
your web page; it exists independently. Your web page only contains
directions
on how to retrieve the image, which is usually the file name of the
image.
These directions are called the relative path. This kind of structure
means you
need to respect the relative path and be careful to always save your
image and
your web page in the same location - usually a single folder. If you
put them
in separate folders, the web page will
not be able to find or display the image. ALSO… NEVER put spaces in
file
names!
Making
Hyperlinks
To create
hyperlinks to other pages, or create
internal links using a named anchor:
Step 1:
Use
your mouse to highlight the text you want to be a link .
Step
2:
Next go to the toolbar at the top of the window and click on the “link”
button.
This
will open a new window – the link properties window.
Step 3:
Type in the URL in the window and click O.K.
Internal
Links
Step 1:
To create an internal link, first make a named anchor:
Place
your cursor where you want to put the anchor (example: if you are
creating a
"Back to top" link, you will put the anchor at the top of the page).
Step 2:
Next, go to the menu item Insert
> Named anchor.
This will open a new window where you can type in the name of the
anchor. Name
it something simple, like "top."
Click O.K.
The little yellow anchor icon that appears is the named anchor (the
icon will
not be visible on the web).
Step 3:
To link to the named anchor, place your cursor where you want the link
to exist
(example: if you are creating the "Back to top" link, you will make
the link at the bottom of the page).
Next, highlight the text that you want to make into a link with your
mouse and
click on the “link” button on the toolbar at the top of the window.
Step 4:
In the Link Properties window that will open, type in #titleofyournamedanchor.
The “#” sign indicates that it is a named anchor you are linking to.
Click O.K.
Modifying Page
Properties
To modify page
properties to change the background
color of your page or the color of your text:
Step 1:
Go
to the menu item Edit
>
Preferences .
Step 2:
Go to the Appearance category and double click on it.
Step 3:
To change the background color of your page, click on the subtopic
“colors”.
Then, in the right hand side of the window, click on the colored square
next to
“background” (or “text” or “visited links”). A grid of palettes will
appear;
use your mouse to select the color you prefer.