Keys to Success - Using Netscape Composer
- CSI Staff
- Staff Writer
- Center for Support of Instruction
Category: » Tech-skills-software » Netscape-composer
See below for Tips Specific to Netscape Composer, as well as Keystroke Shortcuts and Helpful Websites.
Some General Tips for Working in HTML
When saving HTML files, use universal Internet naming conventions:
File names should contain no spaces or special characters other than hyphen - or underscore _. It's also a good idea to keep letters lowercase.
Find HTML (coding) Source in Word or browser:
From menu bar, select View-->HTML Source or View-->Page Source
Create a Windows folder "on the fly" in the process of saving a file:
After selecting File-->Save As and navigating to the folder where you wish to create a new subfolder, select the Create New Folder
icon. This pops up a new folder dialog box that allows you to type the name of the new folder. After creating the folder, you may have to double-click it to get inside the folder before saving the file there.
Tips to Working Effectively in Netscape Composer 7.x:
- Resave often. You may UNDO or REDO an operation after a save, via the Edit-->Undo (or Edit-->Redo) option.
- To insert a line break (single hard return) as opposed to a paragraph break (blank line between paragraphs), hold down the keyboard Shift key while hitting Enter.
- To insert a line break between paragraphs within bulleted or numbered items, hold the Shift key and hit Enter twice. The resulting blank line appears to be a paragraph break but maintains the indent of the bullet (or number) without starting a new item. "Hold" the blank line between items by inserting one space (hit the keyboard space bar) in the blank line.
- Don't overdo indents in Composer pages. Too many indent levels can create haphazard vertical spacing problems that are difficult to fix.
- When and how to use background colors. If you will publish your webpage and then link to it in WebTycho, you may insert a background color via Format-->Page Colors and Background-->Background. However, if pasting the source code into WebTycho, background color will be eliminated by pasting only the actual body text as required by WebTycho, since background color is housed in the page's <BODY> tag. (A workaround is to create one large single-celled table on the page for all the text and put a background color in the table.)
- "Preview" your page in a browser window frequently as you work on it. Select the Browse
button on the Composer toolbar to look at the page in the Netscape Navigator browser.
A quick way to check whether you are in the Composer or Navigator view (or to select from program buttons in your Windows status bar) is to note the icon at the (upper) left of the window or button:
indicates Composer
indicates Navigator
Preview your page in Internet Explorer (IE) from time to time. This allows you to see how your page's appearance differs in IE compared to Navigator. Open IE, select File-->Open-->Browse to find and select the webpage file on your computer, then click OK.
Reload/Refresh the browser view of a local HTML page (on your computer) to see newly saved work. Right-click on the browser view of the page and select Reload (for Navigator) or Refresh (for Internet Explorer) from the mini-menu.
Keystroke Shortcuts
To copy (e.g., from Page Source view if normal Copy commands aren't available):
In any Windows-based program, first select text and other elements to be copied, then hold down the Control key while selecting the C key (Control-C).
The keystroke to paste is Control-V.
To open a new (Navigator) window (while in a given program) Control-N.
To open a new Composer window (while in Netscape) Control-Shift-N.
Helpful Websites
WebTycho Help site's information on viruses
tychousa.umuc.edu/help.nsf/htmlmedia/virus.html
DE Oracle at UMUC Ezine and Online Help Site(s)
- Homepage: http://info.umuc.edu/de/
- Cheatsheet for handcoding HTML, if you wish, for short bits of text:
http://info.umuc.edu/de/ezine/how_to/html-pages/code_html/HTMLcheatsheet.htm. - How to use templates for creating lesson guides and lectures
http://info.umuc.edu/de/ezine/templates.htm. - For a primer on using Composer, see Netscape's Handbook, http://home.netscape.com/browsers/using/newusers/composer/index.html.
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