Create a new web page by pulling down the “File” menu, choosing the “New” submenu, and then the “Composer Page” item. This brings up a blank page.
You can also choose “Composer” from the “Window” menu and then use the normal “File:Open” menu item to open an existing file. If you wish to start from a page on the web, you can view that page using Netscape’s browser, and then choose “Edit Page” from the “File” menu. This will open the page in Netscape Composer, where you can make whatever changes you wish and then save it to your local hard drive.
- Paragraph Tags
- Netscape allows you to have “unstyled” text, text that doesn’t belong to any “paragraph-level” formatting. It calls this “Body Text”. In general, you shouldn’t do this. All of your text should be part of a paragraph, a heading, a list, a table, or some paragraph-level style. You should avoid the “Body Text” feature in HTML if you are creating professional web pages.
- Character Tags
- Character-level tags are like italics or bold in your word processor. They are styles that can be applied to individual characters, and do not have to affect an entire paragraph.
- Page Information
- Web pages contain some information that is not displayed on the page. This information makes it easier for computers, such as web browsers and web search engines, to use the page. Under the “Format” menu, you have “Page Title and Properties”. This allows you to set the title and description of your page.
- The Tag Trail
- Some HTML tags can be contained within other tags. Emphasized text can be part of a paragraph, for example. And Paragraphs are part of the body, or document, of your web page. Netscape keeps track of all of the tags that enclose whatever text you currently have selected.
- Simple Stylistic Variations
- While you want to use meaningful styles as much as possible, most of your web viewers will probably be viewing your site from a web browser (although with the advent of personal digital assistants, this may change). There are styles you can add to your page that are only visible in a visual browser. You have a large variety of stylistic variation available to you, but the most common ones are paragraph-level alignment and your page’s colors.
