Hints to make Composer  do your bidding!

***Whenever making changes to your index file be sure that you have save it back to flash with index as the file name.
Never save back with the page title as the file name.

1. If you want to tab over or indent a line that has been word wrapped, you must hit enter at the end of the line above.
Then you can space the line below forward.

2. To type regular text beside a link you must 'fool' Composer.  If you simply type beside the link, the highlighted link text extends. Copy/paste any bit of black text from another part of the document next to the link.  Type what you want and delete what you don't.

3. If you want to place text beside an image, best to use an invisible table.  To set up the invisible table enter zero pixels for border line width, cell spacing, and cell padding.  Uncheck "equal column widths" if you want to vary the cell size.  It is always best for the visitor not to have to use the horizontal scroll bar.  Example:  Do File-edit page on this page (in Netscape)  to see the invisible table appear with the page title and wizard hat.

4. To size an image, select it, and grab the corner.  Do not enlarge the image if the effect is pixelated.  Reducing image size usually increases clarity.  If you save the page after you have sized the image, Composer will maintain the image size you have selected for the page.

5. To get the cursor to move around in a table, use the tab key and the arrow keys.

6. When cursor is in any cell of a table, you may select the whole table from Table-select table.  With the table selected, you can go to Edit-copy and then paste the table onto other pages.  The table can be reasonably sized, and pasted to other pages as a way to transfer all the links the table holds to other pages for total navigation within your site.

7. In a table cell, the cursor usually begins in the center of the vertical dimension of the cell.  The cursor will not start in the upper left hand corner unless you select that alignment in the table properties/cell tab window.

8.  It is possible to put a table within a table. This is a very important alignment strategy.  Using tables for spacing helps assure that your work will lay out the same whether you view it in Explorer or in Composer.

10. Targets are handy, but they presume that you have a long scroll page.  For this semester, we are creating links to other pages on our sites, rather than using targets and to reach new topics and information.

11. More on spacing:  The simplest routes are to create the page in Composer using tables or to save the pages as .pdf and link as such.   If you copy/paste from Word into Composer, you will see all your careful spacing from Word disappear.  If you save your Word file as HTML and post it, and then bring it up in Composer, you will see not see the same spacing as in the original Word document.   Word pages saved as HTML cannot be easily changed and edited in Composer because the software is not compatible. If you create a document in Word or in PowerPoint, and save as .pdf, your page will look the same in any browser as long as Adobe Reader is installed.   Adobe Reader is a free download.  Creating and saving as your files as .pdf requires full installation of Adobe software, as we enjoy in BUZZ1430.  Check with Mrs. Barford.  Only Project 2, resume, and Project 12, ethics presentation in PPT are accepted as .pdf files.

Note: We are using  Composer because this HTML editor is FREE and widely available.  There are newer free versions -- see nVu.com and/or  www.kompozer.net.

12.  When saving a file after making changes always select the yes-to-all button in the window which asks you if you want to replace the old version of the file.

13.  If you should need to use MSWord to create a Web page, see Fewell/Gibbs textbook for exact steps to create a Web page using Word.  EDU2022/Barford, for 2012-2013, will use Seamonkey which has the free html editor (Composer) available to you.   You may look ahead to nVu and KompoZer.