Introduction to Netscape Composer
® Updated February, 00Welcome to the Introduction to Netscape Composer. This handout is divided into five sections: Inserting Text, Inserting
Hyperlinks, Inserting Images, Formatting the Page, Inserting a Table, and Creating a Second Page.

Section 1: Inserting Text

The first step to inserting text into a Web page is to open Netscape Composer (Start, Internet Tools, Netscape
Composer). To insert text, simply begin typing like you would in any word processor. When you are ready to save, create
a folder on the desktop and save your files to this folder. We will refer to this folder throughout the handout.

Section 2: Inserting a Hyperlink

Your Web page won’t get very far if it is only a single page of text.
You’ll need a “hyperlink” (an instant connection to another Web
page). Creating hyperlinks in Composer is very straightforward.

• Click the link icon in the button toolbar. A window will pop up
asking you to enter text to display. This is just what text you
want to act as the link.
• Once you have inserted the link text you want to use as the
link, click in the Link To box. This is the address or “URL” of
the page you want the link to go to.
• As an example, type into the box, and click
OK. A link will appear in your document, and it will take visitors
to your homepage to the WFU Web site.

OK and the image will appear in your page.
• To change the position of the image in relation to the text, or to resize it,
right-click on the image and choose Image Properties. You can
choose to left-justify or right-justify, top-align, middle-align, or bottom-
align, resize the image (by number of pixels), and adjust the border. Section 4: Formatting the Page
If you want your Web page to be more than simply black text and a white background, or if you want to use some of the
more advanced features of Composer, you’ll need to know how to use the Format options. In the Format menu, there
are several options, each of them deserving of its own section.

• Font: This tab allows you to change the font used in your page (click on any of the fonts listed), and change from
fixed to variable width ().
• Size: This tab allows you to change the size of the font from two sizes below up to four sizes above the default font
size. This is helpful when you want to make headlines, or draw attention to certain sentences.
• Style: This tab allows you to add various effects to the text in your document. The only two effects that aren’t self-
explanatory are blinking and nonbreaking. Blinking text does exactly that: blink. It is very annoying if used on
anything of interest, but is a good way to make prerequisite text (like an ad you have to write into your page) illegible.
Nonbreaking text scrolls right off the edge of the screen, until you turn the function off. It basically disables word wrap
on a section of your document.
• Color: This function is self-explanatory.
• Heading: Choosing one of these options serves the same purpose as changing the font size. Heading 4 is the same
as default-sized text.
• Paragraph: This tab selects how a paragraph will be set up, including a block quote.
• List: This tab changes how a list is displayed. It can be bulleted, numbered, as a directory, or as a menu.
• Align: This tab sets the alignment of the current line, either left, center, or right.
• Increase/Decrease Indent: These options allow you to vary the indention size.
• Character Properties: This tab is a format window that allows you to select all manners of options for the text.
• Table Properties: If you are currently working in a table, this tab allows you to modify it further.

Web page, click the Choose File button, and select “page2.html” as your document. Now, when you click on the link
you just made, you will connect to the second page you made.
• To link back to the first page, just do the same thing, only selecting “index.html” as the file to link to. You can actually
use this feature to make links to open up WAV files, JPEG images, or any files that you may have as a part of your
Web page.
Now that you can perform all of these tasks in Netscape Composer, you can create your own Web page. The final
step in this process is to publish your pages to the web. Please see the handout “Web pages at WFU” for more
information regarding publishing.