Composer Help - Introduction

Introduction

Netscape Composer is being supplied with the T171 course programs disk for 2002. While I am not sure which version is being supplied this series of pages will be based on the latest version which is part of Netscape Navigator 6.1. This version is the latest though it works in a broadly similar way to previous incarnations there being some slight differences in the way dialog boxes are presented. If you wish to use the latest version install it of a PC magazine disk do not download off the net unless you can spare a couple of hours or so.

Netscape Composer is more than adequate for T171, using a program like Macromedia's Dreamweaver is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut for this course, and I know this is what I use for this site. Composer is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, don't worry about the term WYSIWYG you will learn all about it in Module One. The main point being that you can use Composer just like a word processor so no knowledge of HTML is required to produce a functioning web page. If you are comfortable using a word processor with tables and can format you pages you will have no trouble with this at all - well not unless you are going to be using JavaScript or hand coding HTML. Of course if you want to enhance you page with more advanced effects then some knowledge of HTML will be required, a bit of JavaScript too however there are plenty of sites on the web which offer free JavaScripts so all you would need to do is a bit of copy and pasting.

This series of pages is designed to show how a web page can be built using Netscape Composer, it is not meant to be a template for your designs but just to show you some of what is possible. Although all the pages on this site have been produced with Dreamweaver the page that results from this guide has been produced with Composer - Honest!