- The Components of a Website
- Knowing Your Options
- Building Web Pages Using Web Page Authoring Software Tools
- Creating a Web Page with SeaMonkey Composer
- Summary
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Building Web Pages Using Web Page Authoring Software Tools
Creating web pages is a simple task thanks to specially designed web page authoring software tools. These software tools allow you to visually construct a web page with a few points and clicks of the mouse. There are a number of different software packages out there that are designed to make creating web pages a snap. Table 1.2 lists some of the more popular ones, along with their price and a URL to learn more about the product.
Table 1.2. Popular Web Page Authoring Tools
|
Name |
Cost |
For More Information... |
|
Adobe Dreamweaver |
$399.00 |
|
|
Microsoft Expression |
$299.00 |
|
|
SeaMonkey Composer |
Free! |
As you can tell by their prices, Microsoft Expression and Adobe Dreamweaver are targeted toward the professional web developer. They are both world-class products that make building professional-looking websites an absolute breeze. Unfortunately, the price point for both of those products is a bit high for first-time web developers (like yourself).
Fortunately, there is a good, free web page authoring tool released by the open-source Mozilla group, called SeaMonkey Composer.
The CD accompanying this book contains the SeaMonkey software, which includes a web browser and a web page authoring tool, among other utilities. To use SeaMonkey to create web pages, you first need to install it on your computer.
Installing SeaMonkey
To begin the SeaMonkey installation, insert the CD into your computer. This will launch a program with three options:
- Browse Templates
- Install SeaMonkey
- Companion Website
Click the Install SeaMonkey option to begin the installation process, which starts by displaying the SeaMonkey Setup—Welcome dialog box (shown in Figure 1.6).
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Figure 1.6 The SeaMonkey installation welcome message.
Idea Gallery
http://adampolselli.com/2001/11/03/get-the-look-vintage/
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JUST GIVE ME A TEMPLATE!
What if you're not creative? What if you have no design education and experience? You still want a nice looking website that attracts visitors, and you have the skills to create it, but you need the look—the typefaces, the colors, the art. We just had to review Adam Polselli's site again for this reason—he offers you an array of choices from simple chic to corporate to vintage and tells you step by step how to get the particular look that you want. After you read through his reasons for choosing elements to achieve his theme, he lets you click a link called "Putting It All Together," where you see a bulleted list of typefaces he recommends, color schemes, shapes, borders, and photo finishes so that you can duplicate his design.
If you still want more than instructions to achieve a look, you can buy HTML templates from websites. Try sites like Boxedart.com and designload.net, where you can buy full-page templates or just buttons, art, and logos.
Click the Next button to begin the installation. The second screen is the Software License Agreement screen, which provides the license for use of SeaMonkey. After you have read and agreed to this license, click the Accept button. Doing so takes you to the third screen, the Setup Type dialog box (shown in Figure 1.7). The Setup Type screen lets you determine what type of setup should be performed. Leave the default choice—Complete—selected, and click Next to continue.
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Figure 1.7 Choose to do a Complete installation.
The next screen asks you if you want to use SeaMonkey's Quick Launch option. Quick Launch adds an icon to the Windows taskbar, keeping SeaMonkey running even when you close it. This provides quicker startup times when you launch SeaMonkey. This option is unchecked by default, and I would encourage you to leave it unchecked unless you foresee yourself using SeaMonkey regularly.
When you have decided on the Quick Launch option, click Next to proceed to the final installation screen (shown in Figure 1.8). This final screen provides a summary of the components that will be installed.
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Figure 1.8 The final screen reviews the installation options.
When you are ready to begin the actual installation, click the Install button. Over the next several minutes, SeaMonkey will be installed on your computer. After it has completed installation, SeaMonkey's web browser automatically launches and displays a welcome web page. With SeaMonkey installed, we are now ready to start using Composer, the web page editing software we'll be using throughout this book.
Starting SeaMonkey's Composer
After you install SeaMonkey, you are ready to start using Composer, which is a tool for creating web pages. To use Composer, you must first launch the SeaMonkey browser if it is not running already. To launch the browser, go to the Start menu, choose Programs, go to SeaMonkey, and select SeaMonkey.
When the SeaMonkey browser starts, you can launch Composer by going to the Window menu in the browser and clicking on the Composer menu item. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl and the 4 key on your keyboard simultaneously. Figure 1.9 shows a screenshot of the SeaMonkey browser and the Window menu.
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Figure 1.9 Launch Composer by selecting Composer from the Window menu.
After you select to launch Composer, the Composer window should appear. Figure 1.10 shows a screenshot of the Composer window.
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Figure 1.10 The SeaMonkey Composer window.
In the next section, we examine how to use Composer to create a web page.