There are many programs out there that can help you create your web pages with ease. Up to this point, we have used just one tool - a text editor (like Notepad). Text editors are probably one of the best tools to used because they have no limitations. If you can do it in a web page, you can create it in the text editor. The disadvantages of text editors are that they require you to type in every line of HTML code. This can become quite tedious and is prone to spelling and formatting mistakes. To help remedy the weaknesses of the test editor for web development, there are many other programs that can help you develop pages in a quick and easy manner. There programs fit in to two major categories, HTML editors and WYSIWYG editors. HTML editors help you in typing the HTML code that will create your pages. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors are graphical editors - you create the page in a graphical interface and the editor generates the HTML. You don't even need to know HTML to create web pages in WYSIWYG editors. However, all web development applications have their weaknesses. The most common WYSIWYG programs are Netscape Composer and Microsoft Word. We will discuss a few popular web development applications.

HTML Editors - HTML editors rely upon your knowledge of HTML. They help you to crunch out HTML in an easy and timely manner by offering quick menus and toolbars that will add sections of HTML to your page. They are like Notepad on HTML steroids - you still create the HTML, but the program helps you do it in a fraction of the time. My favorite HTML editor is Webber32. Although it is not as powerful as other HTML editors, it helps the user learn HTML. It also validates or checks your HTML for errors. Another popular HTML editor is HomeSite. HomeSite has a built in preview function that allows you to see what the web page looks like without opening it in your browser. It also has a publishing feature that can upload your files directly to a web server without using an external FTP program.

Netscape Composer - Composer is a web design program that comes with the Netscape Communicator Suite. It is started by clicking on Start....Programs....Netscape Communicator....Netscape Composer. If your browser is already open, it can be accessed by clicking on the icon with the pen and paper (the furthest to the right) in the component bar in Netscape Navigator.

Composer works virtually like a word processing program, however, as you edit and create your web page, Composer is creating the HTML code for you. You have the ability to see the webpage graphically as it is created. A major disadvantage of Netscape Composer is that it adds extra, unneeded HTML to your document. You can always edit your HTML code by clicking on HTML Source in the Edit menu. You may need to specify an HTML editor to edit the HTML. If Webber32 is installed on your computers, use it. You can also use Notepad. When changes are made and saved in one of these HTML editors, the changes are immediately reflected in Composer. Composer tends to make your code "dirty", so use an editor to clean it up. It is common for Composer to insert non-breaking spaces ( ) in weird places. Feel free to delete them. You will also find that Composer is limited in its web page layout. You can always edit the underlying HTML code to get exactly the results you want. See, aren't you glad you learned HTML first?

Microsoft Word - Word is very similar to Composer in its features and disadvantages. The major advantage of using Word is that it can convert nearly any document into a web page. If you can open the document in Word, it can be changed into a web page, however, it probably will not look quite the same after the conversion. HTML documents have more limitations than word processing documents. To save any document as a webpage, just select File....Save as HTML or if that isn't an option, select File...Save as... then change the save as file type to HTML document. You can also create pages from scratch. If you click on File...New, you can also create web pages from templates (Word provides the outline of the page, you provide the details) or from the web page wizard (Word asks you what you want, then designs the page for you). Microsoft Word also adds extra stuff to your HTML code, so you may want to use an HTML editor to clean it up after using Word.

Word Perfect also does about the same thing, however, it is not as good at converting other document types into HTML documents. Microsoft Word is by far the choice for converting all types of documents for use on the Internet.

Composer also has templates and a web page wizard to help you create very basic webpages. However, the wizard and template are on Netscape's website, so you must be online to access them. To use the templates or wizard, click on File...New...then either Page from Template or Page from Wizard. These both create very basic pages that you could create easily in a few minutes using notepad.

Publishing with Composer - Most advanced HTML editors, such as Netscape Composer, have a publishing feature. Most of these have a built in FTP program that transfers the files. These can be quite handy. To publish with Composer, select File...Publish or click on the button. You will get a window that look similar to this:
The HTTP or FTP Location to publish to is the server name and location. You must also specify the folder on the server that you wish to publish to. User name and Password are the same as with WS_FTP. If your web page also contains images, you can select the "Files associated with this page" option to have those files automatically uploaded as well. Click on OK and the web page and any associated files will be uploaded and will then be viewable from the Internet.

Be sure not to save any passwords on BATC's computers. Many others also use these computers and we don't want anyone ruining the pages we've worked so hard on.

Using the built-in publishing feature of Composer makes publishing easy and quick, however, to manage the files once they are on the server, use an FTP program or the server's file management web page.

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