Composer: Publish a Web Page

Here are instructions for how to create and publish a new webpage using Composer. Before you begin this assignment you need to have installed Mozilla Seamonkey on your computer, and learned how to start the Composer program (instructions). You need to create a folder on your computer where you will keep ALL the files for your webpages in one place. That includes the webpage files you will create with Composer, as well as the image files that you will be including in your webpages.

CONTACT OU IT FOR INFORMATION ON PUBLISHING WITH PORTFOLIO.OU.EDU.

Important note about Webpage Files: You need to understand the difference between a webpage filename and a webpage title before you get started.

• Filename. A filename is part of the address of a webpage, and it is very important that the filename contain ONLY letters and numbers, with no special punctuation and no blank spaces. A webpage filename must also end in either .htm or .html to display correctly on the web.
• Title. A webpage also has a title. This title can contain letters, numbers, punctuation, blank spaces - anything you want. The webpage title is what will appear in search engine listings, but it is not part of the webpage address.

Every webpage you create will have BOTH a filename AND a title and it is extremely important that you observe the strict rules for the filenames. So, I repeat: do NOT use punctuation or blank spaces in your webpage filenames. If you do, you can run into a lot of confusion later on!

Okay, now you are ready to publish a webpage! Here are the steps you need to follow: 

STEP ONE. Start Composer. You need to start the Mozilla Seamonkey program first, and then choose Composer from the Window options: 

If you do not see a blank page, click on the New icon to start on a new page.

STEP TWO: Save your file. Just to make sure you don't forget to do this later on, you should save your file now, and give it a good FILENAME and give it a good TITLE. So, click the Save icon. Composer will prompt you to give the webpage a title.

The page title can be anything you want, with lower- and upper-case letters, spaces, punctuation, etc. For example, I could give my OU Homepage the title OU Homepage for Laura Gibbs. When you are done entering the title, click OK.

Now you will be prompted to give the file a filename. By default, Composer will use your title as the filename but this is NOT GOOD. If you have used blank spaces in your title, you should NOT use it as your filename. Instead, type in a simple filename, containing no blank spaces and no punctuation. A good filename for your homepage, for example, would be home.html. A good filename for your Storybook coverpage, for example, would be coverpage.html.

Click Save to save your webpage make. MAKE SURE you save the file in the folder you have created for your webpages and image files. Now that you have saved the file, you can keep on editing, adding text and links and and image - clicking on Save to keep saving your work as you proceed. Save often to make sure you do not accidentally lose any of your work.

STEP THREE: Add content to your page. You can now add text and links and images to your webpages. Here are specific instructions for how to do that.

• ADD  TEXT. To add text, just type! For larger type, here are instructions for changing the font size. To adjust the colors, here are instructions for changing the text colors and background color of your webpage. 
• ADD  LINKS. You can link to webpages on the Internet, or you can link to other webpages in your website.
• ADD  IMAGES. Remember that for each image you include on a webpage for this class, you must also include Image Information.

Remember to SAVE YOUR WORK often by clicking on the Save icon.

STEP FOUR: Publish your webpage. CONTACT OU IT FOR INFORMATION ON PUBLISHING WITH PORTFOLIO.OU.EDU. The old method of using the Composer program to publish pages to your OU webspace will not work as they phase out the students.ou.edu; you may be able to publish at the beginning of Fall 2010, but it is not guaranteed that you will be able to publish for the whole semester. You will need to upload your files, one by one, and publish them with portfolio.ou.edu.