User’s Guide to
AOLpress 2.0
Do-it-Yourself Publishing
for the Web
1997 America Online, Inc.
AOL20-040797
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Both real and
fictitious companies, names, addresses, and data are used in examples herein. No part
of this document may be reproduced without express written permission of America
Online, Inc.
1997 America Online, Inc. All rights reserved.
America Online is a registered trademark and AOLpress, AOLserver,
PrimeHost, AOL, the AOL triangle logo, My Place, Netizens, and
WebCrawler are trademarks of America Online, Inc.
GNN is a registered trademark, and Global Network Navigator, GNNpress, and
GNNserver are trademarks of Global Network Navigator, Inc.
MiniWeb, NaviLink, NaviPress, NaviServer, and NaviService are
trademarks of NaviSoft, Inc.
Illustra is a trademark of Illustra Information Technologies, Inc.
All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies or organizations.
Author: Yvonne DeGraw
Cover Art and Illustrations: Amy Luwis
Special Thanks To: Thomas Storm, Cathe Gordon, Angela Howard, George W.
Williams, V, Dave Long, Dave Bourgeois, Joel Thames, Natalee Press-Schaefer,
Robin Balston, Linda T. Dozier, Jeff Dozier, Doug McKee, and Jeff Rawlings.
Quick Table of Contents
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Part 1: Getting Started
Welcome! 11
Chapter 1 Installing AOLpress 17
Chapter 2 Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps 21
Chapter 3 Browsing with AOLpress 33
Part 2: Creating Pages
Chapter 4 Web Pages and What to Put in Them 45
Chapter 5 Creating and Saving Pages 53
Chapter 6 Creating Text and Lists 61
Chapter 7 Adding Tables 83
Chapter 8 Adding Images 91
Chapter 9 Adding Links and Multimedia 105
Chapter 10 Creating Frames 127
Chapter 11 Creating and Using Forms 137
Chapter 12 Viewing and Editing HTML 151
Part 3: Managing and Publishing Pages
Chapter 13 Working with MiniWebs 159
Chapter 14 Publishing Pages 181
Part 4: Reference
Chapter 15 Setting Preferences 191
Chapter 16 AOLpress Quick Reference 205
Chapter 17 What’s New in V2.0? 221
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Contents
Part 1: Getting Started
Welcome! 11
Chapter 1: Installing AOLpress 17
System requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Installing AOLpress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Upgrading to new versions of AOLpress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Preferences you should set now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 2: Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps 21
Step 1: A little background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Step 2: Start AOLpress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Step 3: Create a Web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Step 4: Type and format text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Step 5: Create a list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Step 6: Create links to other pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Step 7: Create an email link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Step 8: Add colors and images:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Step 9: Saving to your local disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Step 10: Publishing to PrimeHost or AOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Learning More... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter 3: Browsing with AOLpress 33
Quick start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Opening pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Viewing a page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Following links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
If a link doesn’t work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
History—returning to where you’ve been. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Hot list—keep track of pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Where to browse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Part 2: Creating Pages
Chapter 4: Web Pages and What to Put in Them 45
Things Web pages can contain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figuring out how a page was created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Page design guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
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Chapter 5: Creating and Saving Pages 53
Creating a blank page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Editing and saving an existing page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Importing a document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Selecting files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 6: Creating Text and Lists 61
Page titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Creating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Editing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Formatting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Paragraph formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Removing formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Chapter 7: Adding Tables 83
Creating and formatting tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Adding or deleting table cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Putting text and images into tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Formatting table cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Merging and splitting table cells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 8: Adding Images 91
Quick start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Finding and creating images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Inserting images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Positioning images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Horizontal rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Using built-in hit counters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Rating your page content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Setting colors and background images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Chapter 9: Adding Links and Multimedia 105
Quick start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
About links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Creating links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Image maps—multiple links from images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Multimedia links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Toolbar navigation buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
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Checking links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Java applets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Chapter 10: Creating Frames 127
Creating frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Resizing frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Editing within frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Saving frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Linking to frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 11: Creating and Using Forms 137
Quick start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Choosing a program for a form to run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Creating forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using the form palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Changing forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Chapter 12: Viewing and Editing HTML 151
Viewing HTML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Editing HTML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Learning more... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Part 3: Managing and Publishing Pages
Chapter 13: Working with MiniWebs 159
Things to know about MiniWebs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Creating MiniWebs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Viewing MiniWebs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Editing MiniWebs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Managing MiniWebs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Chapter 14: Publishing Pages 181
Publishing with multiple authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Publishing a whole folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Publishing to PrimeHost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Publishing to AOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Publishing to another AOLserver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Publishing to non-AOLservers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Publishing to other formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
File names and URLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
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Part 4: Reference
Chapter 15: Setting Preferences 191
General preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
File extensions and MIME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
MIME viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
MiniWeb icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Configure toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Chapter 16: AOLpress Quick Reference 205
Page window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
MiniWeb window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Using the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Chapter 17: What’s New in V2.0? 221
Frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
New window design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Creating pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
MiniWebs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Server-side include editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
HTML support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
8
Part 1
Getting Started
1
Part 1 gives you an
introduction to AOLpress.
You’ll learn what it can
do, how to install it, and
you’ll learn the basics in a
quick lesson.
Read Welcome! to learn what AOLpress can do and how to get technical support if
you need it.
Read Chapter 1 if you need to install AOLpress. It covers installation and system
requirements. It also covers a few essentials about preferences you may want to set
before you use AOLpress.
Follow the example in Chapter 2 to get a quick overview of how AOLpress helps you
create Web pages.
Read Chapter 3 to learn more about using AOLpress to browse the Web.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 9
Welcome!
The World Wide Web has fueled the explosive growth of the Internet and the emerging
software and services industries that surround it. The Web lets individuals, companies,
and institutions—anyone with an Internet connection—publish electronically.
The fundamental unit of the Web is the “page” you see when you browse for
information. Pages are hypertext documents. When you click on a link, your computer
retrieves the page referenced by the link and displays it on your screen. Web pages can
also contain images, sounds, videos, forms, and other features.
What is AOLpress?
AOLpress helps you create and publish Web pages. The important difference between
AOLpress and other Web browsers is that AOLpress is both an editor and a browser.
The editing features are not available in normal Web browsers.
Because AOLpress integrates authoring and browsing, you can integrate reading and
editing. If you are browsing (reading) a page on your PrimeHost hosting service
directory or any AOLserver where you have permission to change pages, you can
make changes and republish the page immediately.
Behind the scenes, Web pages are stored in a format called HTML (HyperText Markup
Language). If you use AOLpress, you won’t have to learn this language. Instead, you
can create Web pages just as you would create paper documents with a word processor
like Microsoft Word.
You can use AOLpress with or without access to the PrimeHost hosting service. With
the PrimeHost hosting service, you will be able to save your pages directly to the
AOLservers used by the service.
What is the PrimeHost hosting service?
AOLpress and the AOL PrimeHost hosting service give you an integrated publishing
system for the World Wide Web. The computer on your desk connects to Web servers
where you can publish your pages. AOLpress and the PrimeHost hosting service let
you join the thousands who have made their presence known on the Internet.
For information about PrimeHost, see
http://www.primehost.com
.
Welcome!
What are AOLservers?
You can use AOLpress with several levels of service. As your Internet needs grow, you
can move up to higher service levels. Each service level gives you more disk space and
supports more frequent page accesses than the previous level.
♦ No service: You can use AOLpress to create Web pages without having a Prime-
Host hosting service account. If you have your own AOLserver, you can use
AOLpress to save pages directly to that server. Otherwise, you have to use some
other file transfer mechanism (such as FTP) to move pages you create with
AOLpress to the Web server you are using.
♦ Personal Service: With your AOL membership, you can access the Internet and
publish your pages on the World Wide Web. Your AOL membership includes
access to “My Place”, where you can publish up to 2 MB of pages and other files
per screen name (up to 10 MB per account). My Place lets you use AOLpress to
publish directly to http://members.aol.com/members. Go to keyword “My
Place” on AOL to learn more.
♦ Domain Service: This service level gives you a unique “domain” name — such as
mycompany.com
. This makes your company easy to find on the Web
(
http://www.mycompany.com) and helps you project a professional image.
♦ Commercial Service: In addition to a domain name, this service level gives you
control over most administrative, database, and programming capabilities of the
AOLserver where your Web site is hosted.
♦ Dedicated Service: In addition to the features of the Commercial service, this
service level gives you full access to the system, your choice of hardware and soft-
ware configuration, and secure financial transactions.
PrimeHost also provides the “Storefront Solution,” which lets you quickly put your
catalog of products online so that you can accept electronic payment securely.
What are AOLservers?
AOLserver is the software the PrimeHost hosting service uses to store your Web pages
and send the contents to people who want to read your pages. If you want to set up your
own Web hosting service, you can download the AOLserver software for free from
http://www.aolserver.com/
. The AOLserver is extendable with C and Tcl APIs
that can access various types of databases. Full CGI support is also provided.
Why give our software away for free?
In our ongoing effort to promote publishing on the World Wide Web, we make two
major Web tools — AOLpress and AOLserver — available at no charge. AOLpress is
the top-ranked Web page authoring software, and AOLserver is the remarkable server
software (called “awesome” by New Media magazine) at the core of the PrimeHost
hosting service. This free distribution is our gift to the Web community.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
12
Welcome!
Our assumptions about you
Our assumptions about you
We realize there is probably no “typical” reader of this book or user of AOLpress.
Some of you are novices; some have considerable experience. How you will use this
book depends on what you already know. How we explain things depends on what we
assume about you and your system.
You can use AOLpress if you can use a word processor.
♦ We assume your computer connects to the Internet either directly or through a
modem connected to AOL or an Internet Service Provider. Otherwise:
• If your computer connects to a local-area network (LAN), you should contact
your system administrator to find out how to connect to the Internet.
• If your computer is not connected to a network or modem, you must connect it.
♦ We assume you know how to use your computer and its operating software.
• You have experience with a window-based, graphical user interface, like
Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh.
• You know how to run programs.
• You know about files and directories (sometimes called documents and folders), We
how to create them, rename them, move them, and delete them.
• You know how to use your computer’s mouse. lc
♦ We assume you have used one of the popular word-processing software packages, ome
such as Microsoft Word. !
• The editing conventions in AOLpress are similar.
• The file-saving operations in AOLpress look similar, but they also allow you to
save files over the Internet.
♦ We do not assume that you are familiar with the World Wide Web and with the
concept of navigating through information with hypertext, but we recognize that
many of you are familiar with these services and concepts.
• If you are familiar with Web navigation, scan Chapter 2 to see how AOLpress
lets you browse the Web. Then, work through its examples to create a Web page.
AOLserver administrators
Administering AOLservers requires expertise typical of a system administrator.
Extending or customizing the server requires programming expertise.
The AOLserver manages permissions for access to information, user accounts, and
modification of files. Hence, the AOLserver administrator has the responsibilities of a
system administrator. Separate documentation for the AOLserver software is available
for those who use the PrimeHost hosting service at the Commercial or Dedicated level
and those who download the free AOLserver software and manage their own server.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 13
Welcome!
About this book
About this book
This book is both a tutorial and a reference manual for the AOLpress software. We
intend this book for the novice and the experienced user. If you are a new user, you
should start with Part I, use the software for a while, and then read through the rest of
the book. Experienced users can search through the chapters, table of contents, and
index to find special topics explained.
This book also covers the way AOLpress and the PrimeHost hosting service interact.
The AOLserver documentation describes how to administer and program the server.
How to use this book
We urge you to use this book, not just read it. To learn about the software, use the book
as a tutorial. We show how to accomplish a variety of tasks. Work through the
instructions to learn. The book usually introduces a set of steps to accomplish a
particular task with a distinctive heading:
➙Do a task:
Following the heading that introduces a task are either sequential steps or optional
steps, each with its distinctive style:
1 Numbered paragraphs, like this one, designate step-by-step instructions. Follow
them to learn how the tools work.
2 ➙
File Save
Menu commands are shown with arrows, for example, means you
File Save
should pull down the menu and choose the option.
■ Paragraphs with a square bullet, like this one, are optional steps. Usually there is a
sequence. Do one or more of the steps to cause the designated action or actions.
We recommend that you review this book after you have used AOLpress for a while.
You will discover useful features that you breezed over the first time.
Online tutorial
AOLpress comes with an online tutorial that teaches you how to use AOLpress. It’s
really an online workbook, because you edit the Web pages that make up the tutorial
➙
Help Tutorial
to learn how to use AOLpress. To start the tutorial, choose .
Online help
There are many online help pages available throughout AOLpress. Most windows
have a help button that you can click to get assistance with a specific task. AOLpress
provides several other ways you can find answers to your questions:
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
14
Welcome!
About this book
➙Use the online help and online documentation:
➙
■ Choose the Help Contents menu item. You will see a page that contains links to
various types of online help and online documentation. For example, you can click
on the link to the online User Guide to search the online version of this book.
➙Search for help by looking up a word:
1 ➙
Help Search For Help On
Choose the menuitem. You will see a page that lets you
search the AOLpress User’s Guide.
2 Search
Type a word or words in the field, and click the button. You will see a list
of sections that contain those words. You can click on a link to move to a section.
The word you searched for will be highlighted.
➙Search the list of Frequently Asked Questions:
➙
■ Choose the menu Help FAQ. (“FAQ” stands for “Frequently Asked Questions,”
and is usually pronounced “fack”.) Another FAQ with information about
AOLpress is provided at http://www.aolpress.com/faq.html We
.
➙Get contact information for help with technical questions: lc
➙ ome
■ Help Tech Support
Choose the menu .
➙Find clip art and other resources: !
■ You can find clip art for your pages at http://www.aolpress.com/gallery/index.html
and links to other clip art sites on the Web at
http://www.primehost.com/members/create/index.htm.
Typographical conventions
We use a variety of fonts to identify items or processing steps:
bold, sans serif
: Menus, menu items, and field names. Menu names
➙
File Save
with options use arrows, for example, .
italic: To emphasize selected words. For example, “We urge
you to use this book.”
italic, underlined A hyperlink. When browsing a Web page, click on a
hyperlink to display the Web page it references.
courier http://gnn.com/
Text that you type. For example: .
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 15
Welcome!
What’s new in v2.0?
Variations on different types of computers
AOLpress is available for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh. We have compromised
between making the application similar across different platforms, versus making it
look similar to other applications on the same platform. Paragraphs in this book that
apply to specific platforms are identified in the text. If you are using a Macintosh, the
screen will look a little different from examples in this book, but the fields are the same
and they work the same way.
What’s new in v2.0?
If you’ve used AOLpress (or GNNpress or NaviPress) before, see page 221 for a list
of the new features you will find in AOLpress v2.0. The icon to the left identifies
features that are new in this version. If you are using an earlier version, these features
will not be available. To find out how you can upgrade to AOLpress v2.0, please visit
our Web site (http://www.aolpress.com/).
To contact us or get more information
To sign up for the PrimeHost hosting service or to get technical support:
♦ Call 800/879-6882
♦ Send email to info@primehost.com to sign up
♦ support@primehost.com
Send email to for technical support
♦ Visit http://www.primehost.com/
♦ Go to the “primehost” keyword on AOL
To download AOLpress or AOLserver for free:
♦ Visit http://www.aolpress.com/
♦ To find out about technical support, email lists, and AOL message boards about
AOLpress, visit http://www.aolpress.com/feedback.html.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
16
Chapter 1
1Installing AOLpress
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
System requirements 18
Installing AOLpress 19
Upgrading to new versions of AOLpress 20
Preferences you should set now 20
This chapter explains how to install AOLpress on the following operating systems:
♦ Microsoft Windows 3.1, 3.5 NT, Workgroups, and Windows95 (32-bit and 16-bit)
♦ Mac OS: System 7 and later
You can download the AOLpress software from http://www.aolpress.com. (AOLpress
may also be available for Solaris, SunOS, Irix, and HP UNIX platforms. Check the
AOLpress Web site for availability.)
Using AOLpress with an AOL account
Your AOL membership includes Web space where you can publish up to 2 MB of
pages and other files per screen name (for a total of 10 MB per account). Your Web
address is screen_name
http://members.aol.com/ .
If you are an AOL member and you want to publish to this location, read the
instructions at http://www.aolpress.com/press/memberfaq.html. This page contains
the latest information about using AOLpress with a connection to AOL.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 17
Installing AOLpress
System requirements
System requirements
If you want to use AOLpress over the Internet, you need to have a “SLIP” or “PPP”
connection from an Internet service provider, modem, and the appropriate connection
software (for example, Trumpet winsock or Chameleon).
You can still use AOLpress to author and access local files when your computer is not
connected to the Internet. For example, while you create pages you may want to leave
your modem off and then connect your modem to the Internet when you are ready to
publish your pages. When your modem is off, you have access to all the features of
AOLpress, but cannot open, save, delete, or browse on network locations.
If you have additional questions about using AOLpress with various types of Internet
connections, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists at
http://www.aolpress.com/faq.html
and at http://www.primehost.com/faq/faq.htm.
MS Windows
♦ Microsoft Windows 3.1, NT, Workgroups, or Windows 95
♦ Intel x86 microprocessor (386 minimum; 486 or above recommended)
♦ 4 Mbytes RAM minimum; 8 Mbytes recommended
♦ 5 Mbytes free disk space required for installation
♦ Internet TCP/IP software:
• Windows NT and Windows95 have support for TCP/IP built in. Windows NT
and Windows95 users do not need to install third-party software.
• Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups do not have built-in support for
TCP/IP. You need “TCP/IP stack” software if you want to use the Web. Sources
of TCP/IP stacks include FTP Inc., Microsoft, NetManage, Novell, and Spry.
♦ A modem or direct network connection
♦ Color monitor set to display at least 256 colors
Macintosh
♦ System 7 or above.
♦ CPU: 68030 or higher, or Power PC
♦ 16 megabytes of RAM, 24 megabytes required to use AOL and AOLpress together
♦ 5 Mbytes disk space required for installation
♦ MacTCP or Open Transport software (check your system disks if it is not installed)
♦ A modem or direct network connection. (If you use a modem, you also need PPP
or SLIP software.)
♦ Color monitor set to display at least 256 colors
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
18
Installing AOLpress
Installing AOLpress
Installing AOLpress
MS Windows
➙Install AOLpress on Windows 3.1, NT, Workgroups, or Windows95:
1 Click on the Web link to download AOLpress. (For Windows 95 or later versions
of Windows, download the 32-bit version. For Windows 3.1, download the 16-bit
version.) Specify the location on your hard drive where you want to store the
compressed AOLpress software. This can be a folder where you store temporary
files.
2 File Manager File Explorer
Use the or to find the file you downloaded.
3 Double-click on the file you downloaded to expand and run the setup procedure.
4 Follow the prompts in the setup procedure to install AOLpress. 1
5 When the installation is complete, you can double-click on the AOLpress icon in Install
your Program Manager to run AOLpress.
Installing with no Internet connection
i
WINSOCK.DLL ng
If you do not have a file (TCP/IP connection software), you will see a
message that says “Couldn't find TCP/IP network (WINSOCK.DLL). Would you like a AOLpre
stand-alone installation?”
If you proceed with a stand-alone installation, a null
WINSOCK.DLL is placed in the
AOLpress folder. AOLpress tells you that you are not connected to a network when
you first try to access an Internet location. s
If you install AOLpress stand-alone and later decide you want to use it over the s
Internet, you must change the installation as follows:
1 Install Internet access connection software (this should place a file called
WINSOCK.DLL in your Windows folder.
2 Arrange for Internet access from a provider such as the PrimeHost hosting service.
3 File Manager
Start the Windows and search for AOLPRESS.EXE. Delete the
WINSOCK.DLL file in the same folder as AOLPRESS.EXE. If there is no
WINSOCK.DLL file in its folder, AOLpress will use the WINSOCK.DLL file in the
Windows folder.
If you delete the null WINSOCK.DLL without installing Internet access software, and
then try to use AOLpress, it will not start. Either install a valid
WINSOCK.DLL or
reinstall AOLpress.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 19
Installing AOLpress
Upgrading to new versions of AOLpress
Macintosh
➙Install AOLpress on a Macintosh:
1 Click on the Web link to download AOLpress. Specify the location on your drive
where you want to store the compressed AOLpress software. This can be a folder
where you store temporary files.
2 Double-click on the file you downloaded to expand and run the installation.
3 Follow the prompts in the installation procedure to install AOLpress.
4 When the installation is complete, double-click on the AOLpress icon to run
AOLpress.
Upgrading to new versions of AOLpress
When new versions of AOLpress are introduced, you can update over the network
➙
instead of re-installing. Select File Upgrade .
AOLpress You can download a new
version of the software and install it.
Preferences you should set now
Chapter 15 covers Preferences in detail, but you might need to set the Proxy server now
if your site is behind a firewall or if you connect to the Internet through a service
provider who runs your connections. First ask your System Administrator if you are
behind a firewall. Some hints that you might be are:
♦ You cannot ftp to a remote site.
♦ You cannot log in to a remote site.
♦ You can reach internal Web servers but no external Web sites.
➙Set preferences:
1 Start AOLpress.
2 ➙ ➙
Tools Preferences Network
Choose the menu item.
3 Always Proxy
Click the check box.
4 Ask your system administrator for the name of the Proxy server. Typically it is in
hostname:port (for example, www.mycom.com:81). Do not type the
the form
leading http://.
5 SOCKS host
You may also need to set a name in this window if you are behind a
firewall. Ask your system administrator.
Mail Address in the Network
If you want to use AOLpress to send email, set your
Preferences window, too.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
20
Chapter 2
2Create a Web Page in 10
Easy Steps
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Step 1: A little background 22
Step 2: Start AOLpress 23
Step 3: Create a Web page 24
Step 4: Type and format text 24
Step 5: Create a list 25
Step 6: Create links to other pages 25
Step 7: Create an email link 27
Step 8: Add colors and images: 28
Step 9: Saving to your local disk 30
Step 10: Publishing to PrimeHost or AOL 31
Learning More... 32
The steps in this chapter show you how to quickly create a Web page for yourself. Your
page will have text, links, and a way for people to send you email. And, you’ll be
surprised how quickly you can create all of this. This chapter also shows you how to
publish your page to the PrimeHost hosting service (if you have an account).
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 21
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 1: A little background
Step 1: A little background
Before we start our tour of the World Wide Web and AOLpress, we’d like to explain
a few of the terms you’ll see. They are a lot less mysterious than they sound.
♦ Web Pages: The documents you see on the Web are called “pages.” They contain
text, images, and “links” that let you jump to other pages.
♦ Browse: When you look at a Web page, you are “browsing” that page, and the soft-
ware you are using is called a “browser”. Another term for browsing Web pages is
“surfing.” AOLpress is both a browser and an “authoring tool” — because it lets
you look at pages and create or change them.
♦ Web server: The computer that stores the pages you see is called a “Web server.”
It runs software that knows how to send pages and images to browsers.
♦ Web client: On the Web, the “client” is your own computer. You don’t need to
understand “client-server computing” to use AOLpress. In case you’re curious, a
“client” computer is one that sends requests to a “server” computer. The “server”
processes the request, and the “client” takes care of showing you the results.
URLs
Pages/files
Web servers Web client (or “browser”)
(Web pages published here)
♦ URL: The strings of characters (like http://www.mycompany.com/) you keep
seeing in advertisements are locations on the Web called Uniform Resource Loca-
tors or “URLs”. You can pronounce this as “you-are-els” or “earls”.
♦ Web site: All your pages, images, and other files make up your “Web site.”
♦ Home page: The first page you want people to see in Web site
your set of pages is called the “home page.” Other
pages are just “pages.” “Home”
♦ MiniWeb: With AOLpress, you can treat all the page
pages, images, and other files in a folder as a small links
version of the Web — called a “MiniWeb.” A
MiniWeb acts as a “File Manager” for your Web
pages. You use MiniWebs to manage your pages and Other pages
see connections between files.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
22
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 2: Start AOLpress
♦ HTML: The language used behind-the-scenes to format Web pages is called
HyperText Markup Language (HTML). In the past, people had to learn this
language to create Web pages. Now, you can use AOLpress to create pages as
easily as you would write a letter using a word processor.
♦ Publish: When you make your pages public to other people browsing the Web, you
are “publishing” those pages. With AOLpress, publishing is about as easy as saving
a file with a word processor.
Step 2: Start AOLpress
➙To start AOLpress: 2 Crea
■ Double-click the AOLpress icon in the AOLpress program group or
folder. te a We
AOLpress automatically opens a Page Window with helpful pointers to
documentation, support, and authoring assistance. You can set the Preferences (see
page 196) to have AOLpress open a different page when you start AOLpress.
b
Pa
ge in 10
Eas
Location field: y
enter address Step
to open a
Web page
s
If you haven’t browsed the Web before, see page 33 to learn how. If you have already
browsed the Web, you can browse the Web with AOLpress the same way you would
with other browser software programs.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 23
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 3: Create a Web page
Step 3: Create a Web page
AOLpress also includes an online tutorial that helps you learn to create and edit Web
Help Tutorial
pages. To start the online tutorial, choose ➙ in AOLpress.
File New New Page
1 Choose the ➙ ➙ menu item. You’ll see a blank window that says
“Please title this page.” This is just like a blank document in a word processor.
2 Title
Let’s start by giving the page a title. In the field above the blank area, type
“_____’s Page” and fill in your name. For example, type “Chris’s Page”. Press the
Return key and you will see this title at the top of the window.
Step 4: Type and format text
1 At the top of the page, type “Welcome to _____’s Home Page!” Fill in your name
again. For example, type “Welcome to Chris’s Home Page!” Then, click on the
welcome message you typed to make sure the cursor is in this line.
Format Heading Hdg 1
2 Choose the ➙ ➙ menu item. This makes your welcome
message big and bold. Your welcome message will look like this:
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
24
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 5: Create a list
Step 5: Create a list
1 After your welcome message, type this text:
2 Crea
2 Use your mouse to highlight the lines that say “AOLpress” and “Excite”. (High-
light all of both lines.) te a We
Format List Bulleted List
3 Choose the ➙ ➙ menu item to make these two lines a list.
b
Pa
Step 6: Create links to other pages ge in 10
1 Use your mouse to highlight the word “AOLpress” in your window. Then choose
Element Link Eas
the ➙ menu item.
2 http://www.aolpress.com/
Type the URL for the AOLpress home page ( ) in y
Link to Page field, like this. Then, click the OK button. The text that says Step
the
“AOLpress” is now a link to the AOLpress home page.
s
3 Double-click on the link you just created. Double-clicking opens a second window.
Back
(Don’t worry if you accidentally single-click on the link. You can use the
button later to move back to the page you are editing. Your changes to the page will
still be there unless you close the window you were editing in without saving or
click the “Reload Page” icon.)
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 25
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 6: Create links to other pages
4 With the AOLpress home page window active, type http://www.excite.com/
Location field near the top of the AOLpress window. You will see the Web
into the
page for the Excite search engine.
5 Click the Copy URL button in the toolbar.
6 Now move back to the window you were editing and use your mouse
Element Link
to highlight the word “Excite”. Then choose the ➙ menu item.
7 Link to Page
With the cursor in the field, press Ctrl+V to paste the URL you copied
OK
from the Excite page into this field. Then, click the button. The text that says
“Excite” is now a link, too.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
26
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 7: Create an email link
Step 7: Create an email link
Format Exit List Format
1 Put your cursor after the word “Excite” and choose the ➙
menu item. This adds a regular text line below your list.
2 Type “Send me email”.
Element E-mail Link
3 Highlight the word “email” and choose the ➙ menu item.
4 Send email to OK
In the field, type your email address. Then click the button. For
example:
2 Crea
5 Click on the link you just created to try sending mail to yourself. You will see a te a We
page that looks like this. Go ahead and send yourself an email message using
AOLpress.
b
Pa
ge in 10
Eas
y
6 Notice that the return address for your email is “someone@somewhere.com” Step
unless you already changed it. This is because AOLpress doesn’t yet know what
your email address is (and you don’t have to tell it if you want to keep your email s
Tools Preferences Network
address private). Choose the ➙ ➙ menu item to open a
window where you can set your return email address.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 27
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 8: Add colors and images:
Step 8: Add colors and images:
1 Move back to the page you have been creating.
Format Page Attributes
2 Choose the ➙ menu item. You will see a window with these
fields at the top, which let you select colors for the background and text in your
page.
3 Pick Background Color
Click the button to the right of the field. You’ll see a color
OK
window. Click on a light background color like white or yellow. Then click the
button in the color picker. The code for the color you selected will be shown in the
Background Color field.
4 OK
Click the button in the Page Attributes window. The background of your
window will change to the color you selected.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
28
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 8: Add colors and images:
Adding images:
5 It’s also easy to add images to pages with AOLpress. To find a sample image,
Help Tutorial
choose ➙ . Scroll down the page until you see the pencil image.
6 Use your mouse to highlight the pencil image. Press Ctrl+C to copy the image.
7 Move back to the window that contains your page.
8 Place the cursor in your page and press Ctrl+V to paste the image you selected. You
will see an “Options” window that looks like this: 2 Crea
te a We
b
Pa
ge in 10
9 To copy the image to the folder where this page is stored, choose either “Relative”
Save Images/Frames
or “All” in the field. For more information about the choice in
this window, see page 57.
10 Another way to insert an image when you know where the file is located is to Eas
Element Image
choose the ➙ menu item. You can copy and paste graphics from any
y
Web page to your page. (Remember that using someone else’s images without Step
permission violates their copyright.)
s
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 29
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 9: Saving to your local disk
Step 9: Saving to your local disk
As you create Web pages, you should save copies of them to your local disk drive as
described in this section. In fact, you can use AOLpress to create and save Web pages
even when your modem is not connected. Then, when you connect to the Web, you can
publish your pages as described in the next section.
➙To save your home page to your local disk:
1 ➙
File Save As
Choose . A file selection window appears. (For details on selecting
files on various platforms, see page 58.)
2 Drives / Sites Sites
Select your local drive in the field labeled ( on a Macintosh).
3 Directory
In the list (Windows) or the list of folders and files (Macintosh), double-
click on the directory or folder where you want to save your page.
4 Page Location Sites
Move the cursor to the field (the unlabeled field below the field
index.html
on a Macintosh) and add to the end of the page location. For
Page Location
example, the on your local disk could be c:\mydir\page2.htm on
Windows 3.1, c:\mydir\page2.html on Windows 95, and BigDrive:Web
Pages:page2.html on a Macintosh. (Colons separate layers of drive, folder, and
file names on a Macintosh.)
Home pages: (Use a file name of index.htm or index.html for your “home
page” —the first page you want people to see when they visit your pages. If people
don’t specify a file name when they visit your pages, most servers give them the
index.htm or index.html file automatically.)
5 OK
Click when you have finished setting the location.
See page 173 for ways to customize how AOLpress saves images and modifies links
when you save a page.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
30
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Step 10: Publishing to PrimeHost or AOL
Step 10: Publishing to PrimeHost or AOL
Publishing on the Internet with AOLpress is as easy as saving a file on your computer
as you did in the previous section. The steps are basicaly the same, except you save to
the PrimeHost hosting service or your AOL account instead of your local disk drive
and you are asked to enter your username and password.
If you don’t have an AOL account or a PrimeHost hosting service account, follow the
instructions at http://www.primehost.com/ (or on America Online at keyword:
primehost) to open an account. Once you have an account, you can publish pages as
follows.
(See page 181 for more details on publishing pages and how to publish to locations 2 Crea
other than PrimeHost or AOL.)
➙To publish your personal home page:
Make sure you are connected to the PrimeHost hosting service before you try to te a We
publish a page. If you do not yet have an Internet connection or a PrimeHost hosting
service account, you should skip the rest of this section.
1 ➙ b
File Save As
Choose the menu item. The file selection window you saw when you
saved the file locally appears. (For details on using such windows, see page 58.) Pa
ge in 10
Eas
y
Step
s
2 screen_name
If you are a member of AOL, type http://members.aol.com/ /
Page Location
in the field. For example, if your screen name is “snoopy”, type
http://members.aol.com/snoopy/ (If you have problems saving to your
AOL space, see http://www.aolpress.com/press/memberfaq.html
.)
If you have Domain, Commercial, or Dedicated service, type the Web address for
your domain. For example, type http://www.mycompany.com/
.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 31
Create a Web Page in 10 Easy Steps
Learning More...
3 Page Location
Move the cursor to the field and add a file name of index.html to
index.htm
the end of the location. (The file should be your “home page” —the
first page you want people to see when they visit your pages. If people don’t
specify a file name when they visit your pages, the server gives them the
index.htm
file automatically.)
4 OK
Click to save your page. The first time you save to this location in each session,
you will see this authentication window:
Type your screenname (or username) and password if AOLpress prompts you for
them. AOLpress will save the page and all the image files (lines, bullets, photos)
associated with it. Saving the file across the network may take a few seconds.
■ If a page with the file name you typed already exists, a window will ask you
whether to save the file, don’t save, or rename the page.
■ If any of your images already exist in this directory, AOLpress asks you if you
want to save it, don’t save it, rename it, or cancel. There is no need to re-save
image files now, though you can if you wish. AOLpress will ask what you want
to do for each pre-existing file.
Now your page is on the Web! Your friends with Web browsers can see it if they look
at the address where you saved the page (for example,
screen_name
http://members.aol.com/ /). Don’t forget to add your page to
➙
your own Hot List (by choosing the Browse Add to Hot List
menu item), so you can
get to it easily.
If you want to change your page in the future, just display your page with AOLpress.
➙
Make your changes with AOLpress, then choose File Save
to publish your changes.
See page 173 for ways to customize how AOLpress saves images and modifies links
when you save a page.
Learning More...
AOLpress also includes an online tutorial that helps you learn to create and edit Web
pages. It includes information on lots of things not covered in this short chapter — like
creating tables and frames.
➙
Help Tutorial
To start the online tutorial, choose in AOLpress.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
32
Chapter 3
3Browsing with AOLpress
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Quick start 34
Opening pages 35
Viewing a page 36
Following links 38
If a link doesn’t work 39
History—returning to where you’ve been 40
Hot list—keep track of pages 41
Where to browse 42
This chapter explains how to use AOLpress to navigate and read information on the
World Wide Web. While AOLpress is primarily a tool for creating and publishing Web
pages, it is also a browser. Familiarity with AOLpress and its differences from other
Web browsers is also important when you create pages.
In general, browsing the Web with AOLpress is much like browsing the Web with an
ordinary Web browser.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 33
Browsing with AOLpress
Quick start
Quick start
Here is a quick summary of commands you can use while browsing the Web:
Opening Pages
Location File➙Open
When you know the URL field at top of page, or
Location
menu, field
hyperlink
Hyperlinks Single-click on the (double-click to
get the page in a new window)
Location
Window history Click drop-down arrow of field in page
.
window
Browse Global History Fetch
Global history ➙ . Click button
Browse Hot List
Hot List ➙
Viewing
Back
Back button at top of page
Forward Forward button at top of page
Tools Preferences General
No images ➙ ➙
Stop loading Stop button
Browse Reload Page Browse
Reload ➙ or press button in
Tool Bar
Browse Load Images
Load or reload images ➙
Hot List
Browse Add To Hot List
Add URL to Hot List ➙
Browse Hot List
Edit Hot List ➙
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
34
Browsing with AOLpress
Opening pages
Opening pages
As the following figures show, there are several ways to open Web pages in AOLpress.
Open Locations:
Follow hyperlinks:
Use the Tool Bar: Use the Menu Bar: 3 Browsi
n
g
with
AOLpress
➙Opening pages with AOLpress:
■ You can follow a link in an open page to a new page (a new URL).
■ Location
If you know the URL address, you can type it directly in the field or in the
➙
window you see after choosing File Open.
■ If you closed a window containing the page you now want to open (during this
session or a previous session), check the File➙Open Recent list.
■ Back
Each AOLpress Page window keeps a history of the current session. Using the
and Forward
buttons at the top of the window, you can move to any page AOLpress
has displayed in a Page window in this session.
■ The AOLpress Hot List keeps track of addresses that you have placed there. You
can use the Hot List to “remember” names of interesting Web pages, and consult
your Hot List when you want to return to an URL you previously found.
■ AOLpress keeps a Global History of the current session. You can jump back to any
page in the list of pages that AOLpress has displayed in any Page window.
■ There are many Web pages that provide information services for the World Wide
Web. You can use these to search for information.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 35
Browsing with AOLpress
Viewing a page
Viewing a page
A small web animation appears in the top right corner of the AOLpress window. This
means AOLpress is searching for and loading a page. The status bar at the bottom of
the window shows what AOLpress is doing.
You may see hour glasses appear in the page, soon to be replaced by images.
The hour glass appears while an image is being loaded, and is replaced by the
image when it is ready to be displayed. If your system and network connection
are fast enough, images may load before you see the hour glass.
If you have set your preferences so that pictures are not loaded (see page 192),
an hour glass icon or question mark icon appears and the image does not appear
automatically. This is a useful option if your modem is not very fast. You can
click the mouse on the icon to cause the image to appear.
A lightning bolt appears if the image cannot be loaded. This usually occurs
because a link is incorrect.
Reloading pages and images
When you load a page it is cached (stored in your computer’s memory). If you
open that page again, it does not have to be transferred over the network again.
However, sometimes you want to reload the current page. (For example, if the
page provides current weather photos or stock prices.) To do this, you can use the
Reload Browse Reload Page
button or the ➙ menu item. This causes the page and all the
images it contains to be transferred over the network again, even if the page is cached.
When you reload a page, AOLpress shows changes to the page since you last visited it.
If you are editing the page with AOLpress, you should save any changes to your pages
before you reload. It you attempt to reload a page that you have edited, you will see a
window that asks whether you want to save your changes or reload and lose changes.
Browse Load
If you want to reload only the images in the page, you can use the ➙
Images Stop
menu item. For example, you may have clicked the button while images
were loading. Or, you may have unchecked the “Load Remote Images” field in the
Tools Preferences General
➙ ➙ window to make pages load faster.
Stop
If you want to stop loading a Web page or image, press this button. To resume
Browse Reload Page
loading after you have stopped it, use ➙ . This causes the
page and images to be transferred again.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
36
Browsing with AOLpress
Viewing a page
Scrolling
Most Web pages are longer than a screen. You can use the scroll bars on the right and
bottom sides of the windows to scroll up and down or left and right.
Printing a page
File Print File Print Setup
Choose the menu ➙ to print the current page. The menu ➙ lets
you specify various printing options—size of page, orientation, scale, and color.
External viewers for special file types
Some links in Web pages point to files that AOLpress cannot display. Included in this
category are such objects as images, video clips, audio clips, and PostScript files.
When you click on the link to one of these types of files, AOLpress can launch an 3
external viewer, and the contents of the file appears on your screen or plays through Browsi
your audio device.
If you have not specified an external viewer for a particular type of file, AOLpress
copies the file to your local hard drive, and asks you for a file name. To set external
viewers for AOLpress, see page 199. n
g
Browsing preferences with
Tools Preferences General
You can choose the ➙ ➙ menu item to bring up the General
Preferences window. This window lets you make some choices about what happens AOLpress
when you browse with AOLpress.
Load images
If the Load Remote Images field in the General Preferences window is not check
marked, then when AOLpress opens a page it does not load the images in that page.
Instead an hour glass icon or question mark icon is shown where the image would
appear. This can save time if your modem is not very fast. See page 192 for details.
Clicking on the question mark causes the image to be loaded. Or, you can choose the
Browse Load Images
➙ menu item when you find a page with images you want to see.
Prefetch pages
Prefetch Pages
If the field in the General Preferences window is check marked, then
whenever a web page is opened, all pages to which that page links to are loaded into
local memory. While this option causes the initial loading to go more slowly, browsing
is much faster after the pages are loaded. See page 192 for details.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 37
Browsing with AOLpress
Following links
Following links
➙To jump to another page:
To jump to a page that is “linked” to text or an image in the current page, click the
mouse on the appropriate text. (Linked text is usually a different color and underlined.)
■ Single-clicking replaces the page in the current Page window with the new page.
■ Double-clicking creates a new Page window showing the new Web page.
AOLpress lets you open and browse in multiple windows. The number of windows
you can open is limited by how much memory (RAM) your computer lets AOLpress
use. You will see a message if there is not enough memory to open another window.
Backward and forward
➙Backward:
■ Back
After you follow a hyperlink, notice that the button is no longer fuzzy.
■ Click this button to take you back a page. The backward function is also
➙
Browse Browse Backward
available in the menu: .
➙Forward:
■ Forward
After you back up, notice that the button is no longer fuzzy.
■ This button takes you to a Web page you have just backed up from. The
➙
Browse Browse Forward
forward function is also available in the menu: .
With these two buttons you can move through the Web pages you have visited in this
Page window. Notice also that the underline for the hyperlink you followed is a new
color, and the underline is now dashed. This means the page this link points to is
cached (stored in local memory). Hence, it is much faster to use the link again, because
AOLpress no longer has to download the page across the Internet.
Change locations within a page
Some pages have links to internal anchors, which look like hyperlinks that have been
already been used. They simply point to a location within the same page. You can read
the page by scrolling up and down, but these anchors let you move to specific positions
in the page.
Cloning a page
Double-click on the Page icon to the left of the Location field to open another
window showing the same page.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
38
Browsing with AOLpress
If a link doesn’t work
If a link doesn’t work
Sometimes the pages you request do not open successfully. When AOLpress cannot
open a page, the server usually gives a helpful message. Some of the reasons for the
lack of success are beyond your control.
A common cause of problems is that the link you tried to follow was incorrect.
Sometimes an URL connected to link has moved, yet the link is still there. You can
sometimes figure out bad links. Look for the following possibilities if you typed the
URL correctly:
♦ Some URLs require the trailing slash be at the end of the URL.
♦ Sometimes the file name requires the .html file ending and the author forgot to use
it. Try .htm as well.
Other messages you might see are: 3 Browsi
Retrieve Failed Usually the result of a server error, which may be out of your
Browse Reload Page
control. ➙ may produce the correct result.
Couldn’t Find The program couldn’t find the URL that contains the page. Either
Server the URL is wrong or the server that contains the page is down. n
g
Not Found The filename is wrong, even though the server may be correct. with
Sometimes this occurs because a link points to a file that no longer
exists.
Couldn’t find File The file is not available. Sometimes this is because there are too AOLpress
/ Page/MiniWeb may people trying to access the server that contains the page you
want to see.
“Forbidden” You do not have permission to access a particular page.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 39
Browsing with AOLpress
History—returning to where you’ve been
History—returning to where you’ve been
You can reopen pages you have viewed during this session using AOLpress’ history.
Window history
Click the down arrow to the right of the Location field to see a list of all Web pages you
have visited since you opened that Page Window. You can re-open any page in this list
by selecting it. This menu only lists pages opened from this window; it does not list
pages visited from other windows you may have opened.
Global history
A similar list of all Web pages viewed by any Page Window since you started
Browse Global History
AOLpress is available if you choose the ➙ menu item. A list of
Web pages appears. If the list is too long to fit in the small window, use the scrolling
arrows on the right side of the window.
Chronological
list of all pages
visited in the
current session
To view a page from this history, double-click on it to select it from the list, then click
the Fetch button.
You can open a Global History or Hot List item without opening a new page by using
the Copy URL
button to copy the URL of an item to the clipboard. Then, in a Page
Location
Window, paste the URL into the field.
Closing the AOLpress application automatically clears your global history. Each
launch of AOLpress begins a new global history.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
40
Browsing with AOLpress
Hot list—keep track of pages
Hot list—keep track of pages
AOLpress also allows you to keep a Hot List from session to session. This is a list of
Web sites (URLs) that you think you might visit frequently, or that you want to
remember and access easily. Unlike the history list, the Hot List is maintained after you
finish your session and exit AOLpress.
This list is stored in your AOLpress preferences file, which AOLpress creates
Tools Preferences
internally when you use any ➙ item. Deleting this file erases your list.
Adding or opening a page
➙To add or open a page:
1 Location
Go to that page in the Page Window (enter the URL in the field, or if you 3
Browse Global History
have visited it already choose it either from the ➙ menu or by Browsi
Location
scrolling the arrow to the right of the field).
2 Browse Add To Hot List
Choose the ➙ menu item to add the page to the list. To see
Browse HotList
the list, choose the menu item ➙ .
n
g
with
AOLpress
Collection of
commonly
visited Web
locations
3 Double-clicking on any entry in the Hot List brings up that page in the Page
Fetch
Window, or you can single-click on any entry to select it, then click the
Fetch
button. If no entry is selected, the button is inactive.
You can open a Hot List item without opening a new page by using the Copy URL
button to copy the URL of an item to the clipboard. Then, in a Page Window, paste
Location
the URL into the field.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 41
Browsing with AOLpress
Where to browse
Editing and formatting the Hot List
When you add a page to your Hot List, it is added to the end of the list. You can edit
and rearrange your Hot List. The buttons in the Hot List have these functions:
Fetch Causes the selected page to be displayed in the Page Window.
Click on Fetch after you have selected an entry from the list.
Close Closes the Hot List Window.
AddLabel Allows you to add a label above a selection in the list. When you
click on Add Label
, a window appears and asks you for the name
of the label. Type the name in the box indicated.
AddSeparator Adds a line across the list above the selected item.
MoveUp Select an entry, a separator, or a label. Click Move Up to raise the
selection one notch up the list.
MoveDown Move Down
Select an entry, a separator, or a label. Click to lower
the selection one notch down the list.
Remove Removes the selection from the list.
CopyURL Paste
Copies the URL of the selection. You may then the URL.
Help Invokes the help window about the Hot List.
Where to browse
There are lots of resources — both printed and online — for finding interesting places
to visit on the Web. We won’t attempt to give you a list here. However, if you are
searching for something in particular, here are some places to start your search:
♦ Excite, search the Web, news, and newsgroups—http://www.excite.com/
♦ Yahoo, use a catalog of Web sites—http://www.yahoo.com/
♦ Infoseek, search the Web and more—http://www.infoseek.com/
You use a Page window for browsing with AOLpress. You can use the same window
to create Web pages.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
42
Part 2
2Creating Pages
Part 2 shows you how to
use AOLpress to create
the kinds of things you
may want to put in your
Web pages.
Read Chapter 4 to get a quick overview of the kinds of things you can put in your Web
pages with AOLpress.
Read Chapter 5 to learn how to create and save a new Web page.
Read Chapter 6 to learn how to add text, lists, and formatting to your pages.
Read Chapter 7 to learn how to add tables to your pages.
Read Chapter 8 to learn how to add images and color to your pages.
Read Chapter 9 to learn how to add links and multimedia to your pages.
Read Chapter 10 to learn how to add frames to your pages.
Read Chapter 11 to learn how to uses forms in your pages.
Read Chapter 12 to learn how to view and edit the HTML for your pages.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 43
Chapter 4
4Web Pages and What to
Put in Them
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Things Web pages can contain 46
Figuring out how a page was created 51
Page design guidelines 51
You’ve probably browsed the Web and seen things you’d like to put in your pages.
How do you figure out how these things were created so that you can do the same
thing?
This chapter will describe the kinds of things you can put in your Web pages. We’ll
also give you hints for using AOLpress to figure out how something was created. Later
chapters will tell you the steps for putting these things in your pages.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 45
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Things Web pages can contain
Things Web pages can contain
You can’t always tell how a Web page was created just by looking at it. Web designers
use plenty of tricks to make pages look the way they do. Often, there are several ways
to create a similar look.
The sections that follow list formats you may see in Web pages. They briefly describe
ways to create each format and refer you to the section of this book that gives the
appropriate step-by-step instructions.
Text
For information about putting text in your pages, see Chapter 6.
♦ Different fonts: You can easily make text bold or italic. Or, you can switch to a
“typewriter” font like this one .
(page 70) Normally, you don’t control
the fonts used by your reader’s browser. However, when you are an advanced user,
you can change the font if you edit the HTML directly (page 82).
Sometimes the text you see in a page is really an image (page 91). For example, if
you want special effects like text with a shadow behind it, you might create an
image of that text. Try to select the text by dragging your mouse in AOLpress. If
you can’t select it like normal text, it’s probably an image.
♦ larger smaller
Bigger or smaller text: You make text or by changing the type size
(page 72). You can also change the size of text by changing a paragraph to a
heading (page 74).
♦ Colored text: You can change the color of all the text and links in a page by
changing the page attributes (page 102). You can change the color of some indi-
vidual text by changing the type color (page 72).
♦ Indented paragraphs: You can indent a paragraph by making it a “blockquote”
(page 75), by using definition lists (page 78), or by creating a table with hidden
borders (page 84).
♦ Columns of text: You can create columns of text by creating a table (page 84).
♦ Spacing between paragraphs: Normally, there is space after each paragraph. You
can remove the space by using a line break instead of a new paragraph (page 63).
♦ Centered or right-justified text: Normally, text is left-justified. You can center
or right-justify text by aligning the paragraph (page 73). If the text is in a table, you
can align the contents of the table cell horizontally and vertically (page 87), and
you can center the table itself (page 87).
♦ Text overlapping images: You can’t overlap text and images (or two images) in
a page. You can use some other graphics program to create an image that includes
text overlaping the image. Or, you can use a background picture for your page.
Then, text in your page will appear to overlap the background picture (page 102).
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
46
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Things Web pages can contain
Lists
For information about putting lists in your pages, see Chapter 6.
♦ Bulleted lists: If you want a dot to appear to the left of each item in a list, you can
create a bulleted list (page 76). Other symbols appear if you have a list within a list.
If you want to use some other image as a bullet, you can insert your own image
(page 94). If any bulleted item is longer than one line, you may want to use a table
with hidden borders to make the text line up correctly (page 84).
♦ Numbered lists: To number list items, create a numbered list (page 76).
♦ Indented lists: If you want a list that contains terms with indented definitions, you 4
can create a definition list (page 78).
W
e
Tables b
For information about putting tables in your pages, see Chapter 7. Pages
♦ Tables with wide You can make the borders around a table or the spacing
borders: between table cells as wide or narrow as you like when an
you change the table layout (page 84).
♦ Columns of text: If you see text columns that are narrower than the d W
window, the designer probably used a table with no h
borders (page 89). The empty space may be an extra at to
column (that contains spaces or an invisible image).
♦ Centered tables: Normally, a table is shown on the left side of a page. Put
You can also center a table (page 87).
i
n
Images and Animation The
AOLpress doesn’t create images; it lets you put images you
create with other software into your Web pages. Here are some m
hints about the kinds of images you can create and use. For
information about putting images in your pages, see Chapter 8.
♦ Creating or finding images: There are lots of software
programs for creating images. You’ll want to find one or
more that can create GIF or JPEG files. Another way to get
images is to look for free clip art on the Web (page 92).
♦ Buttons: The gray buttons you see in forms are part of the
form (page 148). Other buttons you see in Web pages are images of buttons.
♦ Horizontal dividers: For a simple line, create a horizontal rule (page 99). For rules
of other colors and sizes, use an image or advanced HTML (page 104).
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 47
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Things Web pages can contain
♦ Pictures linked to another place: You can link an image just as you would link
text (page 98). If you don’t want a border shown around a linked image, turn off
the link border for the image (page 94).
♦ Pictures with links to several other places: Pictures that link to several other
places are called “image maps” (page 98), because a common use is to create links
within a map. Sometimes images that look like image maps are really several
images with no space between them. (Hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on
an image to find the edges of the image.)
♦ Pictures you can see through: You can create “transparent” GIF files so that the
background color or image shows through in transparent areas. This lets you create
images that look like other shapes even though they are all really rectangles.
♦ Pictures next to paragraphs: You can make text wrap to the left or right of an
image (page 94). You can also use tables to put images next to text (page 86).
♦ Animated pictures and video: The easiest way to create animated pictures is to
use other software programs to create “animated GIFs.” You won’t see the anima-
tion in AOLpress, but you will when you use browsers that support animated GIFs.
Other ways to create animation are to use other software programs that create Java,
ActiveX, or a video format such as MPEG or QuickTime. Your readers may need
to download special viewers to see these kinds of videos.
♦ Pictures that do something when you click on them: If you see an image that
does something when you click on it, the image is either a Java applet or an
ActiveX control. AOLpress lets you put Java applets into your pages (page 121),
but you can’t see or use either Java applets or ActiveX controls within AOLpress.
♦ A background color or image: You can change the background color of the page
or use a background image by setting the page attributes (page 102). Since the
background image repeats to fill the page, you can use a small image to fill all the
space. You can also use wide or tall background images to create interesting
borders on the left side or top of the page.
♦ Fancy font styles: Sometimes the text you see in a page is really an image (page
94). For example, if you want special effects like text with a shadow behind it, you
might create an image of that text. Try to select the text by dragging your mouse in
AOLpress. If you can’t select it like normal text, it’s probably an image.
♦ Overlapping images: You can’t overlap two images in a page. However, you can
cut the images into rectangular pieces to make it look like the images overlap.
Instead of this: Do this:
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
48
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Things Web pages can contain
Links
For information about putting links in your pages, see Chapter 9.
♦ Links to another page: Links help people move from place to place (page 108).
♦ Links to a specific position in a page: If you create an anchor somewhere in a
page, a link can jump to that position (page 109).
♦ Links to send email: You can create a link that opens a page that lets the reader
send an email message (page 115).
♦ Links to download a file: You can create a link to download a file (page 116).
♦ Extra buttons in the toolbar: You can add buttons to the toolbar for readers using 4
AOLpress (page 117). W
e
b
Sound Pages
AOLpress doesn’t create sound files; it lets you put links to sound files you’ve created
with other software into your Web pages. For information about putting multimedia in
your pages, see Chapter 9. an
♦ Click to play a sound: You can create a link to play a sound file (page 116). d W
♦ Background sound: You can make sound play when someone loads your page
(page 126). h
Frames at to
For information about putting frames in your pages, see Chapter 10. Put
i
♦ Divide a page into sections: You can create frames to divide a page into sections. n
The sections can be scrollable or not scrollable. For example, you can use frames The
to display a navigation menu on the left, right, top, or bottom edge of the window.
Forms m
For information about putting forms in your pages, see Chapter 11.
♦ Forms with various fields: You can create forms with a wide variety of field types
(page 140).
♦ Forms for sending email and other things: If you have a PrimeHost hosting
service account, several programs are provided to process the information sent
from a form (page 138).
♦ Counter that shows how many times a page is visited: If you have a PrimeHost
hosting service account, a “hit counter” is provided to show how many visits your
page receives (page 99).
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 49
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Things Web pages can contain
Advanced Tools
There are many advanced languages and tools you can use on the Web. Here’s a
sample list. You can learn more about these languages and tools from other books.
♦ HTML: This is the language Web pages are written in. When you use AOLpress,
you don’t need to learn HTML to create Web pages. However, you can edit the
HTML and add special features that you can’t create directly with AOLpress (page
153). For example, by editing the HTML you can use different fonts, add colored
backgrounds to table cells, set the width of a table, change the bullet symbol or
number for a list item, or change the width and color of a horizontal rule. For infor-
mation about editing HTML directly, see Chapter 12.
♦ Javascript: This is a language you can use to control how the Web browser
behaves. For example, you can create scrolling status bar messages, put text in
fields, make pages load automatically like a slide show, and more.
♦ Java: This is a language you can use to create software that runs in your Web
pages. The language is similar to C++, but there are software tools that simplify
creating Java “applets.” AOLpress helps you add Java applets to your pages (page
121). You’ll need to use another browser to test your applets.
♦ ActiveX: This is Microsoft’s language for creating software that runs in your Web
pages. You can add ActiveX controls to your pages by editing the HTML directly.
♦ Cookies: These are files you send to be stored on a reader’s computer. If they visit
again, you can read this file to learn what they did last time.
♦ Selling: If you want to sell products on your Web site, you can use the PrimeHost
hosting service Storefront Solution (http://www.primehost.com/prices/store.htm).
♦ Searching: There are various tools for searching a Web site. If you have a Prime-
Host hosting service account, you can allow visitors to search your Web pages.
♦ Database interaction: If you have data stored in a database, there are various ways
to put that information into Web pages. If you have a PrimeHost hosting service
account, you can create and use a database with your Web site.
♦ Server-parsed HTML: You can use this language to automatically add some
information to a page. For example, you could put the same header and footer
information on all my pages automatically. Or, you could insert a file that changes
frequently within a page without having to update the page whenever the file
changes (http://www.aolserver.com/server/docs/2.1/html/shtml.htm).
♦ Perl, Tcl, C, and other languages: Many other languages can be used to process
forms and update information dynamically.
♦ And more...: New things you can do on the Web are being added all the time. The
next section gives you some hints for figuring out how something was done in a
Web page you like.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
50
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Figuring out how a page was created
Figuring out how a page was created
If you want to know how something in a Web page was created, open the page with
AOLpress and try any of these tricks:
➙
■ Format Show Border
Choose the menu item. You will see dotted lines around the
cells in any hidden tables. You will also see dotted lines at the beginning and end
of any lists or forms.
■ Select the item with your mouse in AOLpress. (If the item is linked to some other
page, hold down the Ctrl key so that AOLpress doesn’t follow the link.) You can
use this trick to find the edges of an image.
■ Format 4
With the item selected, look at the first two commands in the menu. They
let you exit from or remove the item’s format. The command names tell you W
whether the item has a paragraph, heading, list, or table format. For example, if you e
Exit Table Format Remove Table Format b
are in a table, the commands will be and .
■ Click your right mouse button on an item you have selected (or you can choose the Pages
➙
Element Get Attribute menu item). If there is a window that lets you control this
type of item, you will see that window.
➙ an
■ Tools Show HTML
Highlight the item and choose the menu item. You will see the
actual code that defines this item highlighted. Even if you don’t know much d W
HTML, you can probably guess what kind of item this is by looking at the tags.
h
Page design guidelines at to
Creating Web pages is easy with AOLpress. But, creating well-designed Web pages Put
requires a little thought. The following hints will help you plan and create better pages.
Entire books are devoted to good page design, so remember, this is just an overview. i
n
Browsers Display Pages Differently The
Different Web browsers display pages in slightly different ways. The best strategy is m
to test your pages with common Web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer.
If you can, see what your pages look like on both a Macintosh and a PC. Get your
friends to tell you if your pages look right on their computers.
HTML vs. Word Processors
Creating Web pages with AOLpress is almost, but not quite, like using a word
processor. The difference is that the language used to create Web pages is more
“structure oriented” than “display oriented.” That is, you create a heading, and the
reader’s browser decides what a heading should look like. This is useful because you
don’t know the size of your readers’ screens or what fonts they can use. The reader also
decides how big to make the browser window. This limitation is changing as Netscape
and Microsoft add more capabilities for specifying fonts, font sizes, and window sizes.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 51
Web Pages and What to Put in Them
Page design guidelines
Headings
♦ Hdg 3
Do not use header levels smaller than for text you want to be read easily.
♦ Typically, the title of the page should also be in the text of the page as a heading.
Images and graphics
Alignment Element Image Bottom Left
♦ In the box under the ➙ menu item, check the , ,
or Right button for images, so text wraps nicely for those readers who make their
window narrow. If you use Middle Top
or there will be a large gap between lines.
♦ Some readers still use browsers that don’t display images. You should add some
text in the Text for non-graphic browsers field for these readers.
• For non-linked images this field should describe the image.
• For linked images this field should tell where the link goes.
• Text for non-graphic browsers
Use brackets to surround the text in the field, for
example [Lightning bolt image]
.
♦ Keep image files smaller than about 30 Kbytes.
Organize a set of Web pages
♦ Put important information or links near the top of the page, so that readers don’t
need to scroll down to see it.
♦ When including textual or pictorial navigation aids, place cues on the left side to
go back or to the previous page. Use the right side to go forward or to the next page.
♦ To keep the reader from getting lost, organize the information in a hierarchical
format with 2-5 layers.
• Let readers move down the hierarchy quickly by providing a table or contents,
index, or menus.
• Provide header and/or footer navigation bars (text or graphics) for moving up
and down throughout the hierarchy.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
52
Chapter 5
5Creating and Saving
Pages
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Creating a blank page 54
Editing and saving an existing page 55
Importing a document 56
Selecting files 58
AOLpress is an easy-to-use word processor for creating and editing Web pages. As you
create a page, it looks like does when you view it with a browser. Behind the scenes,
AOLpress creates the page in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). You never have
to look at the HTML, although you may edit the HTML with AOLpress if you want to.
You can create a new Web page in any of these ways:
♦ Start editing a new, blank page.
♦ Start editing any other Web page, and save it to a new location.
♦ Start with a document in some other format, and import it into a Web page.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 53
Creating and Saving Pages
Creating a blank page
Creating a blank page
If you do not have documents in another format that you can import, you can create
pages from scratch. There are several ways to open a blank page.
Creating a new, blank page
➙Open a new empty page:
➙ ➙
■ File New New Page
Choose from the menus.
■ If you want to use an existing page as a template for new pages, you can create a
MiniWeb and make your template the “stationery” for that MiniWeb by choosing
Edit➙Set Stationery
. Then, when you create a new page, it will start with the
contents of your stationery page. See page 171 for details.
Setting the start-up page default
When you run AOLpress, you see the “Welcome to AOLpress” page. To change the
➙ ➙
Startup View Tools Preferences Genera
startup page, change the in the l window.
➙Set the start-up page:
1 ➙ ➙
Tools Preferences General
Choose Menu item .
2 Select one of three choices for the Startup View:
■ Home Page—opens with the page you specify.
■ Blank Page—opens with a new empty page.
■ MiniWeb—opens with a new MiniWeb and a new empty page in the MiniWeb.
■ Nothing—doesn’t open any page or MiniWeb initially.
AOLpress uses two kinds of windows: Page windows and MiniWeb windows. You use
Page windows to browse and author individual Web pages, and you use MiniWeb
windows to work on a collections of related pages. Page windows and MiniWeb
windows have different menus and commands. However, the basic commands — such
as drag-and-drop and copy and paste — work the same in both windows. See page 159
to learn more about MiniWebs.
Recovering lost pages
AOLpress stores backup copies of pages you have edited but have not saved. If you
restart AOLpress after a crash, it opens these copies and tells you it is recovering old
files. You can continue editing these files and save them without losing much work.
If AOLpress is trying to recover files that don’t exist each time you start AOLpress,
you can delete the files in the “autosave” folder inside the AOLpress folder.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
54
Creating and Saving Pages
Editing and saving an existing page
Editing and saving an existing page
One of the most useful features of AOLpress is that it lets you browse and author at the
same time. You can save pages you visit on the Web to your local files for editing.
Saving a page to your local folder provides a quick way to format the page and then
publish it on your PrimeHost hosting service directory. (But, remember that copyright
law also applies to the Web, so you shouldn’t use someone else’s text or images
without permission.)
File Copy File
You can also copy an existing page to a new location with the ➙ menu
item. You can edit that new file without making changes to the existing page. See page
172 for details about copying files with AOLpress.
➙Saving an existing page to a new location: 5
1 Browse to find the page you want to start editing. Crea
2 File➙Save As
Save the page with a new name. Choose the menu item , and save the
page to a folder on your local disk. (For details on using file selection windows, see ting and Saving Pages
page 58. For details on saving files to your PrimeHost hosting service directory and
to other locations, see page 181.)
Save As
■ Because you are creating a new page, you will see the window. If
File Save
you’ve already saved this page, choosing ➙ will save your page
without displaying this window.
■ If you want to be able to use file names longer than 8 characters (and you are
Tools Preferences General
not using Windows 3.1), choose ➙ ➙ . Make sure the
“MiniWebs create as” field is set to “Macintosh” if you are using a Macintosh
and “Posix” if you are using UNIX or a version of Windows that supports long
file names. (If you are using Windows 3.1, set the field to “DOS”.)
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 55
Creating and Saving Pages
Importing a document
Importing a document
If you have a document that is stored in another format, you can import it into a Web
page with AOLpress. The formats you can import are:
♦ HTML pages
♦ Plain Text (with line breaks at the end of each line or at the end of each paragraph)
➙Import text from another Web page:
1 Place your cursor where you want to insert the file.
2 ➙
File Import
Choose the menu . You will see this window. (For details on using such
file selection windows, see page 58.)
3 Import
When you click , the file and any included images are inserted at your cursor.
This window has the following choices:
Import Imports whatever page is selected in the window into the document
where your cursor is placed.
Cancel Closes the Import window.
Scan Browse your local files or your hosting service directory. If you enter a
site that you don’t have permission to browse, the message “Cannot
Browse Location” appears in the box where the file names would other-
wise appear.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
56
Creating and Saving Pages
Importing a document
4 File➙Import Options
Within the window is the button. Click this button to see the
following choices:
None If there are any images in the page you are importing, they are not 5 Crea
imported to the same folder that contains the page. If you want
the imported page to reference the images in their original loca-
tion, check the Relative Links to Full URL
field.
Relative All relative images are saved locally into your folder, and they ting and Saving Pages
are linked within the text of the document as local images. See
page 106 for an explanation of relative and absolute references
All All image files in the document are copied to your folder.
Relative Links All relative links in the imported page are converted to absolute
to Full URL URLs.
Use Base when You can ignore this field. Checking it has no effect when you
possible import from most pages.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 57
Creating and Saving Pages
Selecting files
Selecting files
File
Several commands in the menu windows let you select a file. In addition, the
Browse
buttons in various windows open similar windows. These windows let you
manipulate files on both your local disks and on your PrimeHost hosting service
directory. When you save or open a file, you may be prompted for a user name and
password if the file or location is protected.
MS Windows
The file selection windows under Microsoft Windows are much like file selection
windows in other Windows software.
♦ Drives / Sites
In addition to selecting local disk drives (such as C:\), the field lets
you select directories you’ve published to, such as your PrimeHost hosting service
directory or your AOL personal publishing directory
(
http://members.aol.com/members). See page 202 to learn how to add more
directories to this list.
♦ Location c:\mydir\index.htm
The field uses Windows file paths, such as for
Location field uses URLs, such as
local files. For files on a server, the
http://members.aol.com/members/myfile.htm
. For pages, use a file
extension of .htm (for example, mypage.htm). For MiniWebs, use no file
extension.
♦ MiniWebs are stored both as directories and files, so they show up in both lists.
Directory
Double-click on a MiniWeb in the list to see a list of the files in the
MiniWeb. Double-click on a MiniWeb in the Files list to perform the window’s
action on the MiniWeb.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
58
Creating and Saving Pages
Selecting files
Macintosh
File selection windows on a Macintosh contain several additional fields.
Browse up
folder tree
Select a file
or folder
Select a server 5
Location field Crea
Type of file
to look for
♦ Location ting and Saving Pages
You can type the full location of the file or an URL directly into the field
Sites
(the unlabeled field below the field). Disks, folders, and files are separated by
colons (:) in this field. For example, BigDrive:Web Pages:Club:index.htm
is a file in the Club folder of the Web Pages folder on a drive called “BigDrive”.
♦ Sites
In addition to local disks, the field lets you select Web locations you’ve
published to, such as your PrimeHost hosting service directory or your AOL
members
personal publishing directory (http://members.aol.com/ ). See
page 202 to learn how to add AOLservers, MiniWebs, and folders to this list.
♦ After you use the Sites field and the scrolling list of files and folders to find a direc-
Location
tory, you can type a file name at the end of the text in the field (below the
Sites field). To make your pages portable to all other platforms, it is best to use file
names with 8 characters and no spaces. For pages, use a file extension of
.htm (for
example, my_page.htm). For MiniWebs, use no file extension.
♦ Desktop
The button moves you to the files and folders on the Macintosh desktop.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 59
Creating and Saving Pages
Selecting files
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
60
Chapter 6
6Creating Text and Lists
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Page titles 62
Creating text 62
Editing text 65
Formatting text 70
Paragraph formats 73
Lists 76
Removing formats 81
Learning more... 82
Editing and formatting text and lists in AOLpress is similar to editing and formatting
text with an ordinary word processor. You don’t need to know the technical details
about the HTML code AOLpress is creating behind the scenes.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 61
Creating Text and Lists
Page titles
Page titles
Every page has a title. The title is different from the file name — it is the text that will
be shown in the title bar at the top of a window displaying the page. Changing the title
will not change the file name or Web address of a page, nor will changing the file name
change the title.
For your titles, choose about half a dozen words that describe the document’s contents.
Search engines often use page titles first when assigning keywords for finding a page.
➙Title a page:
1 Title
Move your cursor to the field near the top of the AOLpress window and type
a new title for the page.
2 Location
The web in the icon next to the field breaks, to show that you have unsaved
changes. Saving the page changes this icon back.
Icon for a new, unsaved Icon for pages with Icon for saved pages
pages unsaved changes
Creating text
As you move the mouse over the Page window, the cursor is I-shaped. When you click
the mouse in the text, a flashing I-shaped cursor marks the point where text will be
placed when you type. Once you have positioned the cursor, there are several ways to
get text into your page.
➙Type text into your page:
■ Type on the keyboard. The text appears at the cursor position.
You do not see any HTML tags around text you type. (HTML is the language used
to format Web pages. For example, a paragraph begins with a “
” tag.) If you
➙
Tools Show HTML
want to see and edit the HTML code, choose the menu item.
➙Copy text from another page:
1 Copy
With the mouse, highlight the text you want to copy, and click the
icon. (You can even copy and paste text from some other application to
AOLpress. For example, in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, select text and
Edit➙Copy
then choose the menu item.)
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
62
Creating Text and Lists
Creating text
2 Return to the Web page you are editing, position the cursor where you
Paste Edit Paste
want to place the text, and click on the icon (or choose ➙
or press Ctrl-V).
➙Drag-and-drop from other page windows:
1 In any AOLpress page window, highlight the text you want to move. (You cannot
drag-and-drop from other applications to AOLpress.)
2 Holding the cursor down on the highlighted text, drag the text to the page and loca-
tion where you want to put it.
3 Release the cursor. The text is removed from where you selected it, and placed into
the new location.
➙Importing text: 6 C
You can import text from another page or a text file into a page. For details see page 56.
r
New paragraphs and forced line breaks eat
When you reach the end of a line, you don’t need to press the key to move ing
to the next line. This happens automatically. Pressing starts a new para- Te
graph. Browsers automatically adjust the line lengths in paragraphs if you change xt and
the size of the window.
➙
Create a new paragraph — with a space after the previous paragraph: List
■ Press the Enter (or
Return) key to start a s
new paragraph.
■ In the middle of a
list, you can add a
new paragraph
without creating
another list item by
choosing the Format Paragraph New
➙ ➙ menu item.
➙Create a Forced Line Break—same paragraph, one line below:
Element Forced Line Break
■ Press Shift-Enter (or Shift-Return) or choose ➙ .
A line separated by a forced line break is still part of the same paragraph as the line
above and is subject to that paragraph’s formatting.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 63
Creating Text and Lists
Creating text
Spaces
Normally in HTML, any number of spaces is shown as one space. This means if you
type two spaces, you will only see one. If you type a tab it will also show up as a space.
You can use the following methods in AOLpress to move text horizontally.
➙Move text horizontally:
■ The best way to
align text into
columns is to use
tables. See page 84
for details.
■ Another way to add
horizontal spaces is
➙
Tools
to choose
➙
Preferences
General and check
“Non-Breaking” in
the Text Edit Spacing
field. Then, you can type multiple spaces. However, some
browsers show these non-breaking spaces as “ ” instead of as a space. If you
select “One” in this field, you can only type one blank space at a time.
➙
■ Format Para-
Another way to add spaces is to highlight the paragraph and choose
➙
graph Preformatted
to change the paragraph to a fixed width font and allow you to
align text by adding spaces.
Special characters
If you want to use special characters (such as punctuation or letters with accent marks)
in your Web page, you can copy them into AOLpress.
➙To copy special characters:
1 ➙
Help Contents
Choose . Follow the link to “access the reference information”.
You might need to scroll the page to see this link.
2 Click on the “Special characters” link (after the “Text” bullet item in the right
column). Again, you might need to scroll the page to see this link.
3 Find the characters you want to use and highlight it.
4 ➙
Edit Copy
Choose or press Ctrl-C.
5 Move back to the page you are editing and put your cursor where you want to insert
the special character.
6 ➙
Edit Paste
Choose or press Ctrl-V.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
64
Creating Text and Lists
Editing text
Editing text
You can edit text with the mouse and keyboard, similar to most word processors.
Select the text you want to edit, then use any of editing techniques in the following list.
➙To edit text:
■ To delete text, select it, then press Backspace or Delete on the keyboard, or use the
➙ ➙
Edit Clear Edit Cut
or menu.
■ “Drag-and-drop”: To move text, highlight it, hold the mouse button down and
move the cursor to the desired new location, then release the mouse button.
➙ ➙
■ Cut Paste Edit Edit Cut Edit Paste
You can and text, either with the menu ( then )
or the Cut Paste
and buttons on the toolbar.
■ To replace text, select it then type over it. 6 C
■ To move a line of text up or down, place the cursor above the line or at the left
margin, then press the key to raise the line or the key (or r
on some keyboards) to lower the line. eat
➙Use the keyboard to control the cursor: ing
■ The arrow keys move the insertion point one character or line in each direction. Te
■ Holding down the control key makes the left and right arrows move left and right xt and
by a word rather than a character. (If your keyboard has word left/right keys they
should work as well.)
■ The Home and End keys move to the start and end of the current paragraph respec- List
tively. With the control key down they move to the start and end of the current line.
■ The Next (+Page, PgDown) key and the Prev (-Page, PgUp) keys move the inser- s
tion point to the next or previous page, respectively.
■ Holding down the Shift key while you move the cursor with the keyboard selects
text instead of just moving the cursor.
➙Edit text with the keyboard:
■ If your keyboard has Cut, Copy and Paste keys, then these perform as labeled.
■ Holding down the CTRL key when depressing the Copy key copies the URL.
■ Pressing Enter (or Return) starts a new paragraph in whatever way seems appro-
priate. For example, in a list it creates a new list item.
■ Pressing CTRL+J (at the end of a list, header, or form) exits the current format (list,
header, or form) and starts a new paragraph in whatever way seems appropriate.
■ Pressing Backspace (or CTRL+H) deletes the last character.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 65
Creating Text and Lists
Editing text
■ Pressing CTRL+D deletes the next character.
■ Pressing Delete normally deletes the character to the right of the cursor, but you
➙ ➙
Tools Preferences
can make it delete the character to the left by choosing the
General menu item and checking the UNIX Style Delete field.
■ On a Macintosh, pressing Delete does a backspace.
■ Pressing CTRL+U deletes to the beginning of the line.
Finding and replacing text
Edit➙Find/Replace
opens a window that lets you find or replace text in the current
page.
Type characters
to search for
Type characters
to replace with
Choose method
of search
➙Find and replace text:
1 Type the characters to search for in the Find What box at the top.
2 Replace With
Type the characters to replace these in the box underneath.
3 Search Options
Optionally select one or more of the following :
Whole Checking this box makes the match find only whole words that match
Word the text you type. When this box is not checked, the program matches
your text even if it is a part of a word. For example, if you check this
box, searching for “cat” will match “cat” only, and not words like
“catalog”.
Match Checking this box makes the match case-sensitive. When this box is not
Case checked, the program finds matches that use either upper or lower case
letters. For example, if you check this box, searching for “ZIP” matches
“ZIP”, but not “zip” or “Zip”.
Search Checking this box makes the program search backward through the
Back- page beginning at the cursor position. The default is to search forward.
ward
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
66
Creating Text and Lists
Editing text
Search If you are finding and replacing in a MiniWeb, you can search the
HTML HTML tags directly, see page 153 for more information.
4 Use the buttons on the right side of the window to control the search.
Find Finds and selects the next match.
Close Closes the window.
Replace Replace
Replaces the current selection with the characters in the
With
box.
Replace All Finds and replaces all the characters that match in the entire page.
Find Next Search Backward
Finds the next match. The field controls whether
this is the next match in the forward or backward direction.
Wrap & Find Find Next 6
Same as , but starts over at the beginning of the page if it
gets to the end of the page. C
r
Checking spelling eat
You can check the spelling of the text in your page (or your entire MiniWeb) by using ing
the Spell Checker. Te
➙To check spelling: xt and
➙
1 Tools Spell Check
Choose .
2 AOLpress will start checking your page List
starting at your cursor location. If it
doesn’t recognize a word, you will see the s
Spell Check window.
The unrecognized word is shown in the
field at the top and suggested corrections
are listed below. You can do these things
to unrecognized words:
■ Correct: Select one of the suggested
corrections or edit the word yourself.
Replace
Then click . If you want to fix
all occurrences of the misspelled word
automatically (even when you use the spell checker in future AOLpress
Always Replace Replace
sessions), check the box before you click the button.
■ If one of the suggested corrections is close to the word you want,
Guess Again:
Guess
select that word and click . You will see a new list of suggested words.
Replace Guess
You can pick one of these words and use it to the word or again.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 67
Creating Text and Lists
Editing text
If you want AOLpress to suggest words that contain characters with accent
Options
marks, click the button and type the accented characters into the field
provided. Type all the digits (1234567890) in this field if you want AOLpress
to suggest words you have added to the dictionary that contain numbers.
■ Add to Dictionary: If the unrecognized word is one that you want AOLpress
Learn
to recognize in the future, click to add the word to the dictionary.
■ Ignore: If you want to allow a word without adding it to the dictionary, click
Skip
. The word will be ignored until you exit from AOLpress.
3 AOLpress continues moving forward through your page to check the spelling. If
you started the spell check in the middle of the page, it goes back to check the first
Done
part of your page, too. When you finish checking your page, click to close the
Spell Check window.
You can control the lists of words that have been added to your AOLpress dictionary
and words that will be automatically replaced by the spell checker.
➙To edit the list of learned words:
1 Options
Click the button in the Spell
Check window. You will see a window
that looks like this one.
2 If you want to select a different Personal
Dictionary or create a new one with no
Select
extra words, click the button. You
will see a standard file selection window.
You can select any dictionary you have
created with AOLpress. To create a new
dictionary, specify a file name with an
extension of OK
.hsh and click .
3 If you want to see or edit the list of
Edit
learned words, click the button for
the Personal Dictionary. You will see a page like the following, which lists any
words you have added to the dictionary.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
68
Creating Text and Lists
Editing text
4 You can add words to this list or remove words. You must put exactly one word on
each line.
5 When you are finished editing the list of words, save this page. The next time you
spell check a page, the words you added will be recognized.
➙To edit the list of automatically replaced words:
1 Options
Click the button in the Spell Check window to open the Spell Options
window.
2 If you want to select a different list of replaced words or create an empty list, click
the Select button. You will see a standard file selection window.
You can select any replaced words list you have created with AOLpress. To create
a new list, specify a file name with an extension of OK
.rpl and click .
3 Edit 6
If you want to see or edit the list of automatically replaced words, click the
button for the Replacement List. You will see a page that lists any words you have C
replaced while the Always Replace box was checked. r
eat
ing
Te
xt and
List
4 You can add words to this list or remove words. Put exactly two words on each line. s
The first word should be the one you want to replace. The second word should be
the one you want to replace it with.
5 When you finish editing the list of replaced words, save this page. The next time
you spell check a page, the words you listed will be replaced automatically.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 69
Creating Text and Lists
Formatting text
Formatting text
Text can be given distinctive styles, like bold, italic, fixed width, and more. To
Format Type Style
format the text you have selected, use the ➙ menu. Type styles are
applied to individual characters (and strings of characters like words and sentences),
as opposed to whole paragraphs or other page elements.
Some paragraph styles also affect how text looks — for example, Headings and
Quotations. You can use the type styles described in this section to further modify the
type style of a Heading or other paragraph style.
AOLpress provides two categories of type styles: formatted (physical) styles and
logical styles. You can also change the type size (see page 72) and type color (see page
72) of any text.
Formatted type styles
Formatted type styles are styles that have a specific meaning, for example, bold or
italic. Regardless of the browser used to view your page, text with formatted styles
always appear in that style.
AOLpress has these formatted styles:
Plain Plain text
Bold Bold text
Italic Italicized text
Underline Underlined text
Fixed Pitch a monospaced font such as Courier
– Superscript – a smaller point size of the current font, elevated above the
baseline
– Subscript – a smaller point size of the current font, moved slightly
below the baseline
Logical type styles
Logical text styles describe how a particular word or phrase is used. In contrast,
“formatted type styles” describe how a word or phrase should be displayed. Logical
type styles have no “standard” appearance. Different browsers may display these styles
in different ways. For example the “emphasis” style may be italicized on some
browsers and shown in bold on others.
The deleted text and new text styles are HTML 3.2 styles that are not yet supported by
all browsers.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
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Creating Text and Lists
Formatting text
The logical styles are:
Deleted Text Text has been deleted, for example in a legal document or
a software specification. By default, a line strikes through
the text.
New Text Text that has been added to a document. By default, the text
is dark gray and change bars are added to the page.
Citation A reference to a book, article, or other work, for example,
“For more information, see Taylor, The Life of Birds”.
Code Words or phrases that are part of code examples or
commands, for example, “ls *doc
”.
Definition A defined word or phrase, for example “The second to last
item is the penultimate item”.
Emphasis An emphasized word or phrase. Some other browsers show 6 C
this style in italics.
r
Keyboard Text intended to be typed in by the reader on a command eat
Sample line or other text-entry environment. ing
Example text, similar to code.
Strong Strongly emphasized text (stronger than the emphasis Te
style). By default, AOLpress shows this style in red. Some xt and
other browsers show this style in bold.
Variable A place holder for some other value in a command line or
sample text, for example, “To print a file, use the print List
file name command, where file name is the file you
want to print” s
Applying and removing type styles
Both formatted and logical styles are cumulative, that is, you can apply several styles
to a selection. When a style has been applied to a selection, that style name has a check
Format Type Style
next to it in the ➙ menu.
➙Apply a type style:
1 Select the text you want to apply a style to.
2 Format Type Style
Choose a type style from the ➙ menu.
■ You can apply more than one style at a time to text. To do this, repeat step 2
while the selected text is still highlighted.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 71
Creating Text and Lists
Formatting text
➙Remove a single type style from a selection:
1 Select the text that has the style you want to remove.
2 ➙
Format Type Style
Choose the type style (checked) you want to remove using the
menu.
➙Remove all type styles from a selection:
1 Select the text you want to revert to plain text.
2 ➙ ➙
Format Type Style Plain
Choose .
➙
■ Use Edit Undo if you want to correct a recent formatting choice.
The text you selected reverts to the default style of the surrounding text.
Type sizes
You can make text bigger or smaller by changing the type size.
Bigger To make the text larger than the surrounding text, choose
➙ ➙
Format Type Size Bigger
. Font size changes are cumulative.
You can apply this style multiple times to text to increase the font
size further. The actual font size varies on different browsers.
Smaller To make the text smaller than the surrounding text, choose
➙ ➙
Format Type Size Smaller. You can apply this style multiple
times to text to decrease the font size further.
In AOLpress, you can make text 1 or 2 sizes smaller (depending on the paragraph
format) and up to 4 sizes bigger. Other browsers may support even bigger or smaller
sizes. Even if you don’t see the font size change in AOLpress when you apply an even
bigger or smaller size, other Web browsers may show a size difference.
Type colors
➙To add color to selected text:
1 Highlight the text you want to change to a different color.
2 ➙
Choose the Format Type Color menu.
3 Custom
Choose from the list of colors, or select to choose a color from a color
Default
picking window. Selecting sets the type back to the default color for the
page. The sixteen colors listed are the standard color for 16-color PCs.
If you want to change the color of all the text in a page, see page 102.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
72
Creating Text and Lists
Paragraph formats
Paragraph formats
You can give paragraphs a format — like Heading, Numbered List, or Blockquote —
Format
to format your page. You use the menu to assign paragraph formats.
In most word processors, to include the paragraph format when you copy text, you
copy the entire line at the end of the paragraph. In AOLpress, you need to copy the
blank line before the paragraph, instead. (The information about the paragraph format
is stored before the paragraph.)
Normal paragraphs
Normal paragraphs start at the left margin with no indenting or special type styles.
➙Change a paragraph back to a normal paragraph: 6
1 Select the text you want to change back C
r
2 ➙ eat
Format Remove Format
Choose the menu item.
Aligning paragraphs ing
You can make any paragraph, heading, or list centered, right aligned, or aligned on Te
both the left and right. You can even align text that wraps next to an image. Note that xt and
some browsers (such as Netscape) do not support Align Flush
.
➙Align a paragraph:
1 Place the cursor in the paragraph, heading, or list you want to align or justify. List
2 ➙ s
Format Paragraph Align Left Align Right Align Center
With the menu item, choose , , ,
Flush Align Default
, or . (“Align Flush” aligns both the left and right edges of the
text. “Align Default” removes any previous paragraph alignment.)
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 73
Creating Text and Lists
Paragraph formats
Headings
AOLpress gives you six
heading levels, from
Hdg 1, the largest, to
Hdg 6, the smallest.
You use headings to
title sections and to
show the structure of
your page. They are set
off from the text with a
larger font, bold text, or
other form of emphasis.
➙Apply a heading to text:
1 Place the cursor where you want the heading to start.
2 ➙
Format Heading
Choose a heading type from the menu.
3 Type your heading text.
➙Apply a heading to existing text:
1 Position the cursor in the line of text you want to affect.
2 ➙
Format Heading
Choose a Heading type from the menu.
➙Change a heading format:
1 Select all of the text in the heading.
2 ➙
Format Heading
Choose the new heading level you want to use from the list.
➙Remove a heading format:
1 Position the cursor anywhere in the heading text.
2 ➙
Format Remove Heading Format
Choose the menu item. (Or, you can use
Edit➙Undo to undo a recent formatting choice.)
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
74
Creating Text and Lists
Paragraph formats
Blockquotes, preformatted text, and addresses
Block Quotations are used for
long passages of quoted
material to be indented from
regular paragraphs.
Preformatted text is used when
you want tabs, spaces, and line
breaks in the text preserved, for
example, for code samples that
must appear as they are typed.
Most browsers display
Preformatted text in a
monospaced font like Courier.
Addresses are typically used at 6 C
the top or the bottom of a page
to indicate the owner of the r
document, when it was last eat
changed, any copyright information, or any other administrative information for the ing
page. Address signatures are usually in italics and indented, by default.
➙Apply paragraph formats: Te
1 Place the insertion point where you want the structure to begin, or position the xt and
cursor in the paragraph you want to affect.
2 ➙
Format Paragraph
Choose one of these three structures from the menu. List
➙Change paragraph formats: s
1 Position the cursor in the paragraph you want to affect.
2 ➙
BlockQuote Preformatted Address Format Paragraph
Choose , , or from the menu.
➙Remove paragraph formats:
1 Position the cursor in the paragraph you want to affect.
2 ➙
Format Remove Paragraph Format
Choose the menu .
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 75
Creating Text and Lists
Lists
Lists
Lists are useful for organizing related text. They combine a group of lines, all separated
by line breaks, into a single structure.
There are three types of lists:
♦ Bulleted lists are indented
with bullets marking each
item. Bulleted lists are
useful for listing items that
can appear in any order.
This structure indents and indicates items by bullets or squares.
♦ Numbered lists have sequential numbers. Numbered lists are best for items that are
ordered in a specific sequence, as with procedures.
♦ Definition lists have a term line followed by a further-indented definition para-
graph.The term and definition structure is repeated throughout the list.
You can add, delete, and rearrange list items. You can also nest lists. Nested lists have
multiple levels of sub-lists and can be mixed. For example, a Numbered list can be
nested within a Definition or Bulleted list, or another Numbered list.
Bulleted and numbered lists
Bullets are not characters that can be selected. Think of them as part of the line break
between paragraphs. The only way to select or delete bullets is to select or delete the
line break.
➙Apply a bulleted or numbered list structure:
1 Place the insertion point where you want the Bulleted or Numbered list to begin
when you type Or, select the text you want to turn into a list.
2 ➙
Bulleted List Numbered List Format List
Choose or from the menu.
You cannot select the numbers or bullets associated with a list. They are part of the
structure, but not part of the context.
➙End the current list structure:
1 Place the cursor anywhere in the list.
2 ➙
Format Exit List Format
Choose .
The cursor moves to the line below the list, and leaves it unstructured. Exiting from a
nested list takes you out one level. Repeat the Exit command to continue to move out.
To move completely out of the list, place the cursor below the list and click.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
76
Creating Text and Lists
Lists
➙Paste or type new items:
1 Place the cursor at the end of the line before the new item you want to add.
2 Press Enter (or Return) to provide a line for the new item.
3 Paste
Type text or previously typed list items.
Several list items can be pasted in at once. The items below the new items shift
downward to accommodate the new list items.
➙Delete or move items within the list:
■ Use basic editing conventions—cut, copy, paste, and backspace.
If you add or delete an item in the middle of a Numbered list, all the items below it are
automatically renumbered to reflect the change. (If the numbers look odd, scroll up and
down to refresh the screen.) 6 C
r
➙Add a normal paragraph within a list: eat
■ Normally, when you press the Enter (or Return) key within a list, the bullet or ing
number for the next item is added automatically. However, sometimes you want to
add a second paragraph to a single list item. Te
➙ ➙ xt and
Format Paragraph New
To add a second paragraph within a list, choose .
➙Remove a list structure (that is, make it unstructured):
1 ➙ List
Format Remove List Format
Place the cursor in the list, and choose .
■ Individual items in a list cannot be unstructured. You must unstructure the s
whole list at once.
➙
Edit Undo
■ Use if you want to correct a recent formatting choice.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 77
Creating Text and Lists
Lists
Definition Lists
Definition lists contain indented Terms followed by their Definitions, indented further.
Terms
Definitions
Definition Lists follow the same basic rules as Bulleted and Numbered lists. The
differences are described below.
➙Apply a definition list structure:
1 Place the insertion cursor where you
want the Definition list to begin. Select text
■ Or, you can select text you want and use the
to turn into an Definition list. “Definition”
list style to
Terms and Definitions must be format as a series of terms
on separate lines. The Term item and indented definitions.
must be first, then the Definition line.
2 ➙
Definition List Format List
Choose from the menu. (If you selected text before
choosing this menu item, the first paragraph becomes a Term, the second a Defini-
tion, and so on until the last paragraph in the selection.)
3 Type text for the first Term. Press Enter (or Return) at the end of a Term to create
a Definition line.
4 Press Enter (or Return) at the end of a Definition to create a new Term line.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
78
Creating Text and Lists
Lists
➙Change the relative positions of term and definition lines:
1 Place the cursor within or highlight the Term or Definition you want to change.
2 ➙
Term Definition Format List
Choose or from the menu.
■ If you placed the insertion cursor within a line or at the beginning of a line, all
the text to the right of the cursor moves down one line and changes to a Term
or Definition (depending on which you choose). There is still a line for the term
or definition where your cursor started, even if your cursor was at the beginning
of the line.
Placing the cursor in a line and pressing the Enter (or Return) key has the same
effect as placing the cursor in a line and selecting the opposite line type from
➙
the Format List
menu.
Put your cursor here 6
and choose C
➙ ➙
Format List Definition
(or press Enter). r
eat
ing
➙ ➙ Te
Format List Term
■ You can choose when the cursor is in a Term line to create
➙ ➙ xt and
Format List Definition
two Terms in a row. Likewise, you can choose when
the cursor is in a Definition line to create two Definitions in a row.
Put your cursor here
and choose List
➙ ➙
Format List Term.
s
■ If you highlight the entire term or definition line, that line slides left or right to
become a Term or Definition (depending on which you choose) without
moving down a line or affecting any other lines.
Highlight a Term and choose
➙ ➙
Format List Definition.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 79
Creating Text and Lists
Lists
Nested Lists
At any point in a list you can create a sub-list, which is indented from the current item.
Bulleted list
Numbered list
Bulleted list
Definition list
Numbered list
Bulleted list
There is no limit to the number of nested list layers and the kinds of primary and nested
lists that can be mixed. Nested lists can carry markers that are different from the
primary lists that contain them. These markers may not look the same to all browsers.
As with all Lists, the nested sub-list is itself a distinct list that adheres to basic list rules.
See the list rules above to understand how nested lists work.
➙To nest an existing list item(s):
1 Select the item(s) you want to nest.
2 ➙
Format List
Choose the list structure you want to use from the menu.
3 Continue the nested list by pressing Enter (or Return) at the end of the nested list.
There are two results, depending on how you select the item in step 1.
Placing the Placing the cursor in the item line shifts everything to its right
cursor in the to a new indented line. Everything to the left of the cursor
item line: remains in the original item position in the primary list. This
is true even if the cursor rests to the left of all text in the line.
Selecting the Selecting the entire line moves the entire item line to a nested
entire line: position and erases the original item position.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
80
Creating Text and Lists
Removing formats
➙Nest a new list with typed or pasted items:
1 Place the cursor at the end of the item line you would like to nest below.
2 ➙
Format List
Choose the desired list structure from the menu
3 Paste
Type or new items, as many as you want.
➙Show and hide list borders:
To help show the structure a nested list, you can add border lines above and below lists.
➙
■ Choose Format Show Border. The lines you see are not part of the page. They are
shown only to help you edit the page and are only shown in AOLpress. (This also
adds borders around tables with hidden borders and forms.
➙
■ Format Hide Border
To hide the borders, choose .
Removing formats 6 C
r
You can remove type styles and paragraph structures, leaving the text in a plain format. eat
➙ ing
Use Edit Undo if you want to correct a recent formatting choice.
➙Remove all type styles from a selection: Te
1 Select the characters you want to change back to plain text. xt and
2 ➙ ➙
Format Type Style Plain
Choose .
➙Change a heading into a normal paragraph: List
1 Place the cursor in the heading you want to change to plain text. s
2 ➙
Format Remove Heading Format
Choose .
➙Remove Block Quotes, Preformatted text, or Address signatures:
1 Place the cursor in the paragraph you want to affect.
2 ➙
Format Remove Paragraph Format
Choose .
➙Remove a list structure:
1 Place the cursor anywhere in the list
2 ➙
Format Remove List Format
Choose .
You cannot remove the format of more than one list level at a time.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 81
Creating Text and Lists
Learning more...
Learning more...
Help Tutorial
To practice creating text and lists in the online tutorial, choose ➙ . Scroll to
the bottom of the first page and click on the “TOC” icon. You’ll see a list of the lessons
in the tutorial. Then, click on the “Creating Text” link or the “Creating Lists” link.
Advanced HTML for text and lists
If you want to edit the HTML for your pages directly, see Chapter 12 to learn how.
Once you are comfortable adding finishing touches to your pages by editing HTML
code, you can add the following features to your text and lists:
♦ Change the font: You can specify a different font for text. For example, this code
displays text in the first font in the list found on the reader’s computer.
text
♦ Change the list bullet: You can use a different list bullet for unnumbered lists by
starting the list with any of the following tags:
♦ Change the numbered list type: You can use letters or Roman numerals for
numbered lists by starting the list with a tag like the following. The TYPE can be
1 (numbers), A (uppercase letters), a (lowercase letters), I (uppercase Roman
numerals), or i (lowercase Roman numerals).
♦ Change numbered list numbering: You can start a numbered lists at a number
other than 1 or change the number of a particular list item tags like the following:
-
♦ Prevent a paragraph from wrapping: Use the following tag to prevent browsers
from breaking a paragraph into multiple lines. This is similar to using preformatted
paragraphs, but does not use the fixed-width font.
♦ Style sheets: You can also use style-sheets to define how your text looks. For more
Help Con-
information on the style sheet features supports by AOLpress, choose ➙
tents. Follow the “New features” link and scroll to the bottom of the New Features
page. Then, follow the link to information about style sheets.
♦ Include files: You can use “server-side includes” to automatically include standard
headers and footers in your pages. See page 153 for more information.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
82
Chapter 7
7Adding Tables
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Creating and formatting tables 84
Adding or deleting table cells 85
Putting text and images into tables 86
Formatting table cells 87
Merging and splitting table cells 88
Learning more... 89
Tables (like the one below) let you align text and images into columns and rows.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 83
Adding Tables
Creating and formatting tables
AOLpress gives you control over the look of your tables.
♦ You can set and modify the number of rows and columns in your table.
♦ You can add headings and table captions to your table.
♦ You can set the width of your table’s border and the amount of space in the margins
of individual table cells.
♦ You can merge cells to create areas that span any number of rows and columns.
♦ You can align the contents of cells both horizontally and vertically.
♦ You can put almost anything inside a table cell: text, images, headings, links,
forms, horizontal rules — even other tables.
Creating and formatting tables
➙To create a table:
1 Move your cursor to the place where you want to create the table.
If the text or images you want to put in the table are already in your page, highlight
them before you create the table. When you create the table, the table cells will be
filled with the paragraphs you selected (from left to right and then from top to
bottom). Lists, forms, and other tables are not split up; the entire list, form, or table
is placed in a single cell.
2 ➙
Table Create Table
Choose the menu item. You will see the Table window.
3 Set the number of vertical columns and horizontal rows you want in your table. (It’s
easy to change these numbers later.)
4 Caption
If you want the table to have a caption, type the text for in the field. The
Above Below
caption will be centered from left to right either or the table.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
84
Adding Tables
Adding or deleting table cells
5 The fields at the bottom of the window control the borders and spacing of the table.
Table border Header cells
Spacing
Padding
■ If you want to hide the borders of the table, uncheck the Visible Borders box.
(It’s actually easier to edit a table with borders, so you’ll probably want to leave
this box checked while you are creating the table. When you are finished
editing the table, you can hide the borders if you like.)
■ The Border Size field lets you set the width (in pixels) of the outside border of
the table. If you make the Border Size 7
a larger number (for example, 10), the
table will look like it has a picture frame. Addi
■ Spacing
The field lets you set the width (in pixels) of the borders between the
individual cells in the table.
n
■ Padding g
The field lets you set the amount of blank space (in pixels) between the
text or other contents of a cell and the borders of that cell. You can think of this Ta
field as setting the margin widths of the cell. bl
6 OK e
Click when you are ready to create the table.
7 If you want to change any of these settings later, just put your cursor inside the table s
➙ ➙
Table Alter Layout
and choose the menu item.
Adding or deleting table cells
You can add or delete rows and columns using the options you see when you choose
➙
Table Alter
.
➙To add rows and columns:
1 Place your cursor in the row or column after the row or column you want to create.
➙ ➙ ➙ ➙
2 Table Alter Insert Row Table Alter Insert Column
Choose the or menu item. An
empty row or column is added before the row or column containing your cursor.
3 If you want to add rows to the bottom of your table or columns to the right edge of
➙ ➙
Table Alter Layout menu item. In the window, increase the
your table, choose the
number of rows or columns in the table.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 85
Adding Tables
Putting text and images into tables
➙To delete rows and columns:
1 Place your cursor in the row or column you want to delete.
2 ➙ ➙ ➙ ➙
Choose the Table Alter Delete Row or Table Alter Delete Column menu item.
The row or column containing your cursor will be deleted.
➙Removing a table:
■ If you want to remove a table but keep the contents of the cells, put your cursor in
➙
the table and choose the Format Remove Table Format
menu item.
■ If you want to remove an entire table and all of its contents, use your mouse to high-
light the entire table. Then, press the Backspace or Delete key.
Putting text and images into tables
You can put text, graphics, and other elements into table cells just as you would add
them elsewhere on a page. Just position your cursor and type. You can also add text
formatting, images, headings, links, forms, horizontal rules — even other tables.
If the items you want to place in a table are already in your page, highlight them before
you create the table. Then, when you create the table, table cells will be filled with the
paragraphs you selected (from left to right and then from top to bottom). Lists, forms,
and other tables are not split up; the entire list, form, or table is placed in a single cell.
You can use the arrow keys to move the cursor from the end or beginning of one cell
to another. You can start new paragraphs by pressing Enter (or Return on some
keyboards). You can force text to wrap to the next line by choosing the
➙
Element Forced Line Break
menu item.
Cells automatically expand as you add elements. Once the table is as wide as your page
window, text wraps to the next line in the cell. When your readers view this page, wide
tables are adjusted to fit in the width of their browser windows. We recommend that
you test the formatting of your tables with various page window widths. (See page 89
for advanced ways to control the width of your tables and table cells.)
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
86
Adding Tables
Formatting table cells
Formatting table cells
A special way of formatting table cells is to make them “header cells”. By default, the
text in header cells is shown in bold. You might want to change the cells in the top row
or the left column of a table into header cells.
Another way you may want to format cells is to align the contents vertically or
horizontally.
➙To create a header cell:
1 Place the cursor in the cell that you want to be a header cell.
2 ➙
Choose the Table Header Cell menu item. The cell becomes a header cell, the text
changes to bold, and the text is centered vertically and horizontally in the cell.
3 ➙
Table Normal
If you want to change a header cell back to a normal cell, choose the
Cell menu item.
➙To align the table itself: 7 Addi
■ If you want to center the entire table on the page, put your cursor in the table and
➙
Table Center Table
choose the menu item. n
■ To align a centered table to the left of the page, put your cursor in the table and g
➙ Ta
Table Uncenter Table
choose the menu item.
bl
e
➙To align the contents of cells: s
■ To change the vertical (top-to-bottom) alignment of the contents of a cell, place
➙
Table V Align Cell
your cursor in the cell and choose the menu item. You can
choose to align the contents to the Top Middle Bottom Baseline
, , , or of the cell.
➙
■ Table V Align Row
You can choose the menu item to vertically align the contents
of all the cells in a table row. (If you align the contents of a cell, that setting over-
rides the alignment of the row.)
■ To change the horizontal (left-to-right) alignment of a cell, highlight the text you
➙
want to align and choose the Format Paragraph menu item. You can choose Align
Left Align Right Align Center Align Flush Align Default
, , , , or to align the paragraphs.
(“Align Flush” aligns both the left and right edges of the text. “Align Default”
removes any previous paragraph alignment.) If you highlight the entire table, you
can change the alignment of all the cells in the table.
➙
■ Element Get
To align an image with text, highlight the image and choose the
Attribute Alignment Top
menu item. In the Image window, choose an option— ,
Middle Bottom, Left, Right
, or —to align the image with the adjoining text.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 87
Adding Tables
Merging and splitting table cells
Merging and splitting table cells
You can merge table cells to create areas that span rows and
columns. For example, you could create a table like this one:
➙To merge table cells:
1 Move your cursor to the upper-left cell in the set of cells
you want to merge.
■ Merging cells deletes the contents of all the cells you merge, except the
contents of the upper-left cell. To keep the contents of the other cells, cut and
paste them into the upper-left cell of the area before you merge cells.
2 ➙
Table Merge Cell
Choose the menu item. You will see the Merge Cell window.
3 Columns Rows OK
Type the number of and the cell should span, and click to merge
the cells. For example,
If you place the cursor in ... the result will be
the upper-left cell of this a table that looks
table and merge that cell to like this:
span 2 columns and 2 rows ...
4 ➙
Table Split Cell
If you want to unmerge cells, choose the menu item. The merged
area will be split into the number of columns and rows that were merged. (You
cannot split cells unless they have already been merged.)
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
88
Adding Tables
Learning more...
Learning more...
Help Tutorial
To practice creating tables in the online tutorial, choose ➙ . Scroll to the
bottom of the first page and click on the “TOC” icon. You’ll see a list of the lessons in
the tutorial. Then, click on the “Creating Tables” link.
Advanced HTML for tables
If you want to edit the HTML for your pages directly, see Chapter 12 to learn how.
Once you are comfortable adding finishing touches to your pages by editing HTML
code, you can add the following features to your tables:
♦ Columns of text: If you see a page with text narrower than the full width of the
page window, the empty space may be an extra column in a table with no borders.
To force an empty column to have the correct width, you can use a transparent
Width
image with its set to the width you want the column to have.
♦ Column widths: Another way to specify a width for a column is to set the WIDTH
attribute for a cell’s
tag. You can specify a width in pixels or a percentage 7 Addi
of the entire window width. For example, this code makes the first cell in the row
150 pixels wide and the second cell 500 pixels wide:
n
g
cell 1 contents | Ta
cell 2 contents |
bl
e
Some common browsers don’t always use table cell widths (especially if the s
browser window is narrow), so it’s best to also insert an image (such as a trans-
parent GIF image) into the column and set its width to the minimum width you
want the column to have.
♦ Table widths: You can also use the WIDTH attribute to specify the width of the
entire table. For example, this code makes the table half as wide as the window.
The first cell is one quarter of the width of the table (1/8 the width of the window).
cell 1 contents |
cell 2 contents |
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 89
Adding Tables
Learning more...
♦ Table colors: You can control the background color of tables cells. For readers
using Internet Explorer, you can also control the table and cell border colors. For
example, this code makes the first cell background yellow and the second cell
background gray in most browsers. With Internet Explorer, the highlighted part of
the second cell’s border is also yellow and the shadowed part of the border is red.
cell 1 contents |
cell
2 contents |
You can set the BORDER, BORDERCOLOR, BORDERCOLORLIGHT, and BORDERCOL-
ORDARK |
attributes in the , , , and tags.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
90
Chapter 8
8Adding Images
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Quick start 92
Finding and creating images 92
Inserting images 94
Positioning images 97
Horizontal rules 99
Using built-in hit counters 99
Rating your page content 100
Setting colors and background images 102
Learning more... 104
Images give the Web its lively look and exploit the capabilities of electronic media.
Though many pages use hypertext effectively without them, pictures can make
information clearer and the page more appealing. This section covers inserting,
positioning, and sizing images and changing the colors used by a page.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 91
Adding Images
Quick start
Quick start
Here is a quick summary of commands you can use with images:
Insert Images In-line
Element Image
Insert an image ➙
Copy Paste
Copy image from page to page and or drag-and-drop
Help Online Resources
View clip art library ➙ and follow link to
“Create your Web” and then to “Clip Art”
Replace and Modify Images
Element Get Attribute Image
Replace in-line image ➙ , then window
Element Get Attribute Image
Change alignment with text ➙ , then window
Cut Paste
Re-position image and or drag-and-drop
Copy Paste
Copy image and or drag-and-drop
Tools Cut
Delete image Delete/Backspace, or ➙
Format Page Attributes
Change page colors ➙
Finding and creating images
You cannot create images with AOLpress. Instead, you create images with other
software programs and add them to your Web pages with AOLpress. There are many
software programs you can use to create and modify images. (Search the Web for
“shareware” to find Web sites that provide inexpensive or free software.)
Clip art gallery
AOLpress also provides “clip art” you can use in your pages at
http://www.aolpress.com/gallery/index.html
. And, the PrimeHost hosting service
Help Online Resources
provides links to other clip art collections if you choose ➙ and
follow the links.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
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Adding Images
Finding and creating images
Image formats
AOLpress and the common Web browsers support several image formats:
GIF Graphical Interchange Format. File names normally have .gif suffix.
Can use up to 256 colors. Compresses files without loss of information.
Compression is best for images with areas of a single color.
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group. File names normally have
.jpg
or
.jpeg suffix. Can use many colors. Best for photographic or painted
images. You can specify amount of file compression. Some of the
information is lost during compression.
XBM X bitmap format. Files normally have .xbm
suffix. Uses only 2 colors.
There are several types of GIF files:
♦ “Interlaced” GIF images use a window-shade effect — you see a low-resolution
image quickly and the details are filled in as the rest of the image is loaded. JPEG
files can also have this effect if you save them as a “progressive JPEG.” 8
♦ “Transparent” GIF files have one color that is designated as the background color. Adding
In most browsers, the background color or background image of the page shows
through in areas of the image with this color. Transparent images are used when
you want an image that doesn’t have a rectangular border.
♦ “Animated” GIF files contain a series of images that get shown to create move- Images
ment. You can insert an animated GIF in AOLpress, but you will only see the first
frame of the animation. However, the GIF will be animated when you view your
pages with browsers that support animated GIFs.
Most images are shown “in-line” — the image is shown as a part of the page itself. A
common technique for displaying large images is to create a small version of the image
called a “thumbnail”. Make the thumbnail an in-line image and link the thumbnail to
either a page containing the full-size image or to the full-size image itself.
If a browser cannot display a particular image type, the images are represented by an
“undisplayed image” icon (or text) on the page. Double-clicking on the undisplayed
image icon can spawn an external viewer to display the image. On Windows and
Macintosh, for example, you can use Microsoft Imager or Paintbrush as an external
viewer. To set the viewers for specific types of images, see page 199.
AOLpress has two settings for image viewing. The default setting allows you to view
transparent GIFs, progressive JPEGs, and ART files (used in AOL). If you notice that
AOLpress crashes when loading images, choose
Tools Preferences General
➙ ➙ and
change the Image Display Method to Photoshop4 JPEG.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 93
Adding Images
Inserting images
Inserting images
There are several ways to insert an image into a page:
Element Image
♦ Choosing the ➙ menu item or toolbar button.
♦ Copy Paste
Using and or drag-and-drop from another page. You will see the
Options window, which is described on page 57.
♦ Using the right mouse button to drag an icon for an image from a MiniWeb to a
page. The image is added to the page. (If you use the left mouse button to drag the
image instead, your page is replaced by a blank page containing the image. You
must save this page before you can edit it.)
➙To insert an image:
1 Position your cursor where you want the image to be.
2 Element Image
Choose ➙ to open the Image window:
Type file location Toggle relative
or browse for file or absolute link
Align image Check to import
with text file into folder
Type text for
browsers that
don’t show Type image size
images or leave blank to
Check if linked set automatically
images should
have a border
3 Enter the Location of the image. Either:
Location
■ Type an URL or the local file name in the field; or
Browse
■ Click the “ ” button to browse for the file on your local disks or your Web
directory. (For details on using such file selection windows, see page 58.) Click
the OK
button when you have selected the file you want.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
94
Adding Images
Inserting images
URL or file
to import
List of files in
the selected Directories
folder in the selected
drive or folder
Click here to
select a file Select a drive
type or site from
this list
4 Rel 8
You can click the button to change the reference to the image to a relative URL.
Abs Adding
If the reference is already a relative reference, you can click the button to
change the reference to an absolute reference. See page 106 for an explanation of
relative and absolute references.
5 Check the Import Image box if you want to copy the image file to the folder that
contains the page. If you do not check this box, the image file stays where it is and Images
the page references the image in the location where it already exists.
■ This box is dimmed if the image is already stored in the page’s folder. You
don’t need to copy it since it is already there.
■ You cannot uncheck this box if the image is stored on your computer’s disk and
the page is on a Web server. The image will be copied from your local disk to
the server automatically because people accessing your page on the server
cannot see image files on your computer’s disk.
6 Alignment Top Middle Bottom, Left, Right
Choose an option— , , or —to choose how
the image is aligned with adjoining text. Text aligns with images as shown below.
Top Middle Bottom Left Right
➙
Format Paragraph
You can horizontally align the text next to an image with .
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 95
Adding Images
Inserting images
7 Width Height
If you leave the and fields blank, AOLpress will figure out the size of
the image and use that size. If you want to make the image appear bigger or smaller,
you can type the size you want to use in these fields. You can also change the size
of the image later.
8 In the Description field, type the text you want to appear instead of the image for
readers using browsers that do not display graphics.
9 Show Link Border
Uncheck the box if this image is going to be linked to some loca-
tion and you don’t want a rectangular border shown around the image.
10 OK
Click , and the image appears where your cursor was positioned.
Copying images from another page
You can copy images from one page to another. If the image is not already stored in
the same folder as the page, AOLpress automatically copies the image to the folder that
contains the page.
➙To copy an image from one page to another, either:
■ Copy Paste Edit
and . Choose from the menu or use edit buttons in the toolbar or
their keyboard equivalents. You will see the Options window, which is described
on page 57.
■ Drag-and-drop.
Deleting images
➙To delete an image, either:
■ Position the cursor just after an image and press the Delete or Backspace key.
■ Select the image and
Cut
■ Click in the toolbar;
■ Press the Delete key; or
➙
File Delete
■ Choose . (For details on such file selection windows, see page 58.)
Deleting an image from a page does not delete the actual image file. In addition,
deleting a page file does not delete image files associated with it. If you want
to delete files that are associated with another file, delete them separately using
➙
File Delete
or by selecting and deleting the file icon in the MiniWeb view.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
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Adding Images
Positioning images
Positioning images
Once images are in a page, you can replace them, realign text to them, reposition them,
or delete them.
➙Replace an image:
1 Select an image by double-clicking on it or dragging across it. It is OK to select
both an image and some of the associated text.
2 ➙
Element Get Attribute
Choose to open the Image window.
3 Location Browse
Type a new file name in the field or click “ ” to find the new image.
4 Put a check mark in the Import Image box if you want to copy the image to the folder
you are working in.
5 OK
Click .
➙Change alignment of an image: 8 Adding
1 Select an image by double-clicking on it or dragging across it. It is OK to select
both an image and some of the associated text.
2 ➙
Element Get Attribute
Choose to open the Image window.
3 Alignment Images
Change the setting to adjust the way the image aligns with adjoining text.
4 OK
Click .
➙To reposition an image, either:
■ Cut Paste Edit
and . You can use the commands in the menu, the buttons in the
toolbar, or the keyboard equivalents.
■ Drag-and-drop.
■ Change the vertical position by placing the cursor above the image and adding or
deleting lines to move the image.
■ Press Shift-Enter (or Shift-Return) to move an image down a single line. This adds
a forced line break
➙Indent the image:
1 ➙ ➙
Format Paragraph Preformatted
Use to preformat the image’s paragraph. This
changes the font of the text in the paragraph as well.
2 Put the cursor to the left of the image and press the spacebar to indent the image.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 97
Adding Images
Positioning images
Resizing images
Most browsers can display images at different sizes than the actual size of the image
in its file. When you import an image, the actual width and height of the image (in
pixels) are specified in the page. You can change these values by resizing the image.
➙To resize an image:
1 Double-click on the image you want to resize. You will see a dotted line around the
image with drag arrows on the right and bottom edges.
2 Drag an arrow to change the image to the size you want.
Drag left or right
Drag in any direction
Drag up or down
3 ➙
Element Get Attribute
Or, you can highlight the image and choose to open the
Width Height
Image window. Then, remove the numbers from the and fields if you
want AOLpress to reset the image to its original size. If you want to make the image
bigger or smaller, you can type the size you want (in pixels) in these fields.
Linking images and image maps
You can create a link from an image to any other page. See page 108 for details.
Image Maps are a special kind of link, based on an image. An image is divided, or
mapped, into regions. Each region functions as a separate link. A single image, like a
diagram of a truck, can be clicked in different places to link to information about that
part of the image. Clicking on the truck’s hood could link to an engine specification
page, or clicking on a wheel could link to a tire wear comparison. Image maps work
well for geographic maps, diagrams, or large images that function as indexes to more
information. For details about creating Image Maps, see page 111.
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Adding Images
Horizontal rules
Horizontal rules
You can create horizontal rules, which span the full width of the page, to divide areas
of the page. You don’t need to create an image to add a simple horizontal rule.
➙Insert a Horizontal Rule:
1 Position the cursor where you want the rule to start.
2 ➙
Element Horizontal
Choose Rule.
➙Reposition or duplicate a Horizontal Rule. Either:
■ Use the basic editing conventions—select, cut, copy, paste, and drag-and-drop.
■ Cut Copy Paste
Use the , , and buttons in the toolbar.
Using built-in hit counters 8 Adding
If you are a PrimeHost hosting service customer or an AOL member, you can use a
built-in counter image program to show how many times a page has been visited. For
example:
Images
➙To find out how to add a counter to your page:
■ If you are a PrimeHost hosting service member, see the PrimeHost Getting Started
Guide (at http://www.primehost.com/members/create/tutorial/index.htm
) and the
PrimeHost FAQ (at http://www.primehost.com/faq/faq.htm).
■ If you are an AOL member, see that Web Administrator’s page
(http://members.aol.com/wwwadmin/index.htm).
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 99
Adding Images
Rating your page content
Rating your page content
If your pages contain text, images, or other content that might be offensive to children
(or to their parents or teachers), you should add a rating to your pages. The rating you
add is supported by several browsers to allow parents and teachers to control the level
of potentially offensive material children can access. By rating your pages honestly
and encouraging others to do so, you can help reduce the call for government-
sponsored censorship of the World Wide Web.
AOLpress supports the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) standard. You
can type a label for any PICS implementation. Two popular implementations of the
PICS standard are RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council on the Internet)
and SafeSurf.
Note that AOLpress doesn’t provide an interface to control whether pages with certain
ratings can be accessed. Instead, you’ll need another browsers that supports content
blocking based on ratings.
➙To rate your page with RSACi:
RSACi is supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0.
1 Go to the RSAC Web site at http://www.rsac.org/ and fill out the questionnaire to
rate a page, a directory, or your entire site. You will be given a rating that reflects
your answers to the questionnaire. Your rating will look similar to this:
2 Highlight and copy the part of the rating shown in bold above. (That is, copy all the
content=” argu-
text between the quote marks at the beginning and end of the “
ment in this HTML tag.)
3 ➙
Format Page Attributes
Choose the menu item
4 PICS Label
Paste the text you copied into the field in the Page Attributes window.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
100
Adding Images
Rating your page content
➙To rate your page with SafeSurf:
AOLpress lets you select SafeSurf ratings rather than typing the label by hand.
1 ➙
Format Page Attributes
Choose the menu item. You will see the following
window.
Page rating
2 8 Adding
Safe Surf
Click the button. You
will see a window like this:
3 Add a rating by selecting
different levels for any set of Images
categories. Initially, all cate-
gories are unrated.
For example, the levels for
“Nudity” are: subtle innuendo,
explicit innuendo, technical
reference, non-graphic-
artistic, graphic-artistic,
graphic, detailed graphic,
explicit vulgarity, and explicit
and crude.
4 After you rate your page in all
OK
categories that apply, click . The SafeSurf rating for the levels you selected will
appear in the PICS Label field.
For example, if your page contains non-graphic-artistic nudity, the rating label will
look similar to this:
(PICS-1.0 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/"
. You can cut and paste this
l on "1996.05.14T15:36+0800 r (SS~~004 4)
label to the Page Attributes window for your other pages if you like. It is important
to rate all your pages that can be found by searching the Web.
5 OK
Click in the Page Attributes window when you have finished rating your page.
For information on the other fields in this window, see page 102 and page 117.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 101
Adding Images
Setting colors and background images
Setting colors and background images
The section on page 72 showed how to change the color of text in your page. In
addition, you can change the color of all the text, the linked text, or the background
color of a page. You can also use an image file for the background of a page.
Format Page Attributes
You use ➙ to set colors and select a background image.
Any browser that allows background color changes will display the colors you set.
➙To set background and text colors for the whole page:
1 Format Page Attributes
Choose ➙ . You will see the following window. This window
allows you to select colors for the page background, the normal text, text with an
unused link, and text with a link that you have already followed.
2 Pick
Click next to the item for which you want to choose a color. You will see the
standard Color window.
3 Select a color from this window. You may want to choose a standard color so that
the background will not be dithered on screens that can only display 256 colors.
Another way to set a color is to type the RGB value for the color you want (in hexa-
decimal numbers) into the field directly. The first two characters are the red value,
the next two green, and the final two blue. Therefore #ff0000 is red, #00ff00 is
green, #0000ff is blue, #ffff00 is yellow, #000000 is black, and #ffffff is white.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
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Adding Images
Setting colors and background images
4 OK
Click in the Color window.
5 OK
In the Page Attributes window, you can set another color or click to see the
effects of your changes.
For information on the other fields in this window, see page 100 and page 117.
If you set any color, we recommend that you set all four colors to prevent conflicts with
settings your readers may have. For example, if you set a light background color and
use the default text colors, a reader with a default background of black and light text
may not be able to read your page because the text may appear light on a light
background. The default colors are:
Background Gray: #c0c0c0
Text Black: #000000
Link Blue: #0000ff
Visited Link Deep Purple: #400080
➙To select a background image: 8 Adding
➙
1 Format Page Attributes
Choose the menu item.
2 Location Browse
Type an URL in the field or click the button to find the new image.
If the image you select is smaller than the browser window, the image will be Images
“tiled” to fill the whole space. You should use an image with edges that match up
when the image is tiled. Tiling allows you to specify a small image that will load
quickly.
3 Rel
You can click the button to change the reference to the background image to a
Abs
relative URL. If the reference is already a relative reference, you can click the
button to change the reference to an absolute reference. See page 106 for an expla-
nation of relative and absolute references.
4 If you want to copy the background image you selected to the same folder as your
Import Image
page, check the box.
5 OK
Click to see the effects of your changes.
AOLpress displays the page’s background color or image behind transparent GIF
images. AOLpress lets you use a GIF or JPG file as a background image.
For information on the other fields in this window, see page 100 and page 117.
If you use a background image, we recommend that you also set the colors to avoid
conflicts with your readers’ settings. In most cases, the colors in your background
image should contrast strongly with the text colors you choose and the background
image should be simple enough that it doesn’t distract from the text.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 103
Adding Images
Learning more...
Learning more...
Help Tutorial
To practice working with images in the online tutorial, choose ➙ . Scroll to
the bottom of the first page and click on the “TOC” icon. You’ll see a list of the lessons
in the tutorial. Then, click on the “Adding Images” link.
Advanced HTML for images
If you want to edit the HTML for your pages directly, see Chapter 12 to learn how.
Once you are comfortable adding finishing touches to your pages by editing HTML
code, you can add the following features to your images:
♦ Space around images: You can add space around images by using the HSPACE
attribute to add space to the left and right of an image and the VSPACE attribute to
add space above and below an image. The number you provide is measured in
pixels. For example:
♦ Provide space after image: To move text following an image aligned to the left
or right down, you can use a tag like the following. You can choose to move text
down until the left, right, or both edges of the window are clear of images.
♦ Custom horizontal rules: You can change the color, thickness, and width of a
horizontal rule. For example, this code makes a red horizontal rule with no 3D
shading. The rule is 10 pixels high and half the width of the window.
♦ Background images to tables: You can add background images to tables and table
cells by using the BACKGROUND attribute in a or tag. (Visible
with Internet Explorer only.) For example:
♦ Non-scrolling background images: To prevent your background image from
scrolling when the page scrolls, add the following attribute to the page’s
tag (Internet Explorer only):
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
104
Chapter 9
9Adding Links and
Multimedia
What you’ll find
in this chapter:
Quick start 106
About links 106
Creating links 108
Image maps—multiple links from images 111
Multimedia links 115
Toolbar navigation buttons 117
Checking links 118
Java applets 121
Learning more... 126
One of HTML’s distinctive features is the hyperlink, which is a link to another
document. Hyperlinks are usually underlined and shown in a a different color than the
rest of the text. Clicking on one will take you to the page it references.
Links can be relative to the current page or absolute. You can have links to other
locations in the same page and links to specific places in other documents.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 105
Adding Links and Multimedia
Quick start
Quick start
Here is a quick summary of commands you can use with links:
Element Link
Create link Select text or position cursor. Choose ➙
Element Anchor
Create anchor Select text or position cursor. Choose ➙
Element Link
Change links and Control/Option-select link or anchor. Choose ➙ ,
Element Anchor Element Get Attribute
anchors ➙ , or ➙
Element E-mail Link
Create email link Select text or position cursor. Choose ➙
Element Unlink
Remove a link Select link. Choose ➙
About links
Relative and absolute links
A link is a cross-reference to another file or target location in a file. Other files and
anchors are the targets of links. A link can be either an absolute link or a relative link.
♦ Absolute links specify the full location of a file. You can only use absolute links
to link to a file on a different server or disk.
♦ Relative links omit part of the file specification and use the current location as the
http://www.mydomain.com/customer/index.htm is
default. (For example,
an absolute reference. Relative references to this file depend on where your current
directory is. For example,
index.htm or customer/index.htm. See page 180
for more about the syntax of relative references.)
It’s usually best to use relative links within your own Web site. Relative links allow
you to move the entire directory tree to a new location without breaking your links.
You should try to use absolute links only to references files outside your own Web.
AOLpress can automatically change references from absolute to relative references
Rel
and back for you. If you see a button in a window for creating links or setting image
attributes, the link is currently an absolute link and you can click this button to make
Abs
it a relative link. If you see an button, you can change the relative link to an
File Save As Options
absolute link. Also, when you choose the ➙ menu item, the button
provides a window that allows you to convert all relative references to absolute
Relative Links to Full URL
references by checking the box.
User’s Guide to AOLpress 2.0
106
Adding Links and Multimedia
About links
Anchors
An anchor is a target location in a page. Links can point to anchors in the same page
or another page. Anchors are often used to help readers find parts of a page. The
“anchor” marks the place you want to move to. Links point to these anchors. Anchors
don’t do anything when you click on them, they are only bookmarks to be linked to.
Target Frames
If you are using frames, your links can point to a variety of frame locations. See page
134 for details on choosing a target frame for a link.
Web addresses (URLs)
http://www.mycompany.com/ 9 Addi
The cryptic strings of characters (like ) you keep
seeing in advertisements are addresses on the Web. These addresses are called
Uniform Resource Locators or “URLs.” You can pronounce this as “you-are-els” or
“earls.” Browsers use these addresses to find Web pages and other files on the Internet. ng
You can think of an URL as being a little like a file location on your disk drive.
However, the URL also tells the location of the file on the Web and how to read the file. Links
URLs contain three types of information. (Well, if you start writing programs for the
Web, they can contain more than that. But, we won’t get into that now.)
an
http://www.mydomain.com/directory/index.htm d
Multimedia
Access method Computer location File location
♦ Access method: Most URLs you see have an access method of http, which stands
for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This is the standard protocol used to send Web
pages across the Internet. (That’s really all you need to know about it unless you
want to write programs for the Web.) If you see a Web address starting with some-
thing like “www.mycompany.com”, you need to put “http://” before that
address to read that page with AOLpress.
Other common access methods are: file, ftp, and mailto. Other access
methods—such as gopher, news, and wais— need a proxy server, which you can
Tools Preferences Network
set in the ➙ ➙ window. See page 197 for details. Read the
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/url-primer.html page if you want
to learn more about URLs for other access methods.
♦ Computer location: The next part of the URL tells which computer holds the file.
www.” plus the “domain” name you see in email addresses
The location is usually “
from this location (such as aol.com www.aolpress.com
or ). Some URLs
contains a different prefix or no prefix before the domain name. You may occasion-
ally see a number after the domain name. This is called a “port number.”
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 107
Adding Links and Multimedia
Creating links
♦ File location: The last part of the URL tells where to find the file on the computer.
The file location can contain a directory path and/or a file name. If you omit the
directory, the top-level directory on the Web server is used. If you omit the file
name, the default “home page” file name on the Web server is used. On most Web
servers, the default home page is
index.htm or index.html. For example:
Location in URL Directory File
/subdir/file.htm Use the “subdir” directory Use the “file.htm” file.
below top-level directory.
/file.htm Use the top-level directory. Use the “file.htm” file.
/subdir/ Use the “subdir” directory Use the default home page
below top-level directory. name for this Web server.
/ Use the top-level directory. Use the default home page
name for this Web server.
Creating links
➙Make a link:
1 Select the text or image you want to make into a link, either to another web site or
another page within your MiniWeb.
2 ➙
Element Link Link
Choose the menu item to bring up the window.
3 Link To Page
Type the URL in the field, for example, http://gnn.com/
4 If you want to link to some place in the middle of a page, type an anchor name in
Append Anchor Name field. You will also need to create an anchor with the same
the
Link To Page
name in the page you referenced in the field. See page 109 for details.
If the anchor you want to link to is in the same page as the link (that is, if you want
Link To Page
the link to scroll the page), you don’t need to type anything in the field.
5 Target Frame
If you are using frames, select or type the you want to display the page
you are linking to. See page 134 for details.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Creating links
6 The Link window also contains the following buttons:
Browse Allows you to browse your local files or your hosting service direc-
tory for files to choose as links. If you enter a site that you cannot
browse, you get a message “Cannot Browse Location.” (For details
on using such file selection windows, see page 58.)
Rel Abs Rel
or Click the button to change the link reference to a relative URL.
Abs
If the reference is already a relative reference, click the button
to change the reference to an absolute reference. See page 106 for
an explanation of relative and absolute references.
Cancel Close the Link window.
Bulletin If you want to store a comment about the link and the date and time 9
you created the link (in Universal Time), click this button, type
your comment, and click OK Addi
. (Bulletins can also allow you to
notify users of Smart Bookmarks when you update your pages. See
http://www.firstfloor.com for details.) You can also create a ng
➙
Bulletin for a page if you choose Format Page Attributes
.
Help Provides online help on links. Links
7 OK
Click . The text you selected in your document is now colored and underlined.
Clicking on your new link takes you to the page you chose. an
d
Creating anchors Multimedia
Anchors allow you to link to a position in a page. The anchor is not a link and cannot
be clicked on. For example, anchors can be used if you want to add a table of contents
to a long page.
➙Create an anchor within a page:
1 Select some text in your page. Or you can just position your cursor where you want
to place the anchor.
➙
2 Choose the Element Anchor menu item.
3 Type an anchor name in the field. For convenience, use an anchor name related to
Top
the text you selected. For example, you can type if you are placing an anchor
at the top of a long page so links can jump to the top of the page. If you already
created a link to this anchor, use the same anchor name you used in the link
window.
4 OK
Click .
5 Any text you selected in your page turns magenta (pink). This reminds you where
the anchors are located. Other browsers show anchors as normal text.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 109
Adding Links and Multimedia
Creating links
➙To check anchor names or remove anchors:
■ If you forget an anchor name and want to create a link to that anchor, select the
➙
Element Anchor
anchor text and choose . You will see the anchor name in a
window.
■ OK
If you erase the anchor name from this window and click , the anchor will be
removed from the page.
■ If you leave your mouse cursor motionless over a link for a second, AOLpress
shows the link location in a blue popup area. You can turn off these popups by
➙
choosing Help Hide Page Popups
. This also turns off pink HTML popups.
(Windows only)
Copying and pasting URLs
In addition to selecting text to link to, you can copy-and-paste URLs from almost any
source, including Hot Lists and web pages.
➙Copying an URL:
■ If the page you want to link to is stored in your Hot List, open your Hot List with
➙
the Browse Hot List
menu item, select the page you want to link to, and click the
Copy URL button. This copies the URL of the page so that you can paste it.
■ If you’ve already opened the page whose address you want to copy, choose
➙
the Edit Copy URL of Page Copy URL
menu item (or click the button in the
toolbar). This copies the URL of the current page so that you can paste it.
■ If the page you want to link to is listed as a link on another page, highlight that link
Edit➙Copy URL in Selection Copy URL
and choose the menu item (or click the
button in the toolbar). You can hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while you
highlight a link to prevent AOLpress from opening that page. This copies the URL
of the link so that you can paste it.
➙Pasting an URL to create a link:
■ If you want AOLpress to fill in the text for the link, position the cursor
➙
Edit Paste URL
where you want to create the link, and choose the menu
item (or click the Paste URL button in the toolbar). This creates a link to the
URL you copied. If you copied the URL of a page, AOLpress adds the title of that
page as the text for the link. If you copied the URL of a highlighted link, AOLpress
adds the URL of the page as the text, instead.
■ If you want to turn existing text into a link, highlight the text you want to link, and
➙
Edit Paste URL Paste
choose the menu item (or click the button in the toolbar).
This makes the highlighted text a link to the URL you copied.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Image maps—multiple links from images
Changing links
➙Modify an existing link:
1 CTRL+select an existing link, or, if the link is one word, CTRL+double-click on
the link. You don't have to select the exact boundaries of an existing link;
AOLpress will automatically retain the boundaries the link had before.
2 ➙ ➙
Element Get Attribute Element Link
Choose the menu or .
You can now make any changes to your link just as you would if you were creating a
new link from plain text.
➙Remove a link: 9 Addi
1 CTRL+select an existing link, or, if the link is one word, CTRL+double-click on
the link.
2 ➙ ng
Element Unlink
Choose the menu .
The selected text now appears in the state it was before it was a link. Links
Image maps—multiple links from images
an
Image maps let you send readers to different places depending on where they click on d
an image. For example, you can create an image map with symbols for parts of your Multimedia
business (support, sales, products) or parts of your Web site. When a reader clicks on
a symbol in the image, the browser moves to the page for that subject.
For example, this image map from America Online’s home page contains buttons that
link to different pages.
Server-side and client-side image maps
AOLpress can create both server-side image maps and client-side image maps:
♦ Server-side image maps: When a reader clicks on a map image, the browser sends
the coordinates of the click to the server, which runs a program to process the coor-
dinates and decide which “hot spot” the mouse clicked on. The server then returns
the page for that location in the map.
♦ Client-side image maps: Information about the map’s links is stored as part of the
page. When a reader clicks on the map image, the browser decides which “hot
spot” the mouse clicked on and asks the server for the correct page. This provides
several advantages:
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 111
Adding Links and Multimedia
Image maps—multiple links from images
• Following client-side image map links is faster because less communication
with the server is needed.
• Pages that use client-side image maps are portable to any server. (The syntax for
server-side image map files varies depending on the type of server, so server-
side image maps are not portable. For information on using AOLpress’ server-
side image maps on a different type of server, see the image map information in
the AOLpress FAQ at http://www.primehost.com/faq.)
• Most browsers that support client-side image maps show the link destination in
the status bar as you move your cursor over the image. AOLpress also highlights
linked areas as you move your cursor over the map.
However, the disadvantage to using only client-side image maps is that some browsers
don’t yet support them. Therefore, it is best to create both types of maps for the same
image. Browsers that support client-side image maps use the map stored in your page,
and browsers that don’t support them will contact the server to interpret the map.
Creating image maps
AOLpress makes it quick and easy to create both types of maps for an image. First
create the image and include it in your page. Then you define the links in the image. If
you are unfamiliar with how to import and use images in documents, see page 94.
➙Creating an image map:
1 Select an image in your page that you want to turn into an image map.
2 ➙
Element Image Map
Choose the menu item to see the Image Map window. You can
resize the Image Map window to see more of your image.
Draw hot spot
locations on
the image.
Type location
for the selected
shape
3 Select a shape tool (for example, the circle tool) and draw a shape on your image.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Image maps—multiple links from images
4 In the Location field, type the link you want this shape to use. The link can be any
mypage.htm
link you could normally use for linked text or images. For example, ,
Browse
http://gnn.com/, or mailto:myaddress@me.com. You can click the
button to search for a page you want to link to. See page 106 for details on links.
Location
If you type in the field when no shape is selected, you will be asked if you
want to create a default rectangle. The “default rectangle” specifies a link to follow
when someone clicks on the image but not inside any other shapes you have drawn.
5 If you want to link to some place in the middle of a page, type an anchor name in
Append Anchor Name field. You will also need to create an anchor with the same
the
Location
name in the page you referenced in the field. See page 109 for details. If
the anchor you want to link to is in the same page as the link (that is, if you want
the link to scroll the page), you don’t need to type anything in the Location field.
6 Target Frame 9
If you are using frames, select or type the you want to display the page
you are linking to. See page 134 for details. Addi
7 Press Enter (or Return). Then, select the arrow tool from the tool bar.
8 Move your cursor around the image. When your mouse moves over a shape, ng
you will see a label that shows the location of the link. Where two shapes
overlap, you see the location for the shape that is on top. You can use the Links
“Ordering” tool in the toolbar to change which shape is on top.
The toolbar to the left of the Image Map window lets you create and manipulate the
shapes of areas that will be links. an
Arrow: Use this tool to select an existing shape so that you can set a location, d
move, resize, delete, or change the stacking order of the shape. Multimedia
Rectangle: Use this tool to create rectangular areas in your map. Then, type a
location for that area. If you want to set a default location for all the parts of the
image that don’t have shapes, draw a rectangle around the entire image. Set the
default location for this shape. Then, select the shape and use the “Ordering” tool to
move this shape to the back.
Circle: Use this tool to create circular areas in your map. Then, type a location
for that area.
Polygon: Use this tool to create multi-sided shapes in your map. Then, type a
location for that area.
Delete Shape: Click this button to delete the currently selected shape.
Delete All Shapes: Click this button to delete all the shapes in the map.
Magnify: Click this button to zoom in and make the image appear larger.
Reduce: Click this button to zoom out and make the image appear smaller.
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Image maps—multiple links from images
Ordering: Select a shape, then click this tool to select from a menu that lets you
Bring to front Bring forward Send backward Send to
, (one layer), (one layer), or
back. If two shapes overlap, the link for the shape in front is used.
Save: Use this button to save your
changes. You will see a window that
looks like the one to the right. By default,
AOLpress creates both a server-side map file
for use on the AOLserver (with an extension
of .nvm) and client-side map information,
which it stores in your page with the name
you specify. You can uncheck one of the
fields if you don’t want to create both types of map files. See page 111 for details about
server-side and client-side image maps.
Close: Click this button to close the Image Map window. You will be prompted
to save any changes you have made.
Help: Click this button for online help on making image maps.
You can see the .nvm file you create for server-side image maps in the
MiniWeb view. If you delete an image map from a page (by highlighting it and
pressing the Delete key), the image and image map files are not deleted. To delete the
File Delete
files, you can use ➙ or select and delete the files’ icons in the MiniWeb view.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Multimedia links
Multimedia links
You can also use AOLpress to create links to email addresses, AOL keywords, and
sound and video files.
Email links
If you want people who visit your pages to be able to send you email by clicking on a
link, you can create an email link.
➙Creating an email link:
1 Select the text you want to link. For example, you might select your email address
or text that says “Send me email.” If you don’t select anything first, the e-mail 9 Addi
address will automatically be added to the page and linked.
2 ➙
Element E-mail Link E-mail Link
Choose the menu item to bring up the window.
3 In the Link field, type yourname@youraddress.com ng
4 OK Links
Click . When your readers click on this link, most browsers will let them send
email to the address you typed.
5 (If you test an email link with AOLpress, the return email address will be
“someone@somewhere.com” if AOLpress doesn’t yet know your email address. an
➙ ➙ d
Tools Preferences Network
Choose the menu item to open a window where you
can set your return email address.) Multimedia
Links to AOL keywords
You can also create links to AOL keywords. However, you cannot follow these links
with AOLpress. In fact, the only people who can follow these links are people who are
accessing the Web with AOL’s Web browser.
➙Creating a link to AOL:
1 Find the keyword for the AOL location you want to link to.
2 ➙
Choose the Element Link menu item.
3 keyword Link To Page keyword
Type aol://1722: in the field, where is the
keyword for the AOL window you want to link to. For example,
aol://1722:WEBMASTER links to the Web Developers Resource Center. (Even if
the AOL keyword contains spaces, don’t include any spaces in the keyword you
use in the link.)
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Multimedia links
Links to sound and video
One of the great things about the Web is that your pages can contain links to all kinds
of things. In addition to other pages, you can link to sounds, video, and more. If your
readers will need a special application to view your files, you can also provide a link
that lets them download the application.
This guide assumes you already have audio or video files if you plan on incorporating
them into your web document. It does not explain how to create these types of files.
Links to audio or video files are just like links to other pages. However, an external
viewer (for video) or player (for audio) is required to use these types of links. See page
199 for details.
➙Insert an audio or video link:
1 Select the text or image you would like to be linked to your audio or video file.
2 ➙
Element Link
Choose the menu .
3 Browse
In the Link window, click the button.
4 List Files of Type
In the field, choose “Sound” or “Video”. For example, a common
type of sound file is a “.WAV” file.
5 Select the file you want to link to and click OK.
6 OK
Finally, click in the Link window.
The text is now linked to the file you chose. If you click on this link and you have an
external viewer or player configured for this file type you will see or hear the file.
See page 126 for ways to add “background” sounds to pages.
Links to files to download
If you want people to be able to download files from your Web site, you can make a
link to any kind of file from a Web page. Of course, people will need to have the right
software to use the file. If that software is free, you might want to include a link to a
page where they can download the software.
To copy other types of files to your Web site, you can make them part of a MiniWeb
that you publish as described in the section on page 182. Or you can choose the
➙
File Copy File menu item and copy individual files.
If you are using an uncommon file type, you may need to ask your system
administrator to update your Web server’s list of MIME types to include this file type.
MIME types are sent to Web browsers to tell the software the file type. Using this
infomation, the Web browser can choose which application to open to read the file.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Toolbar navigation buttons
Toolbar navigation buttons
You can add toolbar icons like the ones to the right to the toolbar
above a page. Such buttons can link to pages like your “Home”
and “Next” pages. Many browsers do not display these
additional toolbar icons, but for browsers that do display them, you can make
navigation much easier.
➙Adding toolbar navigation buttons:
1 ➙
Format Page Attributes
Choose the menu item. These fields at the bottom of the
Page Attributes window allow you to add toolbar icons.
9 Addi
ng
2 Link Type Links
In the field, select the type of toolbar icon you want to add. You can add
the following types of icons:
Link to the home page Link to the “next” page in a an
series of related pages
d
Link to the table of contents Link to the “previous” page Multimedia
in a series of related pages
Link to the index Link to help information for
this site
Link to the glossary Link to a bookmark you
want to provide
Link to the copyright Link to the “first” page in a
information series of related pages
Link to the next “higher” Link to the “last” page in a
level in a hierarchy of pages series of related pages
3 Link To
In the field, type the location of the page you want this icon to link to. You
Browse
can click the button to search for the file you want. You can change the link
Abs Rel
from absolute to relative and back with the / button.
4 If you want to change the text shown when the mouse cursor hovers over this icon,
Button Help field. For example, if you create a bookmark icon,
type your text in the
you should provide information about what type of page the bookmark links to.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 117
Adding Links and Multimedia
Checking links
5 OK
Click to see the effects of your changes. For details on other fields in this
window, see page 100 and page 102.
Checking links
You use this AOLpress function to make your web information as accurate as possible.
Check Links gives you the ability to select a page and check most of the links it
contains. AOLpress finds links that are not working, for whatever reason. You can then
edit your document and links as needed. Without Check Links, you would have to click
on each link in the document to verify it.
➙To check the links in any Web page:
1 Open any Web page, either in your local folder or on a Web server.
➙
2 Choose menu Tools Check Links to see the Check Links window.
3 Watch the window.
AOLpress scans links in the page and verifies that they work. A message in the
window shows AOLpress’ activity. If it finds a bad link, the status message changes to
indicate the problem. If no bad links are found you get “no bad links found” message.
If you get a “Could not find “http://....” message, you can edit the link.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Checking links
Changing a broken link
➙Edit the URL:
1 Link to Page
Edit the URL as necessary in the field.
2 Change
Select the button. This corrects the link and starts checking the next link.
Adding an anchor name
➙Add an anchor to the URL:
1 Append Anchor Name
Type in an anchor name in the field.
2 Change 9
Select the button.
This changes the link, adds the anchor, and moves on to check the next link. Addi
Closing the Check Links window ng
While the Check Links window is open, your page is locked. You cannot browse any Links
links until you close the Check Links window. If you try, you get a “This page is
temporarily locked...” message at the bottom of your Page window. You can use
➙
File Open to load pages though. an
➙Close the Check Links window: d
■ Done Multimedia
Click the button.
■ You can also cancel the link checking while it is in progress by clicking this button.
Stopping link checking
➙Abort the link checking:
■ Stop
Click the button.
This gives you an “aborted ‘http://....[name of link currently being checked]’” message
and allows you to change the link.
Checking the next link
➙Continue link checking:
■ Next
Click .
Use after interruption, or if you wish to leave in a link that is currently unavailable.
Do-It-Yourself Publishing for the Web 119
Adding Links and Multimedia
Checking links
Browsing to choose links
If you want to change the URL of a link, you may want to browse your local files or
your PrimeHost hosting service directory.
➙Browse files or a server:
1 Browse
Click the button.
2 Drives / Sites
Click on the down-arrow to the right of the field to choose a drive or
server to browse.
3 Files Directory
Use the and lists to browse files and directories once you have
chosen a drive or server.
If you enter a site you cannot browse, you see a “Cannot Browse Location” message.
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Java applets
Java applets
Java is a programming language you can use to create “applets” (small applications)
that run inside a Web browser. Applets are programs that run on the computer you are
using to browse the Web. In contrast, most other programs you use on the Web run on
the “server” computer (the one that stores the Web pages).
You may have heard of both “Java” and “JavaScript”. They are actually two different
programming languages:
♦ Java is an object-oriented language created by Sun Microsystems. It was designed
for creating applications that can be downloaded from the Internet and run on many
platforms. For example, you can create applets that put animation in your page, that
calculate some value, that display different graphics, AOLpress lets you create Java
applets and add them to your pages. However, AOLpress currently can’t run or 9 Addi
display Java applets.
♦ JavaScript is an object-based language created by Netscape to let programmers
control the browser’s behavior. For example, you can use JavaScript to open ng
windows, to display specific Web pages, and to validate field values. JavaScript is
more limited than Java (and a bit easier to learn). AOLpress currently does not run Links
JavaScript, but JavaScript code already included in your pages is not erased.
You can use AOLpress to add Java applets to your pages. These applets may have been
written by you or by someone else. If you want to learn how to write Java applets, see an
http://java.sun.com/. d
Most browsers (including AOLpress) currently can’t run or display Java Multimedia
applets. By default, AOLpress shows a box with an “X” in it where Java
applets occur. You can hide these “X”s to see the same thing as people
with other browsers that don’t support Java. To do this, uncheck the “Show Java
Windows” box in the Tools Preferences General
➙ ➙ window and restart AOLpress.
There are at least three types of files an applet can use:
♦ Class file: This is an applet file that gets downloaded over the Web and run in a
Java-enabled browser. It is a compiled version of the Java file. (Note that one
applet can have multiple class files.) The file extension is normally .class on
UNIX and Mac OS, and .cla
on Windows.
♦ Java source file: This is the source code for the applet. You compile the Java
source file using software from Sun Microsystems to create class files. The file
extension is normally .java .jav
on UNIX and Mac OS, and on Windows.
♦ Parameter file: This is a file that contains a list of the parameters used by the Java
applet. You can also specify the valid and default values for each parameter in this
file. If this file does not exist, AOLpress scans the Java source file to find parame-
ters. The file extension is
.param on UNIX and Mac OS, and .par on Windows.
See page 123 for details.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Java applets
Inserting Java applets
There are several ways to insert a Java applet into a page:
Element Java Applet
♦ Choose ➙ to open the Applet window and select an applet.
♦ Copy Paste
and or drag-and-drop a class file from a MiniWeb to a page. The applet
is added to the page and the Applet window opens automatically along with a list
of parameters if one is available.
♦ Copy Paste
and or drag-and-drop the applet from another page.
The first two methods above open the Applet window. In addition, you will see the
Element Java Applet
Applet window if you select an applet and choose ➙ .
➙Using the Applet window:
1 Position the cursor where you want the Java applet to appear.
2 Element Java Applet
Choose ➙ to open the Applet window:
3 Browse
Type the location of the applet’s class file or click the button and select a
class file. (Note that some applets are made up of multiple Class files. You need to
select the main class file for the applet in order for the applet to run correctly.)
Rel Abs
■ You can use the / button to switch between relative and absolute links to
the applet file.
Display
■ You can click the button to see the Java source file for the class file you
have selected (if they are both in the same directory).
4 Width Height
In the and fields, type the display size (in pixels) of the applet.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Java applets
5 Name
Give the applet a if applets will need to communicate with each other.
6 Select how you want to align the applet with the text that follows it. The choices
Top Middle Bottom Left Right
are the same as for images: , , , , and . See page 94 for
examples.
7 Many applets let you set parameters to control how the applet will run. For
example, an applet that runs a slide show may let you set the speed at which the
slide show will run.
If someone has created a parameter file for this applet (or if the Java source file is
in the same directory), AOLpress prompts you for parameter values when you drag
the applet from a MiniWeb to a page. See page 123 for details on creating param-
eter files.
Otherwise, you will need to enter parameters and their values by hand. For each 9
parameter: Addi
■ Parameter Text
In the area’s field, type the name of the parameter, an equal sign,
and the parameter’s value. Here are some examples:
speed=10 ng
slide1=myimage.gif Links
nextpage=page2.html
■ Type
In the field, select which type of parameter this is. If the value is the name
of an image file, select “Image”. If the value is the name of a page or some other an
type of URL, select “Link”. For all other types of parameter values (such as, d
text, numbers, and dates), select “Normal”. Multimedia
■ Add
Click the button to add the parameter to the list.
■ Change Remove
You can or parameters after you add them to the list.
8 OK
When you are finished, click to place the applet in your page.
Creating applet parameter files
You can create parameter files to make it easier for you and other AOLpress users to
include your applets in their pages.
When you drag an applet from a MiniWeb to a page, AOLpress searches the MiniWeb
for a file with the same name as the class file but with a file extension of .param. This
file can contain a list of parameters the applet accepts, valid and default values for
parameters, and formatting information for windows that prompt for parameter values.
If a .param file does not exist, AOLpress looks for a .java source file, and scans it
to find parameters.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Java applets
If AOLpress finds parameters for the applet, it displays a window with fields for each
parameter. For example, the following windows prompt for several values. You can
Next
click in the first window to see the second window.
➙Creating a parameter file:
1 ➙ ➙
File New New Page
Choose to open an empty page window.
2 ➙ ➙
Format Paragraph Preformatted.
Choose
3 Type the text of your parameter file. For example, the parameter file that allows
AOLpress to create the previous windows looks like this:
Parameters for Satellite Applet={title}
Set values for each parameter:={text}
speed=10
num_satellite=
size_satellite=
scale={atom,planet,solarsys,galaxy,megacluster} planet
label=Hello World
{next}
infolink={url}
helplink={url} satell/help.html
centerimage={imageurl} satell/jupiter.gif
satellimage={imageurl}
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Java applets
The first line in this example sets the window title for the first window. You can
use any text followed by “={title}”. The second line puts text in the window to
explain what users should do. You can use as many of these text lines as you like.
Just end each text line with “
={text} {next}
”. The line that says “ ” splits the list
Next Prev
of parameters into multiple windows that have and buttons.
The rest of the lines in this parameter file define parameter fields:
• Normal text field: To create a field in which users can type text, numbers, or
dates, just type the parameter name followed by an equal sign. If you want to
provide a default value, type that value after the equal sign. For example:
speed=10
• Radio field: To create a field in which users can select one of the values you
provide, type the parameter name, an equal sign, and the list of valid values 9 Addi
within curly braces. If you want to provide a default value, type that value after
the last curly brace. For example:
scale={atom,planet,solarsys,galaxy,megacluster} planet ng
• URL field: To create a field in which users can either type or browse for an
URL, type the parameter name followed by “ Links
={url}
”. If you want to provide a
default URL, type that value after the last curly brace. For example:
helplink={url} satell/help.html an
• Image field: To create a field in which users can either type or browse to find d
the URL of an image file, type the parameter name followed by Multimedia
“={imageurl}”. If you want to provide a default URL, type that value after the
last curly brace. For example:
centerimage={imageurl} satell/jupiter.gif
The differences between this type of field and an URL field are that the image
you select is copied to your directory unless you uncheck the Copy
box in the
window and the default file type for browsing is image files.
4 File Save As Options
Choose ➙ . In the Save As window, click the button and choose
to save the page as “Text” before you save the file.
Creating Java source files
.java
You can also write Java source files ( ) with AOLpress. To do this, you must be
in a MiniWeb. See page 171 for details.
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Adding Links and Multimedia
Learning more...
Learning more...
Help Tutorial
To practice working with link in the online tutorial, choose ➙ . Scroll to the
bottom of the first page and click on the “TOC” icon. You’ll see a list of the lessons in
the tutorial. Then, click on the “Creating Links” link.
Advanced HTML for links
If you want to edit the HTML for your pages directly, see Chapter 12 to learn how.
Once you are comfortable adding finishing touches to your pages by editing HTML
code, you can add the following features to your links:
♦ Sound background: You can make a sound file play automatically when your
page is opened by adding tags like the following. (Currently, the | | |