Web Page Development Tips

There are some things you should do in Composer that you won't be prompted to:

• Give your page a title
  The title is the part that appears in the blue Netscape bar, and is saved as the title of the bookmark.
  • Pick a title for your page which is brief but informative.
  • Right-mouse-click and choose Page Properties from the menu
  • Click on the General tab.
  • Type your title in the box for title, and Click OK.

• Add a date
  For your own use, and to let users know how current the information is, put the date the page was created or modified somewhere on the page.

• Sign your page
  Put your name or initials somewhere on the page (end of page is best) and include a link to your email address or the email address of the person or group maintaining the page, so that if there is a problem or error, people can get in touch with you.

• Browse/check your page in Netscape and Internet Explorer.
  Sometimes, things look very different in different browsers. After you've published your page, take a look at it in other versions of Netscape, on other computers, and also in browsers like Internet Explorer, to make sure that there aren't any hidden problems.

• Make a link to your new page.
  Once a page has been published, it still isn't available to people unless they know where to find it. You should edit your other pages to provide links to that page as appropriate.

There are a few things you can do in Composer that you probably don't want to do:

• Frames
  Frames are very difficult to do well, and when they are done badly, users find them very annoying. Though it may be tempting to create frames to avoid entering the same text or images on every page, it's far better to use a template with the information, or cut and paste.

• Blinking text
  Voted the most annoying HTML feature ever created. Don't do it: it upsets people and distracts from your content.

• Color overload
  Netscape lets you set the background color and/or image, text colors, etc. for your page. First of all, make sure your colors have enough contrast. Dark blue text on black is hard to read; so is yellow on white. Pick simple backgrounds so your words can be read. Don't use too many colors (more than 8 or so), or people's eye's will start to hurt!

• Use a specific font
  You can choose a font from the font menu, but DON'T DO IT! Fonts vary from machine to machine, and most PC fonts aren't available on other machines. Stick with Variable Width (normal) and Fixed width.

• Indents
  HTML doesn't really indent things. (When you click on the Indent button, you are actually creating a list with no items.) The fact that you can indent in Netscape is actually not a reliable feature, but a bug! This means that indentations can't be reliably used to lay out your page.