UM Vigre Web: Netscape Composer

1. Page properties: select "Format" from the top menu bar, and then "Page properties," to set the background and default text color(s) for the page. You can also use an image to set the background of the page, but this will (generally speaking) be tiled over the background, so you want an image which is an appropriate color to see your text over and which will tile nicely.
   
2. Adding links: to link to another page, select "Insert" from the top menu bar, and then "Link." The only thing that might be tricky in the resulting dialog is that if you "Browse File" to find the file you want to link to, you may get an absolute path. Be sure that the path to the file doesn't begin /afs/math.lsa.umich.edu/group/fac/.... Instead, use just the file name if the file is in the same directory that you're working in, and link to it giving the directory path from where you are working if it is not.
   
3. Inserting images: to insert an image, select "Insert" from the top menu bar, and then "Image." As with links, above, you will want to make the reference to the image a relative path, not an absolute one involving /afs/.... It is a good idea to include alternate text for the image--this is what appears if someone's browser can't see the image. Notice the different alignment options, which include allowing the text to float around the image. Finally, if you use the dimensions option to resize the image from its original size, note that the image quality will generally be degraded. Instead use an image editor to resize it first.
   
4. Character formatting: note that you can set the style of your text by going to "Format" and then "Style." Note that it is good HTML to use Heading styles as headers in your page, and to use them in order (first heading 1, then heading 2, etc.).
   
5. Tables and other formatting: you can also use tables to format things in multiple columns and organize tabular data. Select "Insert" and then "Table" to insert a table. The editor also allows you to insert enumerated and non-enumerated lists.
   

Netscape 6 and Mozilla

Are very similar to Netscape 4, but are more powerful ("better") and slower ("worse"). These aren't widely available in the Math environment, so we don't treat them in great detail here.