Creating Research-Based Web Sites with Netscape Composer

Web Skills Assignments

Module 1 Homework Exercises – Due by 9:30 AM on Thursday, January 20, 2005

In the exercises that follow, you will do the following:

• Choose a computer to use for our Web Projects
• Install Netscape 7.2 on that computer
• Open and edit a test HTML file using Netscape Composer
• Upload your file to the public.www folder on your H: drive/Home Drive
• Using Netscape Navigator, open the uploaded file from the web
• Email Dr. McClurken the URL of the modified page as confirmation that you have completed the exercise
• Take a short Blackboard quiz on Module 1 topics.

You may want to print out this document before beginning your work:

• Using Windows XP and the Internet Explorer browser:  Right-click on the text on the page that you want to print, and then choose Print from the menu that appears.
• Using Macintosh OSX and the Safari Browser:  Control Click on the text on the page that you want to print, and then choose Print form the menu that appears.

1. Our first order of business is to figure out what computer you will work on to create your web sites.  It will make your life easier if you can identify one computer to do your web site work on since we will be creating folders of documents that will become your web site.  Naturally, you will want to choose a computer that has internet access so you can upload files to your web server, and view the completed pages online.  A broadband connection will make this process more efficient, but it is not required.  If you do not have access to a computer of your own, you can use the labs in Monroe 105 or Monroe 106 – the computers in these labs have Netscape Composer loaded on them.  If you do need to work in a lab, it might be a good idea to purchase a USB key drive (128 MB minimum size drive) to move your files from lab computer to lab computer as you work. 
   
2. On the computer you identified in exercise 1, download and install Netscape 7.2.  You can download the installer package for Netscape 7.2 from this site:  http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download_fullinstall.jsp .  If you are a Windows user, be sure to download the “Windows (Full Version)” and not the “Windows (Navigator Only)” version. 
   
   - On Windows machines, the installer will ask you “What Type of Install?”  Choose the “Recommended” install and you will get the necessary components. 
   
   - On a Mac, download the installer and follow the onscreen instructions.
   
   The Netscape 7.2 software package includes Netscape Composer, a web creation tool that we will be using to develop our web sites in this course. If you don’t have easy online access to the internet to download the Netscape 7.2 software, Jerry Slezak can burn a CD of the Netscape installer for you.  (Of course, if you don’t have easy online access, you may have additional issues that will need to be addressed once you are ready to transfer the web site files from your computer to the web server.)  If you already have an older version of Netscape loaded on your computer it is strongly suggested that you uninstall it and upgrade to Netscape 7.2.  This will make troubleshooting much easier if you run into problems. If you have questions about this, or any other issues, please contact Jerry Slezak, Instructional Technology Specialist at 654-2118, email at jslezak@umw.edu, or stop by Monroe 206.
   
3. Once you have Netscape 7.2 installed, open the newly installed Netscape Navigator browser and go to this web page:  http://people.umw.edu/~jslezak/hist325.htm
   
4. Now let’s use Netscape Composer to do some basic editing of this file.
   
   a. With the Hist 325 test page loaded in the Netscape Navigator browser, on the menu bar, click “File,” and then click “Edit Page.”   This opens the file in Netscape Composer.
   
   b. Edit the web page by entering your name in the specified area on the page.
   
   c. On the Menu Bar, click “File,” and then “Save As.”   In the Save Page As dialog box, leave the default name of hist325.html and save the file to your computer at a location of your choice. 
   
   d. Close Netscape Composer.
   
5. Now you can upload your modified file to your web server space (your H: drive/Home Drive “public.www” folder).
   
   The purpose of this step is to help you become familiar with the process of loading web pages to your web server.  This is done by placing the HTML files on your H: drive/Home Drive in the “public.www” folder.  This folder is the place where you will upload your web site, so we want to get familiar with it and know that it is working. 
   
   The following web page contains step by step instructions to access your H: drive/Home Drive using a web browser. 
   
   http://www.umw.edu/technology/web/personal/how_do_i_access_my_persona/netstorage.php
   
   Follow these instructions to connect to your H: drive/Home Drive.  Once you connect, upload the file we just saved in step 4 (the hist325.html file) to your public.www folder.  If you do not have a public.www folder follow the instructions on the web page to create one.  When you successfully complete this step, the file should be accessible on the web.
   
6. Now, use the Netscape Navigator browser to navigate to the web page you just posted on the Internet.  The URL for web pages loaded on the UMW web server follow this format:
   
   http://students.umw.edu/~your username/path to file
   
   So the URL for the file we posted in the previous exercise should be:
   
   http://students.umw.edu/~your username/hist325.html
   
7. Send Dr. McClurken an email containing the URL to the page you just posted before 9:30 AM on Thursday, January 20, 2005.
   
   
8. Finally, take the short multiple choice quiz based on all the information covered in Module 1.  This quiz is located in the Blackboard site for this course. You can take the quiz as many times as you like until you need to reach a final score of 80% to get credit for completing the quiz.