Creating Your First Web Site
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Introduction
Imagine that you are the Promotions Manager for a small alpine adventure company called Mountain Jacques, and one of the company's most experienced guides. You want to share your excitement about the services Mountain Jacques provides. You know you can strengthen the business by enhancing communication with customers, so you decide to create a Web presence for Mountain Jacques and use NetObjects Fusion to build the site.
Your goals are:
In this lesson you learn to:
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If you are ready, let's begin!
Creating a New Blank Site
Start with a new blank site.
This is where you name your site file. NetObjects Fusion saves your site in a folder with the same name as the site, in the NetObjects Fusion \User Sites folder.
NetObjects Tip: You can change the settings in the Application Options for NetObjects Fusion to Open to most recently used file at startup. To display the Application Options dialog, choose Options > Application from the Tools menu.
A page icon represents each page in the site. Your new site has one page, the default Home page. The blue border shows it is selected.
NetObjects Tip: To display the Properties inspector, select Properties palette from the View menu. The Properties palette shows the name of the selected object, in this case, the Home page.
Adding Pages
In Site View you add pages. NetObjects Fusion adds new pages under the selected page. You are going to add four pages under the Home page
NetObjects Fusion adds four pages under the Home page, and names each page Untitled1, Untitled2, and so on.
Now, when site visitors view the Home page in a browser, the browser's title bar displays Mountain Jacques instead of Home.
Now you add pages under the Events page to describe upcoming events.
Looking at Page View
Page View is where you design and add content to your pages.
The Home page opens in Page View. By default, NetObjects Fusion displays:
NetObjects Tip: You can drag any toolbar and place it anywhere on the screen, docked or undocked. You can save your workspace by clicking Workspace > Save Workspace As ... from the View menu. You can also revert to the Basic workspace from this menu.
Use the buttons in the lower left of the Page View window to open and close the Properties palette, Site Navigation palette, and Object Tree palette.
NetObjects Tip: The MasterBorder works like a header and footer, but on all four sides of the Layout.
Page View is divided into two areas: MasterBorder and Layout. The MasterBorder is the top, bottom, left, and right margins of the page. Objects placed in the MasterBorder region are visible on every page. The MasterBorder typically contains objects that repeat across many pages, such as navigation bars and banners. The Layout typically includes the page's unique content.
To select the MasterBorder or Layout area, simply click inside it. When the MasterBorder is selected, its label is highlighted; when the Layout is selected, its label is highlighted. The Properties palette always shows properties of the selected item.
The DefaultMasterBorder includes a navigation bar in the top margin. A text navigation bar and the Built with NetObjects Fusion logo is located in the bottom margin.
Adding Text to the Page
You begin by adding a welcoming message to the Home page. In NetObjects Fusion , everything on the page is an object, so to type text you add a text object.
Don't worry about the height of the box. As you type, the text box grows to accommodate the text, if needed.
The text box appears with hollow handles and contains a blinking insertion point. The pointer changes to an I-beam when you move it over the text box, indicating that you can type text.
Use standard arrow, Backspace, and Delete keys to edit text.
Shift+Enter inserts a single line space instead of the double line space inserted when you press Enter, and causes this text to break exactly where you want it to.
While editing text, the Text Properties palette displays the Format tab, with options such as Font, Size, and Color that you can use to format selected text.
The Font field shows the font is Automatic and the Size field is 14px, which are both the default font and text size expressed in the SiteStyle CSS.
The height of the text box automatically adjusts to accommodate the text, and the hollow handles disappear. An outline surrounds the text.
When the text object has solid handles, you cannot edit the text, but you can move, resize, or delete the text box.
If necessary, the text box enlarges to accommodate the text. You can also drag a hollow or solid handle to reshape a text box. If necessary, drag a text box handle so the text box is wide and the text occupies two lines.
Also in the Paragraph section of the Format tab, click the Align Center button. The text changes accordingly.
Adding a Picture
The Mountain Jacques art department created a graphic for the Home page.
The size of the box doesn't matter; NetObjects Fusion automatically adjusts the box to fit the picture after you place it.
The Picture File Open dialog appears so you can locate the image you want to place in the picture box.
The picture appears selected in the Layout area.
When the picture is selected, the properties palette shows Picture Properties.
You can crop or size a picture by dragging its handles.
NetObjects Tip: Ctrl+drag copies the picture. If you accidentally drag the picture instead of the handle, select Undo Copy Object from the Edit menu, press Ctrl+Z to undo, or right-click the copy and select Delete Object from the shortcut menu.
Setting the SiteStyle
A SiteStyle is a set of graphic and text elements used throughout your site to provide a consistent look. SiteStyle elements include the banner and buttons for navigation bars.
The default SiteStyle doesn't reflect Mountain Jacques’ image. Fortunately, there are dozens several SiteStyles available to suit any tastes.
Setting Button Navigation Bar Properties
You can set up buttons that are highlighted as you pass the pointer over them in a browser.
Previewing Your Site
You accomplished a lot in a short time, and you want to see how your site looks in a Web browser. NetObjects Fusion helps you check your work by previewing it in a browser as you develop your site.
The Previewing Site dialog appears showing progress messages as NetObjects Fusion generates HTML for your pages.
NetObjects Fusion launches your Web browser and displays the page from which you started the preview.
The other pages have no content yet, but you can click the navigation buttons to view the pages and their style elements.
Notice that all the MasterBorder margins are the same as the Home page. This is because, as shown in the MasterBorder Properties palette, all pages are currently assigned the DefaultMasterBorder.
When you are done previewing, you can minimize or close the browser, or simply make NetObjects Fusion the active window again.
Saving Your Site and Exiting
You might want to take a break and continue building your site later.
Where to Go from Here
You just created a site for Web publishing with NetObjects Fusion . You are now ready to learn more about the powerful features of NetObjects Fusion . Look for more tutorials at our Launchpad site located at http://launchpad.netobjects.com.