Let me start this by saying that this tutorial, if you want to call it
that, is designed primarily for campus faculty and staff that use Apple Macintosh computers.
Additionally, it is important to know that I am using Mac OSX 10.2, so if you have a Mac
that is running OS9 - while these steps will roughly translate to your
situation - some specifics may not translate completely.
I have never taken the time to learn how to use Flash
technology, or deal with other Macromedia
products, such as Dreamweaver.
I have friends and colleagues that do use those applications, but I
just haven't gotten to that place yet. Using the Macromedia
technologies enables the web designer to create visually stunning
products, and I hope to (some time in the future) have a tutorial for
those products. Unfortunately, that time is not upon us as of yet.
But, if your goal is to create an informative web site that is pleasant
to view, the steps outlined in this document will suffice.
STEP #1: Download the appropriate
software
Netscape Communicator:
You can get your free copy of Netscape at the following URL:
You will need to contact Fetch directly to obtain an education password
to use your free copy.
We will use Fetch to access
your server space on the CSUB servers. Fetch will allow you to “get” or
retrieve any files you have already uploaded to the CSUB server and
download them to your computer
We will use Netscape Composer
to open those files downloaded via Fetch.
Netscape Composer allows users
to “compose” or create websites. Additionally, we can use Netscape Composer to edit existing
HTML documents (like the one from the CSUB server).
Once we edit our existing HTML file, we will use Fetch to place our html files back
on the CSUB servers.
OK. I concede that this probably sounds like Greek to those of
you that have no experience creating web sites. Let's clear a few
things up:
All documents you access via the world wide web (WWW) are stored on a server
somewhere. A server is a computer that has primarily one job: to
store files and allow outside computers to view them.
To be able to view these public files or pages in YOUR web browser
(MS Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Apple's Safari etc.) you
type in an address (like http://www.csub.edu). These
addresses are also referred to as URL
or Uniform
Resource Locator.
This URL points your internet
browser to the specific folder on the specific server where these
documents are housed.
Back to our specific situation:
The files that CSUB faculty want to make available to the public via
the WWW are stored on such a
server at CSUB.
To be able to place files on that server, we need a special computer
program (application) that can communicate with that server and
transfer files back and forth from your computer in your office to the
server itself. That program is FETCH and it is a FTP client. FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol.
STEP #2: Launching Fetch
Go to the DOCK and click
on the FINDER icon at the far
left
On the resultant window click on the APPLICATIONS button
Navigate through the folder until you find FETCH 4.03 and open it
Then click on the FETCH icon (this will launch the application)
When you launch FETCH (every time) you will be asked for the FTP
account information – which is:
HOST:
ftp.csub.edu
User ID:
Usually first initial and
last name, or the prefix of your campus email address
Password:
Whatever password the campus set
up for you.
If you don’t know what this is,
contact Steve Miller (smiller@csub.edu).
He will set up this information for you.
Here
is a graphic of what this dialog box will look like in OSX 10.2
Once the correct information is in the dialog box, simply click “OK”
and FETCH will connect to YOUR server space. This will allow you
to personally update your own web site(s) from home, your office, or
any computer with FETCH, NETSCAPE and an INTERNET CONNECTION.
When
you actually connect via FETCH it will look something like this
The files in your FTP space on the CSUB servers are listed by size,
kind or the date of their last modification.
At this point, simply drag a file from the FETCH interface to the DESKTOP you are working on.
Now we have successfully “retrieved” a file from FETCH now we have to
edit its contents. To do this, we must use NETSCAPE COMPOSER.
STEP #3: Launch Netscape
NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR is a suite of applications, much like MICROSOFT
OFFICE is a suite of applications all used for different
purposes. Upon launching NETSCAPE (which is done by following the
same procedure as was described earlier to launch FETCH) the BROWSER
portion of the application (called Navigator) suite will appear.
We want access to the COMPOSER
application, not the BROWSER,
so we must go to the WINDOW
menu and select COMPOSER.
Drag down until "Composer" is highlighted, then release the mouse.
Here
is a graphic of that move
This will launch NETSCAPE COMPOSER
Here
is a graphic of the MENUBAR and TOOLBAR that is used in COMPOSER.
We will discuss the menus and buttons displayed above in the workshop,
but they probably are not completely foreign to you.
Besides creating basic text, we will discuss the following, time
permitting.
Place images in the site – so they are aligned the way you want
them aligned
Create links to other websites within the text of your site
Choose background colors, text colors, link colors etc
Insert tables,create horizontal lines and other characters to
help delineate the data on the site
Create a title for your Web Page – and set the properties for
your site
Discuss font size in web publishing, and how to best set up your
site for viewing on multiple computers all using different b web
browsers
Step#4:
PUBLISHING with COMPOSER
Once the site is complete, and ready to PUBLISH to the web, COMPOSER
can publish the site to your FTP space on the CSUB server if you want
it to. If you would rather use FTP to place the files back on the
server, that is your option.
I personally use COMPOSER to do all publishing, and only use FETCH to
retrieve documents from my FTP space. Either way, the result will
be the same.
To PUBLISH w/ COMPOSER do the following:
Go to the FILE menu
Click on PUBLISH
This dialog box will appear – click on the PUBLISH Tab and enter
the information as follows…
NOTE* If you have created a title, and filename already, then the
PUBLISH Tab will not be overly difficult the finish filling out.
By no means is this site finished, but I will continually be adding to
it - so keep checking your email for update notifications.
