## Creating Web Pages with &brandShortName;

&brandShortName; lets you create your own web pages and publish them on the web. You don't have to know HTML to use &brandShortName;; it is as easy to use as a word processor.

Toolbar buttons let you add lists, tables, images, links to other pages, colors, and font styles. You can see what your document will look like on the Web as you create it, and you can easily share your document with other users, no matter what type of browser or HTML-capable email program they use.

R.J.
Keller
2003-2004
Contributors to the Nvu Help Project.

## Starting a New Page

### Creating a New Page

&brandShortName; is an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) editor that allows you to create and edit web pages. &brandShortName; is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, so you can display how your page will look to the reader as you're creating it. It is not necessary for you to know HTML, since most of the basic HTML functions are available as commands from the toolbars and menus.

&brandShortName; also lets you edit the HTML source if you want. To view or edit the HTML source code, open the View menu, and choose HTML Source, or click the <HTML> Source tab in the Edit Mode toolbar at the bottom of the &brandShortName; window.

To create a web page, use one of the methods described below. Once you've started a page, you can add and edit text just as you would in a word processor.

To create a new page in &brandShortName;:

- Click the New button in &brandShortName;'s toolbar.

To start from an HTML file stored on your local drive:

- Open the Window menu and choose &brandShortName;. You see the &brandShortName; window.
- Open the File menu and choose Open File. You see the Open HTML File dialog box.
- On your local drive, locate the file that you want to edit.
- Click Open to display the specified file in a &brandShortName; window.

To edit a web page:

- Open &brandShortName;
- Click on File menu and choose Open Web Location. You will see the Open Web Location dialog box.
- Type in the URL of the page to edit (for example, http://www.mozilla.org) and click Create button. You will see the page displayed in &brandShortName;.

Tip: In the &brandShortName; window you can quickly open the most recent file you've been working on by opening the File menu, choosing Recent Pages, and then selecting the file you want from the list.

### Tabs - Editing Multiple Documents

&brandShortName; allows you to edit multiple documents at the same time. Rather than to shift from one window to another for editing more than one document, &brandShortName; offers the feature of Tabs. More than one document can be opened at the same time with &brandShortName; in the same window but in different tabs.

Tabs can be opened using either Ctrl+T or by choosing Create in: New Tab in the New file open dialog. Even with multiple tabs open, each is handled independently. Each document's state is indicated, i.e. if it is modified and needs saving by a red-floppy icon on the corresponding tab.

### Saving and Browsing Your New Page

You can save &brandShortName; documents in HTML or text-only format. Saving a document in HTML format preserves the document's formatting, such as text styles (for example, bold or italic), tables, links, and images. Saving a document in text-only format removes all the HTML tags but preserves the document's text.

To save a document as an HTML file:

- Open the File menu and choose Save or click the Save button on the Composition toolbar.

  If you haven't already given your page a title, &brandShortName; prompts you to do so. &brandShortName; displays the page title in the browser window's title bar when you view the page in the browser. The document's page title also appears in your list of bookmarks if you bookmark the page.

  &brandShortName; then prompts you to enter a filename and specify the location where you want to save the file. Make sure you preserve the .html extension in the filename.

To change the filename or location of an existing HTML file:

- Choose Save As and select a different filename or location.

When you save a page in &brandShortName;, all parts of the page (the HTML, images and other files, such as sound files and style sheets), are saved locally on your hard drive. If you only want to save the HTML part of the page, you must change the &brandShortName; preference for saving pages. See &brandShortName; Preferences for more information on changing &brandShortName;'s setting for saving pages.

If an image location is absolute (starts with "http://") and you are connected to the Internet, you will still see that image in the document in &brandShortName; and Navigator. However, if the image location is relative to the page location (starts with "file:///"), then you won't see the image in the local version of the document.

To save a document as a text-only file:

- Open the File menu and choose Export to Text.
- Enter the filename and specify the location where you want to save the file.

Note: Images do not appear in documents saved in the text-only format.

Tip: You can choose Revert from the File menu to retrieve the most recently saved copy of the document in which you're working. Keep in mind that your current changes will be lost.

To view your page in a browser window in order to test your links:

- Open the File menu and choose Browse Page (or click Browse in the Composition toolbar). If you have not yet saved your document, &brandShortName; prompts you to enter a page title, filename, and location. The &brandShortName; window remains open behind the new Navigator window.

## Formatting Your Web Pages

### Formatting Paragraphs, Headings, and Lists