Composer

Communicator
Navigator
Composer
Messenger

Composer is a fairly complete tool for creating web pages, although it lacks features for managing web sites -- collections of web pages -- and for moving beyond html with client-scripting, CGI, or any of the other technologies now available for building interactive web pages.   

Using the application for html editing should be obvious to anyone who knows basic html -- the icons Formatting Toolbar and the Composition Toolbar should be self-evident for the most part.   Here I will describe three in a little detail: the Publish, Insert Link, and Insert Image buttons.

Drag and drop between Composer and Navigator

Before doing that, let me point out a general feature about Composer that makes it a very useful tool for building web pages.  To demonstrate this, do the following: open up both Navigator and Composer and have them each occupy half of your desktop.   (Here's a trick if you are using Windows: minimize or close all of your windows except for the two said applications, then right-click on a blank space on the task bar and select "Tile Windows Horizontally".  This will neatly arrange the windows side by side so that they take up the entire screen.)  Now surf around to a page that contains some text and images you might be interested in.  Once you found a page, try the following :

1. Grab the bookmark icon (to the left of Navigator's Navigation Toolbar: Address) and drag it into Composer's blank page.
2. Drag an image into Composer.
3. Drag a URL link into Composer.
4. Block off some text and then drag the block into Composer.
5. Rearrange these elements in Composer with your mouse.

As you can see, it's pretty easy to use Composer as a general container in which to store the results of web surfing.  After filling up a page, you can rearrange and edit things and add text and other images.  When you're done, you can send the page to someone (including yourself) using MENU: File --> Send Page.

Publishing files

Composer comes with a built-in FTP client that allows you to upload files to your unix account.  To use it, you need to know the full path to your user account on the unix file system, the name of a unix server that has your account, and your unix userid and password.   The path is usually /u/home/<your userid goes here> and the machine name can be one of the following: arizona.princeton.edu, flagstaff.princeton.edu, or yuma.princeton.edu (plus some others). 

To use Composer's publish function, though, you first need to set a few configuration options.  Assuming that you are working on a local machine that does not have a permanent web server installed, and that you are publishing to a remote machine that does have a permanent web server installed, the following settings tell Composer to make the necessary adjustments to your web pages when they move from your local machine to the remote server:

MENU: File --> Preferences --> Preferences: Composer --> Publishing --> Maintain links = "checked"

MENU: File --> Preferences --> Preferences: Composer --> Publishing --> Keep images with page = "checked"

(Close down the Preferences window by clicking on the "OK" button.)

Now, when you are ready to publish your page, try MENU: File --> Publish..., and fill out the form like so:

Publish: Page Title: = "<the title of your page>"
Publish: HTML Filename: = "<the name of the file as you want it to be on the remote server>"
Publish: HTTP or FTP Location to publish to: = "ftp://arizona.princeton.edu/u/home/<your userid>"
Publish: User name: = "<your userid>"
Publish: Password: = "<your password>"
Publish: Other files to include = "<check options as appropriate>"

The last option tells Composer which local files should also be uploaded with the file you are uploading.  Include any local files (html or image) that are linked to the page in question.  Note that Composer will put all files and images in the same directory on the remote server; there is no way to configure it to upload images and other files to separate directories.

© 1998 Rafael C. Alvarado, McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University.
Contact the webmaster with any questions about this site.
This site was last updated on Tuesday, August 25, 1998.