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Tables are
an effective way to display both text and graphics on your webpage. In
this next activity, you will add several tables to your webpage. Follow
these steps.
- Open the
folder where you saved your webpage.
- Open the
yourname webpage.
- After
Netscape/Mozilla has opened on the screen, select Edit Page from
the
File menu.
- Composer
will open on the screen.
- Position
your cursor on a blank line on the screen.
- Hit the
Enter key several times to move the cursor down the page a bit.
- Note:
The table will be inserted at the point where your cursor is located
so it is important to position the cursor on an empty line with some
space above (and below) the table insertion point.
- Click
on the Table button in the toolbar (Hint: It looks like a waffle).
- The Table
dialog box will appear.
- Change
the Number of rows to 2 and Number of columns to 2.
- Click
on the Center Table Alignment radio button.
- Click
on OK and a new table will appear on the webpage.
Adding Text and HyperText Links to the Table
- Click
in the top left cell of the table. Note: the boxes on a table
are called "cells".
- Type Library
of Congress.
- Press
the right arrow to move to the top right cell.
- Type The
White House.
- Click
once in the lower left cell.
- Note:
you can move between cells of a table by using the arrow keys or by
positioning the cursor in a new cell and clicking the left mouse button.
- Type The
National Archives.
- In the
lower right cell, type The Smithsonian Museums.
- You will
now create hypertext links for the text in your tables.
- Select
Library of Congress (hold the left mouse button down while you
drag across the text).
- Click
on the Link toolbar button and enter this address:
http://www.loc.gov
- Click
on OK to activate the link.
- Select
The White House, click on the Link button and build a link to:
http://www.whitehouse.gov
- Select
The National Archives and build a link to: http://www.nara.gov
- Select
The Smithsonian Museums and build a link to:
http://www.si.edu
- Save the
changes you made.
- Click
on the Browse button to view your webpage with Netscape/Mozilla.
Test the links.
- Close
Netscape/Mozilla by clicking on the close box to return to Composer.
Formatting Your Tables
- You can
apply formatting to both your table and to the text and links in the
table that will make your webpage more attractive. The next steps will
show you how to reformat the table and the text within each cell of
the table.
- Select
the text in each cell.
- Select
a different font and font size for each cell.
- Right-click
(Mac: Command - Click) in the top left cell of the table.
- Left-click
on Table Cell Properties.
- When the
dialog box appears, click on the Cell tab to open the dialog
box.
- Click
on the Background Color checkbox and click on the color
chip
to select a background color for the cell.
- Click
on OK and notice the changes that have taken place on your table.
- Right-click
on the top right table cell and use the drop down menus to adjust
the Horizontal Alignment and Vertical
Alignment.
- Select
a new Cell Background color.
- Click
on OK and note the changes.
- Right-click
on the lower left table cell.
- When the
Table Properties dialog box appears, click on the Row tab at
the top of the box.
- Click
on the Use Color checkbox and select a new color for the row.
This time, you will apply the changes to all the cells in the selected
row instead of just to one cell.
- Click
on OK to save the changes.
- Notice
the changes that have taken place on the webpage.
If
you are observant, you will often see tables used by webpage designers
to control the placement of text and graphics on webpages. In fact,
the links you created are all to websites that make extensive use of
tables in their layout scheme.
- Revisit
each linked page.
- With the
webpage visible in the Navigator window, select Edit Page from
the File menu.
- The invisible
tables used on the webpages will appear.
- Close
the new Composer Window to return to Navigator.
Using Tables to Position Graphics on the Webpage
- Next you
will discover how to use tables to place graphics and colored boxes
on your webpage. Follow these steps.
- Click
once on a blank space below your current table.
- Hit the
Enter key several times to move the cursor down the page a bit.
- Click
on the Table toolbar button and create a new table with 3
rows and 3 columns.
- Change
the Border Line Width from 1 pixel to 0 pixels.
- Change
the Cell Spacing and Cell Padding to 5 pixels.
- Click
on OK to add the new table to the webpage. You will notice that
this time the cells are shown with dotted lines instead of solid lines.
- Click
on the Save toolbar button.
- Click
on the Preview button and notice that the new table is invisible
when viewed with Navigator.
- Close
Navigator to return to Composer.
- Right-click
on one of the middle table cells.
- Left-click
on Table Properties.
- Click
the Cell tab and add a Cell Background color.
- Click
OK.
- Type some
text in the cell (or press the space bar if you want to have an "empty
cell" with no text).
- Click
the Save button.
- Click
the Preview button to view your changes.
- Close
Navigator to return to Composer.
- Now, click
in one of the cells on the right side of the table.
- Click
on the Image toolbar button.
- Click
on the Choose File button.
- Navigate
to the folder where earlier you saved the images you downloaded from
the web and select an image.
- Click
on OK to insert the image into the table cell.
- Click
on the Save toolbar icon. Notice that Composer is automatically
saving a copy of the image you selected to your floppy disk.
- Click
on the Preview icon to see what your webpage looks like.
- Close
Navigator and return to Composer.
- Right-click
on the image that you added.
- Select
Table Properties (and the Cell tab if necessary) from
the menu that appears and experiment with the Horizontal and
Vertical Alignment of the image.
- Remember
to save the changes you make before previewing the webpage in Navigator.
That wraps
up this activity. Spend a few minutes experimenting with the tables already
on your webpage. Feel free to add some more if you want to experiment
further.
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