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COMPOSER
Using the Sothink composer you
will learn the basics, which will apply to most other
composers. The purpose of this
tutorial is not so much to build an impressive website but to
teach you the fundamentals and introduce you to the
terminology.
Starting Sothink Composer: you will find the
icon will reside in your programs/ sourcetec/ sothink html
editor. I also placed a link on my desktop for
quick opening of the program as we use it a lot.
Watch this
video on Sothink HTML Editor
Alternative
Video Site
I never thought I'd see a
decent WYSIWYG HTML editor offered for free. Why do it when
you can get people to pay so much? Sothink has done it anyway.
Their HTML editor allows you to design a webpage almost as
easily as typing up a word processing document and/or edit
your page directly in HTML.
This is the WYSIWYG program I
have always wanted. You open your document and switch between
a text editor and WYSIWYG editor just by clicking a tab at the
bottom of your screen. It updates your HTML text as you work
in the WYSIWYG screen and updates the WYSIWYG screen while you
work in the text screen. Changing small details in a WYSIWYG
editor and checking the HTML code behind it is an excellent
way to learn HTML!
The menu bar is like many other
text HTML editors. There is a wide variety of buttons you can
use for almost anything (just hold your mouse over the button
to learn what it does), supplemented by menu commands. In
addition to the usual, Sothink offers a Site Manager (which
allows you to check links throughout your website) and
"widgets" (wizards which allow you to set up certain
Javascripts and DHTML menus).
This program is especially
suited for beginners, because it includes a Tutorial,
extensive Help, automatically gives you suggestions for tag
elements (extra commands you can use inside another HTML tag),
and automatically indents your code. If you screw up, you can
use the program's multiple "undo" commands - and
"redo" what you erased if you decide you liked it
better the old way.
To make identifying and fixing
errors easier, the program cites line numbers. Even though the
program doesn't check your code for you, most online tools
(such as NetMechanic)
will give you the line number where your mistake occurred.
Saving your
work
Before we get started you will need to learn
how to save your work. Saving your work is similar to your
word processor however you may find it a little confusing to
start with. Open your composer and choose the file menu and
"save as" option. Here is where you will name your
pages. It is important that you are consistent with your
naming. I always use lower case and the extension htm.
This will then save your page as a file with
the extension htm or html, it really doesn’t matter which
one as long as you are consistent. We will talk about
different linking methods later. I personally use htm as it
seems easier to type. Type "index.htm" and also
choose the folder to save this file into. You can go ahead and
save this file or cancel at this point.
When you type in a web address your browser
will always look for the index.htm or index.html file first so
the page you want to be in your websites front page will be
called index.
First we
want some
templates.
Sothink is an
excellent composer for starters and I used products like this
for many years to learn all the basics. Because most of my
activities online now revolve around business I use a product
called XSite Pro.
It's
so easy to use even a grade school kid
could create beautiful sites in no time flat.
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"As
I was going through the xSitePro tutorial, I found
myself thinking "WHERE was this software a few
years ago when I was struggling to learn HTML?". XSitePro
is awesome! It is so EASY to use that a grade school kid
(or, since kids are so computer-literate these days,
perhaps I should say an 80-year old grandmother) could
create beautiful websites in no time flat ... without
knowing one lick of HTML. And, it is so versatile ... if
you can "think" it, you can "do" it
with XSitePro! I honestly can't believe you were able to
pack so many features into just one little piece of
software. This is hands-down the BEST software of its
type on the market, and I am recommending it to ALL my
coaching students." |
Click
here to have a look
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