Starting Claris Home Page

To start Claris Home Page, double-click the Claris Home Page folder on your system to display its contents, and double-click the Claris Home Page 2.0 application icon.

Macintosh: You can also double-click a file that was created in Claris Home Page to open the application.

Windows: Click the Start button and then point to Claris Home Page or double-click the Claris Home Page program icon from the Program Manager.

When you open Claris Home Page, a new untitled Web page appears on the screen.

If you don't want Claris Home Page to create a new document each time you start it, you can set the general preferences to do nothing or to display an Open dialog box at startup. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu, and choose Display Open Dialog or Do Nothing from the At Startup pop-up menu in the General preferences area.

Working in a Claris Home Page document

You can use Claris Home Page to create documents or Web pages. Working in Edit Page mode is similar to working in word processing documents. For example, you can type text, insert images, or copy and paste elements in much the same way. However, because of HTML limitations you can't set tabs. Claris Home Page provides object and link editors that let you apply HTML attributes to your Web page elements.

Opening HTML files

You can open and edit any HTML file in Claris Home Page.

To open an HTML file:

  1. Choose Open from the File menu.
  2. Select the file you want to open.
  3. Click Open.

Using Edit Page mode

By default, when you first open a file or create a new document, Claris Home Page displays the document in Edit Page mode.

Edit Page mode displays the contents of your Web page in a format that allows you to perform all of the editing tasks involved in creating your Web page, such as typing and formatting text, inserting images, creating links, and so forth.

If you want to change the mode that Claris Home Page opens documents in, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, choose General from the pop-up menu or click the General tab, and then choose Preview Page or Edit HTML Source from the Open Documents in pop-up menu.

To switch to Edit Page mode, choose Edit Page from the Window menu or click the Edit Page button .

Cutting, copying, and pasting

In Claris Home Page, you can cut, copy, and paste text, tables, links, images, and other elements within your Web page, between other Web pages, or between Claris Home Page documents and other applications.

To cut or copy and paste an element:

  1. Select the element.
  2. Choose Cut or Copy from the Edit menu.

    Claris Home Page places a copy of the selected element on the Clipboard.

    If you choose Cut, the element is removed from its original location, and placed on the Clipboard.

    If you choose Copy, the element stays where it is and a copy is placed on the Clipboard.

  3. Select the location in the document or in another document where you want the element to go.
  4. Choose Paste from the Edit menu.

You can also drag elements to cut, copy, and paste them. If you drag an element within the same document, it is cut and pasted. If you drag an element from one Claris Home Page document to another, it is copied and pasted.

Undoing your work

If you want to delete something in your document, select it and press the Delete or Backspace key.

If you want to cancel the last action you performed, select Undo from the Edit menu.

Using the toolbars

Claris Home Page includes four toolbars you can use to perform tasks quicker than selecting the corresponding option from a menu. They are the basic toolbar, style toolbar, Forms tool palette, and the Image Map Editor toolbar. Place the pointer over a button to see its name appear at the right of the toolbar.

The basic toolbar provides access to many of the commonly used features in Claris Home Page. Click a button to activate your choice, or drag the Anchor, Horizontal Rule, or Table button onto your page to insert those elements.

Macintosh:

Windows:

The style toolbar has buttons you can use to format text.

To show or hide the basic toolbar or the style toolbar, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, choose General from the pop-up menu or click the General tab, and select or deselect the appropriate checkbox.

Windows: You can set the Show Toolbar preferences to display the toolbar in the Claris Home Page application window or in the document windows.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Claris Home Page also has a floating Forms tool palette you can use to insert elements into your documents. To display the Forms tool palette, choose Show Forms Palette from the Window menu. To hide the Forms tool palette, choose Hide Forms Palette from the Window menu.

To use the Forms tool palette, drag one of the icons onto your Web page to add the corresponding element. You can also click and release on an icon in the Forms tool palette to insert an element at the insertion point. You can move the Forms tool palette anywhere on your screen by dragging its title bar.

The Image Map Editor toolbars provide buttons for you to add special features to an image map. To use the Image Map Editor toolbars, double-click the image to open the Image Object Editor, and click the Edit button for either a Client-Side Image Map Editor, a Transparency and Interlace Image Editor, or a Server-Side Image Map Editor.

Using object and link editors

When you add some elements to your Web page, such as a table, a link, or an image, you use an editor to specify and edit its characteristics. Most object editors open for you when you create an object. Once you assign a change to the element, the change automatically occurs without having to close the object editor.

To open the Link Editor and edit a particular link, select the link in Edit Page mode and choose Show Link Editor from the Window menu. For more information about links, see Creating links and anchors.

You can use several methods to open the Object Editor for an element. You can double-click the element, select the element and choose Show Object Editor from the Window menu, or select the element and click the Object Editor button in the basic toolbar.

Most of the editors are displayed in expandable windows. Click the triangle or the Both tab to display more information.

Resizing elements

In Claris Home Page, you can resize many of the elements, such as tables, images, frames, and form elements, using the mouse.

To resize an element:

  1. Select the element.

    The element is highlighted with a border that includes one or more handles:

  2. Drag the bottom handle to change the height of the element, drag the right-side handle to change the width of the element, and drag the lower-right corner handle to change the height and width of the element at the same time.

Aligning elements

You can change the horizontal alignment of text, images, and other elements in relation to the Web page. Choose Alignment from the Format menu or click the Indent or Outdent button on the style toolbar.

Previewing your work

Claris Home Page provides you with several ways of checking your Web page after you've worked on it in Edit Page mode, including: Preview Page mode, previewing in a browser, using the Document Statistics window, and Edit HTML Source mode.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

For information about using Edit HTML Source mode, see Using Edit HTML Source mode.

Using Preview Page mode

When you switch to Preview Page mode, Claris Home Page displays your Web page the way it might appear in a browser. (Keep in mind, however, that the appearance of your Web page may vary when displayed in different kinds of browsers.)

In Preview Page mode, you can test interactive elements of your Web page, such as links and certain form capabilities, and you can see how elements such as numbered lists will look in a browser.

Note In Preview Page mode, all of the editing capabilities and some menu options are disabled.

To switch to Preview Page mode, click the Preview Page button on the basic toolbar or choose Preview Page from the Window menu.

Previewing your Web page in a browser

From Claris Home Page, you can preview your Web page in an actual browser, such as Netscape Navigator, at any time. To view your Web page in a browser, click the Preview in Browser button on the basic toolbar or choose Preview in Browser from the File menu. You can also set Claris Home Page to auto-save before previewing in a browser. Choose Preferences from the File menu, choose the Browser Preview pop-up menu or Browser Preview tab, and select the Auto-save before Previewing in a Browser checkbox.

Claris Home Page opens your Web page in Netscape Navigator by default. If you don't have Netscape Navigator on your system or if you want to see how your Web page looks in a different browser, you need to change the default browser. See Changing the default browser next.

Important In Windows, if you are using Netscape Navigator, Claris Home Page opens a new copy of Navigator each time you choose Preview in Browser from the File menu. To avoid opening multiple copies, quit Navigator each time you are finished viewing a Web page.

Changing the default browser

You can change the browser Claris Home Page uses to display your Web pages.

  1. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
  2. Choose Browser Preview from the pop-up menu or click the Browser Preview tab.
  3. Click Set.

    An Open dialog box appears.

  4. Select the browser application and click Open.
  5. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

Using the Document Statistics window

The Document Statistics window provides estimates of how long it will take your viewers to download your Web page (or sections of your page) to their browser. You can check the estimated download time for a page you're building any time you are working with your page in Edit Page mode.

Note The Document Statistics window displays estimates of download time under ideal conditions. Network congestion, server loading, or other adverse conditions can increase the download time of your Web pages significantly.

To use the Document Statistics window:

  1. If you want to see statistics for a certain section of your Web page, select that section.
  2. Choose Document Statistics from the Edit menu to open the window.

  3. Read the appropriate field for the whole document or the section you've selected.

    Field Name

    Definition

    Character Count

    Number of characters in your Web page or selection

    Word Count

    Number of words in your Web page or selection

    Total Image Size

    Number of bytes for all images in your Web page or of all images in the section you selected

    Minimum Download Time at 14,400

    Estimate of how long it will take a viewer to download your Web page or the section you selected using a 14400 bps modem

    Minimum Download time at 28,800

    Estimate of how long it will take a viewer to download your Web page or the section you selected using a 28800 bps modem

Creating a title for your Web page

Claris Home Page prompts you to give your Web page a title the first time you save the document. The title you create for your Web page appears at the top of most browsers' windows.

The words that appear in a Web page's title are also used in searches by many Internet search engines. If it is important that viewers are able to find your Web page via keyword searches, make sure that the title includes words your viewers are most likely to use when doing a keyword search.

To give your Web page a title or edit the current title:

  1. Choose Document Options from the Edit menu.
  2. Choose Basic from the pop-up menu or click the Basic tab.
  3. Enter the title in the Document Title text box.
  4. Click OK.

Setting the color and background of your Web page

You can change the color or use an image as a tiled pattern for the background of your Web page. When you use an image, it overrides the color setting.

To change the color of your Web page's background:

  1. Choose Document Options from the Edit menu.

    The Document Options dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Background color box.

    The Color dialog box appears.

  3. Select the color you want to use as the new background for your Web page.
  4. Click OK to close the Color dialog box.
  5. Click OK to close the Document Options dialog box.

    The background color of your Web page changes.

To use an image as a tiled background for your Web page:

  1. Choose Document Options from the Edit menu.
  2. Click Set.

    An Open dialog box appears.

  3. Select the image file you want to use.
  4. Click Open.

    The path of the image file and a thumbnail representation of the image appear in the Document Options dialog box.

  5. Click OK to close the Document Options dialog box.

Background images normally display in Edit mode. To increase performance, you can choose to not have background images displayed in Edit mode. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu, choose Images from the pop-up menu or click the Images tab, and click the Display Background Images in Edit Mode checkbox to deselect the option.

To remove an image from the background of your Web page, choose Document Options from the Edit menu, choose Basic from the pop-up menu or click the Basic tab, and then click None.

Tip To reset all of the color and background settings of your Web page to their default values, choose Document Options from the Edit menu, choose Basic from the pop-up menu or click the Basic tab, and then click Use Defaults. Note that this will also remove a background image from your Web page and reset the color of all links. (For more information on setting the color of links, see Changing the color of links.)

Saving your Web page

As in any application, it is important to save your files frequently to avoid the possibility of losing data. In addition, within Claris Home Page certain functions will only work after you have saved your Web page. For example, if you have created links between your Web pages, you will need to save all of the pages that have links or are the target of links before you can test the links.

To save a Web page:

  1. Choose Save from the File menu.

    If you haven't given your Web page a title yet, the Enter Title dialog box appears. Enter a title and click OK. (For more information, see Creating a title for your Web page.)

    The Save dialog box appears.

  2. In the Save As text box, type the filename for your Web page followed by the extension .html for a Macintosh file or .htm for a Windows file.

    In order for your files to be seen as Web pages in Claris Home Page and in Web browsers, they must have .html or .htm extensions. The text box provides a default name as "title" with the proper extension.

  3. Click Save (Macintosh) or OK (Windows).

You can specify the default filename extension for new Web pages you create. (You should set the extension to .html or .htm.) Choose Preferences from the Edit menu, choose HTML Output from the pop-up menu or click the HTML Output tab, and type the extension in the Default HTML File Suffix or Default HTML File Ext. text box.

You can also have Claris Home Page save your documents automatically. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu, and choose General from the pop-up menu or click the General tab. Specify how often (in minutes) you want Claris Home Page to save your files by selecting the Auto-save document every "#" minutes checkbox and typing a number in the text box.

Claris Home Page saves changes to your files as often as you specify and prompts you for titles and filenames for your Web pages if you haven't created them yet.

Printing your Web page

You can use Claris Home Page to print the Web pages you create. You can print a page while in Edit Page mode, Preview Page mode, or Edit HTML Source mode and Claris Home Page will print your page as it appears in that particular mode.

To print your Web page:

  1. Choose Print from the File menu.

    Your system's standard Print dialog box appears.

  2. Click Print (Macintosh) or OK (Windows).

    Claris Home Page prints the entire contents of your Web page file.