Author a Page with PageMill

PageMill software will help you compose pages for the World Wide Web, and save them in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format. PageMill works just like a word processor. You type in text, or paste it in from the clipboard, and then change its size and style from the menubar. You can import images as well. These instructions will help you get started.

1 Start a new page.
Launch the PageMill application, then use New from the File menu to create a new blank document.

2 Make sure PageMill saves its files in the right place.
Make a new folder to collect all the files for the web site you will create. This is where you will save the materials - html pages and graphic images - for your web site.
Set PageMill's preferences to save its images into the folder you just created. Under the Edit menu, choose Preferences, then click on the folder in the middle to choose a location for PageMill to save the GIF images that it creates. Choose the folder you just created.

3 Add text to your page.
You can type in text directly from the keyboard, or paste it in from the Clipboard. PageMill will word wrap just like a word processor. To bring in text from a ClarisWorks document, open ClarisWorks, select and copy the text you want, then go back to PageMill and Paste the text.

4 Align the text.
Select the text in PageMill, then use the alignment buttons in the upper left to align the text left, right, or centered. Use the return key to separate the paragraphs in the text, just as you would with a word processor.

5 Change font size and style.
This works a bit differently than with a word processor. The HTML standard does not speak to font size in points, or in the styles we are used to. Instead, it classifies text as headings of various sizes, and of different forms of emphasis.
To change the heading level of text, select the text, then choose the appropriate level of heading from the Heading menu. To change the emphasis, select the text, then use the choices under the Edit menu.

6 Add a picture to your page.
You can drag the image file's icon directly into the PageMill document, dropping it where you want it to appear. You can also import an image file by using the image button at the top of the PageMill window. The picture file can be in PICT, GIF, or JPEG format. PageMill will change it automatically to GIF format, and save this GIF to the images file you set up earlier.

7 Save your page.
Use Save fro the file menu. Make sure you are saving to the project folder you set up earlier. Give your page a name in the form pagename.html, and save it to the folder.

8 Create a hypertext link.
First, select the text you want to link from (this is the text that will show up as blue when you view the page with a web browser.) Next, go to the place you want to link to. This place might be a site on the internet, or another page that you have created - and saved - in PageMill. (You can't link to a PageMill page until it's been saved.)
To link to another page you created with PageMill, open that other page. You will now have two pages open. Move them so you can see the text that you just selected in the first page. Then drag the page icon from the link-to page (in the upper left), to the text that you just selected in the first. The linked text will turn blue, and the link has been created.
6 Test the operation of your site.
· With the your page open in PageMill, click on the Preview/Edit button in the upper right corner of the window, to get it into Preview mode. In edit mode this icon appears as a pencil and paper. In Preview mode it becomes a blue globe.
· Click on the blue words and/or blue-outlined images to test the links between your pages. Make sure they work as you want them to. If they don't, go back into Edit mode and fix the links by reestablishing them.
· When everything works properly, save your pages again.