Create Your Website Today - A Guide to Getting Started in Kompozer

If you want to create a website, you will first need a website building program. The web works on a code called HTML, but the good thing is that you don't need to learn HTML programming to create your website. Instead you can use a free to download program called Kompozer. The premise behind Kompozer is that of using tables to create your website. I'll show you here how to create a simple 4 row by 4 column webpage. If you are used to using tables in Microsoft Word, you will find this easy.

Open it and close the tips box which pops up. We'll first do housekeeping and save the file.

Click on file drop down menu then click save. A dialogue box pops up asking you to enter a title for the current page. Your home page on the web is always called "index", so enter this in the box and hit OK. The first dialogue box will close and a new one open, allowing you to save your file. Choose where to save it, name it "index" and - the next bit is important - make sure the "html file" is shown under save as file type. If you can't find this, and "all files" is showing add.html to the name of the file and it will save properly i.e. save as index.html. Click Ok and the dialogue box will close.

Look carefully at the screen. At the top of the blank area, and below the drop down menus, you will see a tab, and this will now show the title "index", so you know what page of the website you are working on. Note that this tab also appears in your internet browser. Now let's create something. Click on the table icon in the top toolbar. A dialogue box opens with a table drawn up. Click on the number of rows and columns you want, in this case 4x4. A small table will appear on the worksheet. You have now created the basis of your website.

Let's merge the top 4 cells and the bottom 4 cells to make 2 full width rows. Click in the first cell and drag across the 3 cells to the right. The top row should now be highlighted. When highlighted right click and select join selected cells. The top 4 cells will merge into one. Repeat for the bottom row. Now let's merge just 2 cells. Click on the second row, second cell and drag one cell below. Right click and select join selected cells. Fancy a background colour to your table? Click format on the drop down menu and select table properties. A dialogue box shows with 2 tabs - make sure table is selected. We are going to do 2 things:

1. Look for content alignment. This will align all the contents in a table in both a horizontal and vertical direction. We are going to select left from the drop down menu for horizontal alignment and top for vertical alignment. Tick the boxes next to them. This will mean that text placed in any cell will appear at the top of the cell (rather than the middle or bottom) and left justified.

2. Now change the background colour by clicking on the little square next to background colour. Another dialogue box opens, with lots of colours, so pick one you fancy and click OK. That dialogue box closes and the previous one now shows a colour and a tick next to "background colour". Click apply and OK. Your table will now be coloured. However, we really want the central, vertically joined box, a different colour. Highlight the central box, use format and table properties and this time make sure the cell tab is clicked. Change the colour as above. You should now have a two tone table. Go to the top cell and put some text in. As you type the box will increase in size.

To change the text size, highlight the text and chose format/text size from the drop down menu and chose xxlarge. The text will change size. Click on format again and now chose font, and select your desired font. Click format again and chose text colour. You should now have a 2 tone table, with a large coloured title. Insert your text elsewhere, and click on save file. Want to see what you have produced? Click on browse icon in the toolbar and the webpage you have created will appear in your browser window. This is not yet on line, but you are only one step away from doing that. Creating your own website is simple and easy. It is worth starting from scratch to understand the basics. Then if you want to use a template you will find it easier to edit yourself.