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Earth: Layout

Water: Navigation

Air: Content

Fire: Adding Multimedia

About the Author

Before you begin to actually create a navigation scheme you'll need to map out your site so you will know what links you need to include. For instructions on organizing your site please see the "Air" section of this site.

Once you have designed the visual aspects of your page and you have organized your content in some kind of outline or map you're ready to create your navigation scheme.

The easiest way is the one shown on this page. The bar to the left contains simple text that has been used to link to other pages.

Water: Navigating Streams of Information

How to

Creating Hypertext Links in Composer

1. Make a list of all the links you'll need in your navigation bar.

2. Select the frame in your layout that will contain your navigation tools.

3. Enter your link-text into the cell.

 

Three links were typed into the left most cell to begin the navigation bar.
4. Now we'll make these pieces of text into links to your other pages. Highlight the text of your first link and press the link button.
5. The Link Properties menu allows you to enter the destination that the navigation will take the viewer to.

If the link is to a page outside of your site enter the URL in the Link Location box. Be sure to include the http:// at the beginning of the address.

If the page that the link leads to is on your site you might use the Choose File button to navigate to the file on your computer so that the links between the pages will be maintained when the page is posted.

6. Repeat this process until all of your links are finished.

Images as Links

If your navigation tool is an image you need only select the image and follow the same steps for creating a text link above.

Programs such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage allow you to create several links in a single image (called an image map). Composer does not have this function so the only way to create an image as a navigation bar is to split the image into parts in a graphic program and then place the parts very close together in Composer so they appear to be one image.