Getting started in web mode

How easy is it to create your own website with PagePlus? It can be as simple as selecting a preset design template and editing the headings and accompanying text. And no matter how much customizing you choose to do after that, the whole job won’t be nearly as complicated as developing your own site from first principles. So, if you’re already comfortable using PagePlus for paper publications, you’ll find it easy going. If you’re just beginning, you’ll learn to use PagePlus tools as you go.

Essentially, PagePlus takes the pages you’ve laid out and converts them to HTML.

PagePlus design template web Getting started in web mode

Web design templates simplify things by providing you with a variety of starter layouts, professionally designed expressly for web display.

 

What will I need to publish my website?

Publishing a site with PagePlus is a one-step operation that both: (1) converts your publication to files for the web, and (2) copies the web files to a location you specify, either to a local folder or to the web.

  • To publish to a local folder, you don’t even need a connection to the Internet. Of course, you’ll need a web browser to preview your site.

  • To publish to the web, you’ll need a host for your website—that is, disk space on a server connected to the Internet—so that others can access your site. This usually means opening an account with an online service provider: either a large network such as AOL or a specialized Internet service provider (ISP). The big subscription networks typically allocate to each user a generous amount of server space for a “personal website.” Once you’ve set up your account and can connect your computer to the host, publishing to the web is simply a matter of transferring your files to that site. The Web Publishing utility included with PagePlus takes care of this.

Starting a new web publication

Paper Publishing mode is the familiar PagePlus environment for creating print publications. However, before developing your website PagePlus must operate in Web Publishing mode. The Web Publishing mode includes special features, such as menu items and custom settings, to facilitate creation of web pages.

To create a new web publication from scratch:

  • Launch PagePlus or choose New>New from Startup Wizard from the File menu.

  • In the Startup Wizard, select the Start New Publication option, select the Web Page category on the left, and choose your web page size (576×960, 720×1200, or 960×1536).

  • Click OK. PagePlus will enter Web Publishing mode automatically.

To create a new web publication using a design template:

  1. Launch PagePlus or choose New>New from Startup Wizard from the File menu.

  2. In the Startup Wizard, select the Use Design Template option, select the Web Publishing>Web Sites category on the left, and examine the samples on the right. Click the sample that’s closest to the site you want to create, then click OK.

  3. Enter custom user details to personalize your website immediately.

If you’d like to build on previous work you’ve done with PagePlus, you can also take an existing paper publication and convert it to a web publication.

To turn an existing PagePlus (paper) publication into a website:

  • Open the publication in Paper Publishing mode and choose Switch to Web Publishing from the File menu.

To adjust size/orientation of the current publication:

  1. Choose Page Setup… from the File menu.

  2. Set different page dimensions from the drop-down list or choose Custom for your own page size (enter page dimensions in pixels).

What’s involved in creating a website?

Even if you’ve used the a design template from the Startup Wizard to “create” your site, there are lots of creative choices to be made. While the Wizard simplifies your design tasks considerably, chances are you’ll want to put your personal stamp on the site before publishing it. As you proceed through the following help topics, you’ll learn about…

  1. The basics of using text on web pages: Using web text styles to make the most of HTML’s constraints.

  2. The basics of hypertext linking: Connecting your readers to other web pages or websites through hyperlinks or hotspots.

  3. Visual design options: For example, background color or picture variations and optional animation effects.

  4. Fine-tuning your pages for both aesthetics and performance: Setting picture formats, adding search engine descriptors, setting service provider options, and so on.

  5. Using the Layout Checker to help optimize your pages for efficient display.

  6. Publishing your site.

As with a paper publication, preparing a website for its unveiling means checking and rechecking the content. You can use the regular PagePlus checking functions such as Spell-checking, proofreading, using the thesaurus, etc. In addition, the Web Site Layout Checker can inspect for (and often correct) text-specific problems, overlapping objects, or other conditions that will result in file sizes
that are larger than necessary.

Getting started in web mode