Using iWeb

You will use iWeb to create a website that will contain your Blogs and/or Podcasts. Once you get use to it it is a simple piece of software, using templates and a ‘drag and drop’ technique to make your website with ease. You will make it and save as you go to your user area before eventually publishing the website so it can be accessed online. Locate the iWeb software icon on either the dock or the applications folder. If you see the following pop-up, or any others simply click ‘Close’ or ‘No Thanks’.

When you open iWeb for the first time you will be given the following options:

Select a Welcome page to introduce your viewer to your website as well as your production brief. You will be greeted with the following…

Tip: Make sure you give your choose an appropriate theme, one suitable for a piece of coursework. You can change your theme later if you change your mind, by using an option in the editor panel.

1. Select theme 2. Select a template

Sidebar: this shows you your website pages, click a page to display it in the canvas

Editor panel: You’ll use these options for a variety of purposes to edit the canvas

Canvas: this is where you will do most of your work, editing the templates to produce your website

Add a new page to your website and you’ll see the familiar template page

Media Browser: this is where you can access your multimedia content that you have created; audio, photos and movies.

The next step is to edit the template, to do this simply double click on a text box to change the type.

The same is true for the main body of text (don’t worry about the foreign language!) You can change the style of the font and the size via the fonts button in the editor panel. Don’t forget you can also add more text boxes using the icon in the editor panel.

The next step is to change the images and add multi media content; you should be able to access your photos from the media browser panel at the side, if you can’t see it select from the editor panel. Choose what type of content you would like to add by and using the tabs, on the media browser. Select the content and browse until you find your desired media. Simply drag and drop your chosen audio, photo or movie in place. You can add as many additional audio, photos or movies onto the page by dragging, dropping and resizing them where you want.

Tip: Save regularly, (File Save)

You must name your site so double click in the sidebar and type in your full name as

the name of the website.

To create a new page simply select the icon You can choose to create a blank page and put your reports and information on there, you may however also like to use the blog function. Fill in the blank page as before, however if you do choose the blog you will se the following sidebar

Write your blog and edit your template as before in ‘Entries’. When you are ready to add a new entry….

The ‘Blog’ page automatically updates from the ‘Entries’ page and creates a little excerpt from your entry so you do not have to worry about specifically creating this page, just focus on writing in your ‘Entries’ section.

The page your website visitors see, it contains the opening text from your most recent blog entries. Visitors can click “Read more” to see the whole entry.

You create and manage your blog entries here, visitors won’t see this page, but if they click an excerpt on the main blog page, they’ll see the full entry.

This contains all your entries, including those that don’t appear on the main page.

1. Click on the ‘Entries’ section

2. Click ‘Add Entry’

3. Your new entry will appear above; double click to rename

The basics of constructing your website have now been covered and other pages you wish to create can be done in a similar way. The next step is to create hyperlinks…. Hyperlink: Text or an object you can click to initiate an action, such as going to another webpage or opening a document. Most text hyperlinks (also called links) look different from surrounding text (they are underlined or a different color) to indicate that you can click them. iWeb creates some hyperlinks for you automatically via the navigation bar at the top of the canvas. (the white denominates which page you are on)

In order to activate these links use the main menu and select ‘View Show Inspector’, a floating panel will appear; ensure you select the following symbol

Tick the box and you will be able to navigate through your pages with ease.

Ensure you have ticked the top box; you will then be given options under the ‘Link To’ section.

The next step is to create your own links; you can make links from a text or an image. Highlight what you would like to be made a link

You will be given different options depending on which ‘Link To’ option you choose:

In this case I have chosen to link to a blog entry

Simply type in the website address, ensure the box is ticked

A browser window will appear in which you can navigate to your chosen document

You can type in your e-mail address, although you probably will not need to use this option

You may wish to create your graph/table from your questionnaire results in ‘Excel’ and add that document as a ‘Link To’

The ‘Widgets’ tab can be a useful area if required. Simply drag and drop them into your canvas. Below provides an explanation of 3 key widgets:

Copy and paste the URL of a video clip and it will embed the clip in your website. This is a quick way of getting a photo into your website, it uses the camera in the top of the Mac, simply click capture and smile! A speedy way to add a movie into your website, it also uses the camera and mic in the top of the Mac. It is very useful for filming a quick video. (Be careful of using it in a busy and loud Mac room)

These are the key areas of iWeb that you will be required to use, but please ask if there are any problems.

Publishing Your Website to a Folder So far you have been saving to your local user area, the next step is to publish your website, ready to be handed in. Create a new folder on you desktop, ‘File New Folder’ Call it something helpful eg; Assignment 1 Karina Free Website. Select your name in the sidebar

Tip: Ensure you switch ‘Make hyperlinks active’ off after you have finished editing them otherwise it can get annoying if you continue to edit your template and it keeps jumping to another page, but don’t worry you wont lose any hyperlinks you have set up. But, DO NOT FORGET to turn hyperlinks back on before you finish your website.

Tip: Thoroughly check your website through, including links, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

You should see the following, select the bottom option - Local Folder:

The next step is to save your website to the new folder you have just made on the desktop. Click Choose and locate your new folder.

Locate the Publish Site icon in the editor panel

Click continue on the Content Rights pop-up and wait…. Click Visit Site Now and check the website over thoroughly.

When you need to burn your website to a CD or DVD see the ‘Saving data to a CD or DVD.pdf’ document in Tutorials in Media Shared Files.