ENG600:
Introduction to Graduate Study
(supplementary CD instructions)
The following page contains detailed instructions for accessing and installing the software located on the CD provided for the class. The minimum operating environment to access the software is an Intel-based computer running Microsoft Windows 95/98. NOTE: To use "Ftpworks" you will also need both a modem and dial-up internet access.
Contents of the CD (click on the links to access installation and usage instructions):
WINZIP
FTPWORKS
NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR
PAINTSHOP PRO
WEB PAGE CREATION TUTORIAL (USING COMPOSER)
Winzip is a free archiving utility that allows compression (and decompression) of files for portable transfer. Essentially, it takes a file and "shrinks" it (also called "compression") by removing all the "dead space" in the file. This allows a user to take a large file, make it smaller, transfer it to someone else, at which point the other user "unzips" the file back to its original and accessible size. NOTE: If you download a zip file, you must unzip it with winzip before you can use it.
Installation:
To install winzip, insert the CD in your cd-rom drive. Open the "My Computer" icon on your desktop by double-left-clicking on it. Find your cd-rom drive (indicated by the drive letter with the cd icon) and double-left-click on it to open the cd-rom. You should see four folders (winzip, ftpworks, netscape, and paintshop). Double-left-click on the winzip folder to open it. Finally, double-left-click on the file "winzip.exe." Simply follow the installation instructions are you're prompted, taking the defaults until installation is complete.
Use:
Winzip has most likely placed icons on your desktop for accessing the software. A surefire method for starting the program is to go to your START menu ("Start" button in lower left hand corner of screen) and select "run" from the menu. In the small dialogue box that appears, type the word "winzip" to bring up a window that looks like the following picture:
From this window you can (1) open a new zip file, (2) create a new zip file and many other complex features. If you choose to "open" a zip file, you'll be presented with a map of your hard drive. You simply navigate until you've located the file you want to unzip (or zip) and select it.
For most unzip jobs, it's much simpler and easier to do the following:
(1) Locate the zip file you've downloaded (this is always determined by you when you download it).
(2) The file itself will automatically be associated with winzip as it's a zip file, thus it will have a little yellow icon (the same yellow icon located in the above dialogue box at the top and next to the word "WinZip (Unregistered)"
(3) Double-left-click on the file to automatically open winzip. Select all the files in the window that appears and hit the "Extract" button in the window (you'll have to select a directory to extract to) and you're finished!
Ftpworks is a free FTP program. FTP stands for (F)ile (T)ransfer (P)rotocol. Thus, FTP programs (as you'll hear them popularly referred to) are used for transferring files across a network and/or the internet (the file transfer protocol itself is simply a standard agreed upon to allow seamless communication between different FTP programs). NOTE: This is the main program you will use to access your web account on Creighton's server, BLUEJAY.
Installation:
To install ftpworks, insert the CD in your cd-rom drive. Open the "My Computer" icon on your desktop by double-left-clicking on it. Find your cd-rom drive (indicated by the drive letter with the cd icon) and double-left-click on it to open the cd-rom. You should see four folders (winzip, ftpworks, netscape, and paintshop). Double-left-click on the ftpworks folder to open it. Finally, double-left-click on the file "setup.exe." Simply follow the installation instructions are you're prompted, taking the defaults until installation is complete.
Use:
The installation program most likely placed an icon on your desktop called "ftpworks." You can either run the program by double-left-clicking on this icon, or go to your START menu, under PROGRAMS, then under FTPWORKS, and select "ftpworks." This will launch a graphical window (as shown below):
Notice the two columns, "Local Machine" and "FTP Host." The local machine is your computer, and the FTP Host is the computer you connect to. Hit the "connect" button to bring up the following dialogue box:
(1) Enter a "friendly name." The friendly name is whatever you want to name the new connection for historical purposes. Let's setup the account for Bluejay (the main Creighton student server). Enter something like "Bluejay" or "Creighton Bluejay."
(2) The "host name" is the special address given to the server. You've probably seen web names like "www.cnn.com" or "www.microsoft.com." The "host name" for an FTP server is essentially the same thing. Bluejay's hostname is "bluejay.creighton.edu." Enter the following in the "host name" field:
bluejay.creighton.edu
(3) The "user name" and "password" fields are specific to you as the end-user. Having obtained a Creighton account, this is where you enter your user name and password. These are required before you hit the "connect" button.
(4) The "initial remote directory" is where your FTP program "logs in" initially. You want to set this to your personal private directory since this is where you will send all your web files. The name of your initial remote directory is /home/student/username where "username" is whatever name you received when you signed up for your account (the same as the "username" field just above "password." Thus, for example, my directory is:
/home/student/peckham
Yours will be whatever your username is. Enter this into the FTP "initial remote directory" field. Make certain you put the "forward" slashes in, as shown above. NOTE: A little primer on slashes...a forward slash is a slash that leans to the right, a backward slash is a slash that leans to the left.
(5) Hit the "save" button in the upper-right-corner of this dialogue box to save all the information for this connection. You can access Bluejay instantly now by choosing it from your list of "friendly" connections. To connect to Bluejay, simply hit the "connect" button and you will automatically login. NOTE: You must be connected to the internet for Ftpworks to function properly. If you attempt to connect to Bluejay or any other server through Ftpworks without first being connected to the internet, you will receive an error message.
This is perhaps the most important program on the CD. Netscape is your web browser, your interface to all things internet. It allows you not only to view web pages, but fully edit them with a very user-friendly web editor called Composer. NOTE: In order to view online web pages, you must first be connected to the internet. You may use Composer for web editing offline, as well as view local web pages on your hard drive without being connected to the internet.
Installation:
To install netscape, insert the CD in your cd-rom drive. Open the "My Computer" icon on your desktop by double-left-clicking on it. Find your cd-rom drive (indicated by the drive letter with the cd icon) and double-left-click on it to open the cd-rom. You should see four folders (winzip, ftpworks, netscape, and paintshop). Double-left-click on the netscape folder to open it. Finally, double-left-click on the file "netscape.exe." Simply follow the installation instructions are you're prompted, taking the defaults until installation is complete.
Use:
Netscape will place a few icons on your desktop. To run the main browser, simply double-left-click on "netscape communicator." To run composer, go to the START menu, then PROGRAMS, NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR, and select "Netscape Composer" from the list. This will load the Netscape web editing program. NOTE: The very first time you run any of the Netscape applications, it will ask you to create a profile. Enter only the information you know--leave the rest blank. When you're finished with the profiler, you should see a dialogue box like the one below:
Notice the similarities between Composer and most standard word-processing programs. You have the standard menu along the top (file, edit, view, etc.) You have the standard button-bar (new, open, etc.) To create a web page, all you need do at this point is begin typing! If you're even reasonably good at manipulating images and/or text in a word processor, you're already 90% on your way to creating a web page.
Again, keep in mind: Netscape Communicator is the browser. A browser is what you use to view web pages (or what we commonly use to "surf" the net). Netscape Composer is an HTML or "web" editor. An HTML or "web" editing program is used to create web pages (after which you use the browser to view them).
For further instruction on the web page creation process including how to upload your web files to Bluejay, see the end of this document.
Paintshop Pro is a graphical editing and manipulation program. It allows you to take pictures in various formats and resize, distort, sharpen, or completely redesign images. While not necessary for web page creation, it is very helpful is you're trying to make very large pictures smaller for the page, or reduce the file size of a picture for faster loading from the page. You can create your own graphics, logos, banners and even convert between different file types.
Installation:
To install paintshop pro, insert the CD in your cd-rom drive. Open the "My Computer" icon on your desktop by double-left-clicking on it. Find your cd-rom drive (indicated by the drive letter with the cd icon) and double-left-click on it to open the cd-rom. You should see four folders (winzip, ftpworks, netscape, and paintshop). Double-left-click on the paintshop folder to open it. Finally, double-left-click on the file "setup.exe." Simply follow the installation instructions are you're prompted, taking the defaults until installation is complete. When installation is complete, go back into the paintshop folder (follow the steps above) on the CD and run the file "psp503up.exe." This file updates paintshop to the latest version.
Use:
Go to START, then PROGRAMS, then PAINT SHOP PRO 5, then select "Paint Shop Pro 5" from the menu and the application will load. Accept the default options to get started and you should see a window similar to the one below:
Much like the simplistic paint program that comes freely with Window 95/98/NT, this program has all the same basic features (file, edit, file open, etc.) But the similarities end there--this program allows you to resize, recolor, magnify, sharpen, distort, blur, etc. your images. To open an image, select "file" then "open" from the upper left menu. Select an image from your hard drive to begin editing.
WEB PAGE CREATION TUTORIAL (USING COMPOSER)
Note: This tutorial assumes you've already obtained a Bluejay account and have your username and password assigned and ready to use. This tutorial also assumes you have internet access and are connected to the internet during the tutorial itself.
Let's make a basic web page. When you're finished, it will look like the following picture:
(1) To begin, open Netscape Composer as outlined above (see instructions).
(2) In the main body of the program, type the following:
Test Web Page
(3) The default font is Times New Roman. Highlight the text you just typed, using your mouse, then choose "24" pitch from the button bar (just to the right of the "variable width" option). This changes the size of the font (and makes it, in this case, larger).
(4) Hit the <return> or <enter> key on your keyboard twice. Now go back to the pitch option and set it to "12" (12 is the default pitch for most word processing programs). Type the following:
BOLD
(5) Select the text you just typed, using your mouse. While leaving it highlighted, press the "A" button on the button bar to make it boldfaced (an alternative to using the button bar is to use the keyboard shortcut <ctrl> and <b> at the same time).
(6) Hit the <return> or <enter> key twice. Now go back to the "A" button and hit it again to disable bold and return to normal. Note that, like a word processor, depressed buttons indicate an "on" state, and while raised buttons indicate an "off" state. Type the following:
ITALIC
(7) Select the text you just typed, using your mouse. While leaving it highlighted, press the "A" button on the button bar to italicize (the keyboard shortcut is <ctrl> and <i> at the same time).
(8) Hit the <return> or <enter> key twice. Now go back to the "A" button and hit it again to disable italics and return to normal. Type the following:
Blinking!!!
(9) Select the text you just typed, using your mouse. While leaving it highlighted, go to the menu along the top of the screen and choose FORMAT, then STYLE, and then select "Blinking" from the menu. When viewed in the browser, the text will be blinking on and off. Note that some features like blinking do not function in the web editor. They require the browser itself to access the feature.
(10) Single-right-click anywhere in the editor and a small menu will pop up. From the menu, select "Page Properties." A new dialogue box pops up with all of your page property settings. From this screen you can change link colors, page settings, background images, etc. Let's change the background color from the default. Click on the button to the left of the word "Background." Notice the small color table that pops up. Choose a background color of your choice (I chose light yellow for the page in the picture above). Select OK when finished and you'll immediately notice the change.
(11) From the menu at the top, select FILE, then SAVE AS. Type "index.html" in the window that appears. Note the .html extension. This indicates that the file is a hypertext document (as opposed to something like .doc for Microsoft Word documents, or .txt for standard text files). Select a location on your hard drive that you are familiar with and from which you can easily access the file again (for example, the "My Documents" folder is a good place to store your web files). Note: the main or default web page that loads when someone types in your web address is always index.html, thus index.html should do just what its name implies--index the rest of your web site in terms of creating links leading to other pages.
(12) Congratulations! You've just created your first web page. Now we need to upload the file to your website on Bluejay. Load FTPWORKS to begin the file transfer process.
(13) Logon to Bluejay through FTPWORKS as described above (see instructions). Once you are connected, change directories to "public_html" by double-left-clicking on the folder "public_html" in the Ftp Host window (on the right-hand side of the screen).
(14) Locate the web page file we created by navigating through your hard drive using the Local Machine window (on the left-hand side of the screen). Notice how directories are shown in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen, while files within the directories are shown in the lower-left-hand corner of the screen. Once located, simply left-click on the file "index.html" to highlight it. Now hit the "Upload" button and the file will be uploaded to Bluejay, to the directory /home/student/username/public_html (where "username" is whatever your username was when you logged in).
(15) The final step to make your web page visible to the world is to telnet to bluejay using Windows' default telnet program. To do this, go to the START menu, select RUN, then type the following in the dialogue box that appears:
telnet bluejay.creighton.edu
(16) The screen will now look something like the following:
At the login prompt, simply enter your username, then enter your password, and you will log into Bluejay. At the "$" prompt, enter the following command:
Webready
Webready is a script that automatically sets the read permissions on your web files so that anyone can view them. By default, your web files will not be accessible to the outside world, thus if you forget to run "webready" after you upload new files, you won't be able to view them via a browser. Make sure you run "webready" each time you upload new files or pictures to your website to make them viewable. Type "exit" at the "$" prompt to logout and close the window to end the program.
(17) It's time to view your web page through a browser. Open Netscape Communicator. Type the following:
http://www.creighton.edu/~username
(where username is your login name) Note the "~" character. This is called the "tilde" (pronounced "til-dee") symbol. It's located in the upper left hand corner of most keyboards. Hit <enter> or <return> to process the web page. You should see something very similar to the web page graphic pasted into this tutorial. Congratulations, you're now officially part of the information superhighway! Anyone with web access can view your web page.
For further information or additional questions, contact Matthew Peckham at:
E-mail: peckham@tconl.com
Home: 491-3364
Work: 271-6961