Background Images
Module 24

Web pages may have plain backgrounds or the background might be set by selecting a color  for the background.  Another option is to define a GIF file that can be used as a background.  It is important to select a background that does not distract from the information on the page or make the information difficult to read.  The background image might be a texture or a color or a picture.  In any case, consider the user and test your background on several machines and with several browsers on both Macintosh and PCs before you finalize on a background. It is not unusual for a background to look acceptable when authoring and vastly different when browsing on another machine.

To add a background to a web page, you must first have an image in GIF format.  If you have a file you would like to try, you may use it.  Or you can obtain one by

Macintosh Users:  Click and hold down the mouse button here and select "Save Image as.."

or

PC Users:  Right click here and select "Save Image as"

Be sure to save it in your WebProject, in the Web_Resources folder.  If you are using your own image, be sure it ends in .GIF and place a copy of the file into the Web_Resources folder.
 
 

1.  Open page1.html and then edit it in Composer (by FILE>Edit Page)

2.  Pull down FORMAT>Page Properties and click on the Colors and Background tab if necessary.

3.  Click the Choose File button under Page Background.  You will select your GIF file here.

4.  Be sure to click the Leave image at the Original Location box.

5.  Click OK to continue.

6.  SAVE and try out your page in Preview.
 

Should you change your mind and not want a background image at a future time, just go to the same screen and remove the check mark in front of IMAGE.
 

(The TestBkgnd.GIF file was created in ClarisWorks Painting, using Dom Casual font, colored, rotated, and lightened until the result is what you see.  It was then passed through GraphicConverter (Macintosh) and converted to a GIF file.)