In the Composer, go to Format--Page Colors and Properties. Start with General, and give your name as the author and a title to your page (this is the title that will appear in the bar at the top of the Browser window, and also be the name of any bookmark anyone sets for your page). The title might be your name or "My Home Page."

Now you can look at "Colors and Background." By clicking on the colored bars next to the various items on the page (text, linked text, background), you can change the colors of your page. A whole rainbow of colors is available when you click on "Other" below the palette.

You can also insert a background image. This would be an image (.gif or .jpg) you had developed and sized in such a way that it would look attractive behind the text on the page. It will be repeated over and over as the background. There are several places on the Web where free "tiles" are offered, small images which have a pleasing effect when repeated over and over. I have used an image of this type for the background of this page.
 

Here are a few tiles you can try for your background now:

To save one of these tiles on your diskette, move the cursor over it and hold down the right mouse button. Select "save image as..." and save it on your a: drive. You can save any image on the web this way, but you should examine the page for permissions needed.

Naming Pages: Select a filename for your page that is easy for you to identify, and preferably one word in lower-case letters. The page filename should have the extender .htm which Netscape will add automatically.

For your home page, save the new blank page as "index.htm" and you are on your way. Remember to save your page frequently!

Note:  in the following pages I will be suggesting that you use the icons on the toolbar for modifying text and images, adding links, etc. Many of these functions can also be accessed by using the pull-down menus at the top of the window--Insert-Image, File-Save, and so on. Some of them can also be accessed by double-clicking on a image or linked text, or by holding down the right mouse button on the page! Find the style of using these tools you are most comfortable with!