Changing font size, style, and color

Written by eric on March 26, 2008. Posted in User Guide, Web Site Design. No Comments »

In our continuing quest to address the questions asked most frequently by users of WebSpawner’s easy-to-use website creation tools, today we examine the following one:

How do I change the font size/style/color?

WebSpawner’s Webpage Builder uses predetermined layout templates and font sizes to ensure an easy-to-read website on computer monitors of all sizes and resolutions. This allows all viewers, regardless of whether they use a large or small computer display, to be able to easily view and read the text within your website.

When you Modify your webpage, the Headline and Body Text steps present a simple pull-down Text Color menu to select a color for the text … by choosing a color in the menu, the color of all of the Body Text or Headline text is adjusted accordingly.

However, you can also specify the font size, style and color of certain text (without affecting the rest of the text on your webpage) by using HTML tags in the Body Text area of your webpage. For details and examples of all the tags needed to make these changes, click the orange Resources tab in the Member Menu, then click the HTML Reference Guide, as shown here:

The HTML Guide provides an overview of many HTML tags, providing specific examples of how to apply the tags for the desired effect. The Guide is arranged to allow for easy reference by Tag (in alphabetical order) or by Category (Content list), and also includes a HTML FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page to help you quickly locate the information desired.

The Font page in the HTML Guide gives an explanation and example of specifying font color and size…

<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR=”#123123″>
The text here between the tags will be bigger and a different color than the rest.
</FONT>

When you enter HTML tags like the one above into the Body Text area of your webpage, the tags within the brackets (< and >) will be invisible and not displayed. These tags merely instruct the web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or other) how to display the text within the tag.

HTML tags specify colors using a six-digit hexidecimal code, which requires you to have a color chart in order to select the desired color and find the proper six-digit code. Here is an excellent color chart available to reference online: http://www.songweaver.com/html/colorchart.html

HTML tags can also be used to apply different styles to text. For example, to make text appear in italics, see this page in the Guide:
http://www.webspawner.com/cc/html/italics.html. The tag to italicize text looks like this:

<I>
The text here between the tags will be displayed in Italics.
</I>

To make text appear bold, see the following page for tag explanation and examples:
http://www.webspawner.com/cc/html/bold.html. The tag to make text bold looks like this:

<B>
The text here between the tags will be displayed in Bold.
</B>

The HTML Reference Guide contains numerous additional tags and examples to help you stylize the fonts on your website. Keep in mind that the HTML tags should be entered into the Body Text area of your webpage when you Modify your website.

Occasionally a WebSpawner member will inquire about changing the font face to a custom font. This is also possible using HTML tags; for example:

<font face=”book antiqua”>

However, WebSpawner recommends that you do NOT specify a custom font face, and many other webhosts recommend avoiding it as well. The reason for this is that if you specify a custom font which is not installed on the computer of a viewer of your website, the viewer’s browser will be forced to substitute another font and there may be unexpected display results or possibly even illegible text. It is actually the settings of the web browser on each viewer’s computer (and the fonts that are installed) that determines the font in which they will see the text of your website.

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WebSpawner WebMail… more than just email

Written by eric on March 10, 2008. Posted in User Guide, Web Page Tips. No Comments »

WebSpawner members with Enhanced accounts have access to their own username@WebSpawner.com WebMail account. WebMail can be accessed by clicking the WebMail icon under the orange Add-Ons tab in the Member Menu.

Of course, like any email account, WebMail allows you to send and receive email messages, and you can Reply to or Forward messages as you like. You can keep an Address Book full of email addresses for your friends or business contacts. You can create custom Folders to store messages that you want to keep. And you can create Filters (under the Options link) to automatically file incoming messages into folders, automatically forward certain messages to other recipients, or to move unwanted messages into a separate “junk mail” folder (for more information see our previous blog post “WebMail Spam Filtering“). WebMail even contains a Spell Checker tool (also under the Options link in the toolbar) to help keep your messages accurate and professional.

But WebMail also has a number of advantages over ordinary email. For example, you can easily access your WebMail account from any computer with an internet connection and a web browser… it doesn’t have to be your home computer, and it doesn’t require configuring complicated account settings in an email application. You don’t even have to take a laptop computer with you… check your WebMail from any internet cafe, library, or school computer lab. This makes WebMail extremely portable and user-friendly for people on the go… simply go to www.webspawner.com in the web browser of any computer and login with your Username and Password, then click the WebMail icon in the Member Menu, and you have instant access to your WebMail Inbox to receive or send email messages, as shown below.

In addition to being available anywhere that you can get online, WebMail contains a number of other features that make it function as a powerful all-in-one organizer, great for travelers on the road and away from the office.

The Calendar link in the left toolbar brings up a handy calendar tool with Day, Week, and Month views which allows you to keep track of important meetings, appointments, special days and more.

The Task link in the toolbar brings up an easy-to-use Tasks list, where you can quickly add new to-do items, rearrange items by priority, check off tasks that have been completed, or change the due date for an item.

Along with the Notes link, which allows you to create and keep track of various notes, these features make WebMail a great combination email and organizer system to keep busy people like you on track and on time, wherever you go.

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