Objects & their Properties

The graphic below shows the objects and how they combine to make a page. The arrows define what objects can be combined to make other objects. For example, a link is made up of some combination of character(s) and/or image(s). A table is some combination of paragraph(s), list(s), or other table(s).

»»» OBJECT INDEX ««« Click on a box or name for properties and details.
Building Up Web Pages	Characters are the things typed on a keyboard, plus a few special others. Images are photos and graphics, stored separately in JPEG, PNG, and GIF files. Links, made of characters or images: click on them to move around the web. A Paragraph: all the characters and images between two ENTER keystrokes. Lists are groups of paragraphs: each list item is indented & marked. Tables are made of of cells, each having paragraph(s) or list(s) or other table(s). A Line is a horizontal separator across a page; it can be put anywhere. And finally, a Web Page, built of all these other objects.

Objects each have various properties, or attributes, associated with them. The characters in this sentence have the property "Style: Bold". Knowing the properties associated with each type of object is key to manipulating web pages. For example, there is no property that will center an image on a page; however, an image on its own makes a paragraph (follow the arrow in the graphic), and a paragraph can be centered.

The objects and properties discussed in these pages are thoroughly general, but the details on manipulating them are specific to Netscape's Composer tool on Windows95. The only standard object (in HTML 3.2) not supported by Composer is the interactive Form. Forms are thus not included in the graphic above.

A disclaimer for the HTML savvy: In these pages, I attempt to define objects in a way which supports understanding the Composer tool. The object hierarchy above loosely follows the object definitions of the W3 and is related to the programming language OO definitions. But due to the difference of intent, there may be a divergence in the details from a strict reading of the HTML standards. For example, a Paragraph Object is defined very generally in these pages (for example, the text in a table's cell between <TD> and </TD> tags behaves as a paragraph), while a Paragraph Container in HTML is a very specific entity (i.e. everything between a matching pair of <P> and </P> tags).