index page itself. A 25 x 25 mm square with dashed line boundaries appears - this, believe it or not, is your new page!

This new page is in fact what DFM2HTML calles a Page object, which in this book is referred to as a +Page+; the DFM2HTML program is great on calling various items objects - there are +Page+, +Link+, +Picture+, +Label+ and +Menu+ just to name some of the range of objects. The only item in the whole web site which isn't an object is in fact the index page.

The new +Page+ - automatically given the label Page1 by DFM2HTML - has the {Page Control} icon in its top left corner; select anywhere inside the square and 8 handles appear that allow you to re-size this +Page+. Select each of the handles in turn and drag it left or right, up or down, to expand the +Page+ all the way to the bottom, top and right; leave about 5 cm to the left. This your first child +Page+ - your index page has just pupped!

It is important to realise that Page1 is the name of the child +Page+ given automatically by DFM2HTML. This name can be changed at a later stage, and in fact it is better to change the name, for reasons which I will go into later. Just for the moment let it keep its name as Page1

While Page1 is the active +Page+, select a colour just as you selected a colour for the index page - don't be shy, pick a nice bright blue.

You will now see a 5 cm strip of yellow on the left hand side of the Design Area while the rest of the screen is coloured blue. That piece of yellow is all that you can see of the index page, although in fact the index page as a whole stays its original size, it's just that you can't see the area covered by the child +Page+.

To add Page2, select the {Page Control} icon on Page1 (i.e. not the one on the icon bar), and immediately above the Parameter Panel will appear three small tabs; select the {Pages} tab and then select the {Create New Page} button. The list next to the {Create New Page} button will show, besides the Index and Page1, a brand new Page2. It will automatically be exactly the same width (but not the same length) as Page1. In fact, if you alter the width or the position of either Page1 or Page2, the width and position of the other +Page+ will be automatically changed, and the same applies to all child +Pages+. In some ways it makes life easier if you're aiming for a consistent "look" for all your pages, but it can also be irritatingly frustrating if you want different +Pages+ to be a different width - more about this later.

Just like Page1, the new Page2 can be coloured, and perhaps you'll select a bright red. And, while you're at it, you might as well create a bright orange Page3 and a bright green Page4.

You have now five +Pages+, an index page and four other +Pages+, but you cannot go from one +Page+ to the next. For this you need a link on each +Page+ that directs you to another +Page+ . Making a link is an incredibly easy and versatile routine on DFM2HTML - we´ll go into more detail later on but just now we use the basic {Link} icon on the top bar, the 5th from the left, looking like an underlined letter A.

Select the {Link} icon, and then select anywhere in Page4; a square with 8 handles appears, inside which will be the word Link1; this is the first time you make a +Link+, so the +Link+ is automatically called Link1. Later, as you add more and more +Links+, they will be - again automatically - called Link12, Link45 or whatever.

To make the +Link+ look like a button that you can select in order to go to another +Page+ (or whatever), go to the Parameter Panel, look for the column called •Layout• and select the radio button labelled •Button•. Your +Link+ will now look like a small rectangular button with the word Link1 on it.

This is perhaps not all that useful. After all, you want some indication on the +Link+ as to where it will take you or what it will do. To alter what is on the +Link+, press and hold down the [Alt] key of your keyboard and then select the +Link+. The =Text Editing Square= appears - a large square in a blue frame with Link1 written in white letters at the very top. Now comes a rather Alice in Wonderland piece of business (see "Alice through the Looking Glass", where the White Knight explains to Alice that the "name of the song" is not the same as "what the song is called").

The word Link1 at the top of the =Text Editing Square= is the actual name of the +Link+ (all objects in DFM2HTML have a name) and when you first place a +Link+ on a page, the +Link+ will also show the word Link1. When you open the =Text Editing Square=, the word Link1 will be repeated in the large white text editing area to the left of the =Text Editing Square=. Perhaps it will make life easier if we call the word Link1 shown on the button the label of the link (not to be confused with the {Label} icon, of which more later). In other words, to start off with, the name of the +Link+ will be the same as the label on the +Link+ (i.e. what is written on the button), but it doesn't have to stay that way. Which is a good thing, although more than a little confusing.